Janine Santana: Celebrating Women’s History Month

As host of Salsa con Jazz on KUVO and a professional performing artist (she has recorded 9 albums) in a variety of genres for the past 35 years Janine Santana brings passion and heart to the world of jazz.

When asked who some of her Shero’s in Jazz are, Janine said:

“I am in awe of Billy Holiday, of course. Alice Coltrane fascinates me. Pianist Geri Allen was brilliant.  I am friends with and greatly admire Jane Bunnett and the young Cuban women in Maqueque, I met Ingrid Jenson (Trumpet) at Jazz Congress in NYC and became a fan immediately when I heard her in a workshop speaking about women in Jazz. La Lupe…a wild girl with a style all her own in Latin Jazz and Salsa…and also the great Graciela Pérez Gutiérrez, who was Machito’s sister and broke down all kinds of walls. Too many more to mention, really.”

Regarding what got her interested in Jazz, she said

” I was surrounded by great Jazz as well as a lot of Afro-Caribbean music right from the start of my life, thanks to my Jazzy Mom and Puerto Rican Dad…and even more so from my Paternal Grandfather, Manuel Santana. My Mom’s brother William also is deeply steeped in Jazz and for many years was a Jazz DJ on a NYC station in the weeeeee hours of the morning! All of that was my surrounding sound and my auditory world because it was ALWAYS there. It’s an exciting, vibrant and ever-changing conversation! 

As far as one of her favorite jazz songs “That is in constant flux, depending on my mood at any given moment. Right now, it’s my own version of Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay swimming around in my head. I’m always re arranging it, ha!”