Putumayo Presents: Latin American Women

We have just heard that Dan Storper the founder, creator, and president of Putumayo World Music, has died. We’re big fans, and have reviewed a few of their releases, including Bossa Nova:

In 1993 Dan Storper, owner of a successful line of Latin American handicraft shops had an “ah ha” moment and decided to start a music label after a chance encounter, seeing the African band Kotoja play at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Think of Putumayo as that cool, hip friend who did all the legwork and has crafted a bespoke playlist to highlight a particular musical genre that you may have never heard of. At least that’s how I view it, for I have listened to many of Putumayo’s musical collections over the years, ranging from Afro-Cuban and Reggae to African and Espana.

News of his death came out just days before Putumayo’s new album Latin American Women came out on Friday, May 23rd.

The new release focus on voices of women from Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and beyond, it features ten beautiful tracks by singer-songwriters, including Pau Mueller (Cuba), Rita Donte (Cuba), Victoria Sur & Katie James (Colombia), Juana Luna (Argentina), Susana Ballesteros (Spain), Gabriella Lima (Brazil), NUNNE (Mexico), Ynana Rose (U.S.), and more.

Please put on a Putumayo album in honor of the man who brought us so much music from around the world.

Peter David at MN Fan Fusion (Aug 3, 2018)

In non-music death news, American comic book writer Peter David has recently died at the age of 68. Anyone who have followed comic books, will not be that surprised by his passing. He had a series of health issues, like multiple strokes in Nov 2022 and kidney failure and loss of Medicaid in Mar 2025.

We’re big Peter David fans and the last time we saw him, it was at Minnesota Fan Fusion in Aug 2018, before his health decline.

David is probably best known for his work on The Incredible Hulk (an epic 12-year run!), as well as creating Spider-Man 2099 and Maestro (who is rumored to appear in the upcoming Avengers movie). Maestro was a collaboration with legendary artist George Perez, for the Future: Imperfect two-issue project. The two would team up again for a creator-own series called Sachs & Violens.

If you don’t follow comic books, you may actually know some of his work in television, which included writing credits for Teen Titans (2003), Young Justice (2011), Babylon 5 (1994), X-Men Animated Series (1993) and Space Cases (1996).