A Puerto Rico native, Gabriel “Gabo” Lugo, received a Latin Grammy nomination at the age of 17 for production work on Tego Calderon’s “Ni Fu Ni Fa” from the reggaetón star’s álbum “El Abayarde Contra-Ataca”. While Lugo may claim that his main axe is actually the computer, those who check out his deft conga drums playing might think otherwise. 

His work as a percussionist includes collaborations with Christian McBride, Jerry Barnes, Gerald Clayton, Los Pleneros De La 21 and other notable artists in the Jazz and Latin world.

Raised by a father who was both an architect and a ballet dancer, and a mother who was the first female sound engineer on the Island, Gabo straddled that line between performance and technology from an early age. While Gabo’s architect and dancer father might have influenced his creative approach to embracing multiple roles as a musician and producer, clearly his sound engineer mother made a strong impression on his early education, spending every day after school in the recording studio producing records and focused on finding fresh ideas to deliver music.