Three-time Grammy nominated Plena Libre, a 12 member orchestra from Puerto Rico has been praised for liberating the plena and saluting the masters with their 10th anniversary recording ¡Estamos Gozando!    The group is currently putting the finishing touches on their new cd Evolucion due to be released on the Times Square Records label in the early Fall.

Plena is a traditional Afro-Rican rhythm and musical genre, and Plena Libre means free-form, or liberated, plena. It is thought that the plena emerged in Puerto Rico at the end of the 19th century, with immigrants from Barbados whose song repertoire mixed, over time, with local genres to create the plena. Traditionally, plena was performed using three different-sized hand drums called panderos that were pitched low-to-high and played interlocking rhythms. The seguidor is the bass drum, laying the rhythmic foundation; the mid-pitched punteador plays a complementary pattern to the seguidor. The higher pitched requinto alternates between playing yet another complementary pattern and improvising solos that respond to the sung lyrics. The güiro (scraper) and the vocalists — with leader and chorus in call-and-response style — complete the basic ensemble. Over time, the plena took on different forms — from the simple addition of the accordion or cuatro to full orchestral variations. Musical forms aside, the plena became central to the lives and culture of migrant agricultural workers who moved from one location to another with the harvest of different crops. It was their orally transmitted newspaper, informing people of the latest, and it accompanied every celebration.

Plena Libre was formed in 1994 by bassist and bandleader Gary Nuñez, whose mission was to reinvent and update the genre, taking it from its present folkloric status — which relegated its performance to holidays and folk revivals — and turning it into a living and breathing, popular, evolving form. To the pandero ensemble he added a lineup that includes bass, keyboards, timbales, congas, four trombones, miscellaneous percussion as well as some of the best plena singers (soneros) found in Puerto Rico. With a style that draws on both the traditional and the modern, and arrangements that mix other Caribbean rhythms and sizzling dance-floor charts with plena, Plena Libre topped the charts with one hit after another on commercial radio stations in Puerto Rico.

¡Estamos Gozando!, Plena Libre’s new release, brings us full circle to the story of plena — it is an homage to the greatest Puerto Rican plena and bomba (another Afro-Rican genre) composers of the century, delivered in Plena Libre style. Represented here are Ángel Torruellas, one of the most prolific and consistent plena composers of the past 50 years (Olvidalo); Los Pleneros de Quinto Olivo — an important plena band of the 70’s (The folkloric song Canario Blanco was first popularized by them); César Concepción -- trumpet player, bandleader and composer who adapted the plena to big band "salon" arrangements in the 60’s (Que Buena Son Las Mujeres); Rafael Cortijo — master percussionist whose legendary combo, fronted by singer Ismael Rivera, popularized many Afro-Rican genres in the 60’s and 70’s (medley of Perfume de Rosas, Maquinolandera & El Bombón de Elena); Mon Rivera, composer and creator of a fast, humorous style of delivery in bomba and plena and the first to introduce the sound of four trombones to orchestras playing Afro-Rican music (Lluvia Con Nieve); Rafael Cepeda, a great composer known as the ‘Patriarch of Bomba and Plena’ (Juan José); Toñin Romero —a plena composer who wrote many hits in the 50’s and 60’s (Charlatan); and Manuel Jimenez "Canario", the first plenero to be commercially recorded (RCA) and one of the greatest plena innovators of the 20’s and 30’s — his tunes are often recorded to this day (Lo Que A Ti Te Gusta, featuring the sinfonia — small accordion — in typical fashion to Canario’s time).

Plena Libre’s core lineup includes seven musicians: Founder, composer, arranger and bassist Gary Nuñez, whose entire career has been devoted to preserving and developing Puerto Rican music with ensembles such as Moliendo Vidrio, Caribe Jazz and currently, Plena Libre; Israel Velez is the son of one of Pleneros de Quinto Olivo’s original members. He was raised in the plena and is one of the top requinto players in Puerto Rico today; Victor Muñiz is a master plena singer, looked up to by the new generation of singers for style, creativity, and approach to singing traditional plena; conga player Gina Villanueva has been playing plena since the beginning of her career and is also one of the few female conga players in Puerto Rico; Brothers Keyvan Vega (singer and trumpet player) and Kevin Vega (percussion) and also singer Kali Villanueva represent the new generation in Plena Libre. In addition to Plena Libre’s tremendous lineup of musicians and singers, ¡Estamos Gozando! features some of the best soloists in Latin music, adding new colors and excitement to the recording. Cuban virtuoso violinist Alfredo De La Fé jams over the trombones in Toruellas’ Olvidalo; bongocero Roberto Roena, pianist Luis Marín and trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda jazz up Mon Rivera’s Lluvia Con Nieve; and William Cepeda, trombone player and heir to Cepeda dynasty, solos over Rafael (his grandfather) Cepeda’s Juan José.