Lugo

Born Edwin Anthony Lugo in the Bronx, the contemporary Latin soul vocalist began performing at age three in his father’s church. He later enrolled at New York’s High School for the Performing Arts before continuing his music studies at the University of Texas. After returning to New York he secured consecutive victories in the Apollo Theater’s amateur-night contest. Those successes led him into musical-theater acting, where he appeared in the Broadway mounting of Paul Simon’s The Capeman and in The Children of Times Square. During the early 1990s he also supplied songs to dance-pop and Latin performers such as Tracie Spencer, Yomo Toro, Judy Torres, Idalis DeLeon, and Odalis Garcia. By the late 1990s he was playing percussion in Christina Aguilera’s touring band while shifting focus toward crossover jazz. He contributed lead vocals to several cuts on the Holland Tunnel Project’s 1999 album A Smooth Taste of Jazz, supplied songs for acid-jazz guitarist Ronny Jordan, and both wrote and performed on Norman Brown’s Grammy-winning Just Chillin’ in 2002. That same year his debut full-length, Good to Go, surfaced on the Cafe de Soul imprint, highlighting his signature fusion of jazz, Latin elements, and smooth soul.