Home-Grown

Poncho Sanchez is rightly heralded as a superb performer, a percolating, entrancing conga drummer-bandleader who in his 20 years of fronting his band has gone from up-and-coming local hero to Latin jazz celebrity.

He has appeared all over the United States and Europe and headlined at the Hollywood Bowl. He appears Saturday (MAR 31) and April 14 at La Ve Lee (CQ) in Studio City. He also has recorded 20 compact discs, with last year’s “Latin Soul” named Billboard magazine’s top-selling Latin album and earning the musician a Grammy for best Latin jazz.

Driving the 49-year-old Sanchez since his earliest days growing up in Downey has been a heartfelt affection for all kinds of mainly instrumental music, an affection that has led him to champion his favorite sounds. In high school, he would tell friends about Latin jazz greats Tito Puente and Cal Tjader when “everyone was listening to Jimi Hendrix,” Sanchez said. “But now our music has finally arrived and people are telling me about new Latin and salsa artists.”

Sanchez, who lives in Norwalk, is still on the stump for the music he loves, and he figures the best way to do it is to play for folks and let them hear how good it is.

“I like to mix it up, play bebop, R & B, authentic Afro Cuban, funky stuff,” he said. “This way I can expose them to something they maybe haven’t heard, our music, music that was made right here in America.”

There is no doubt that the drummer is a fan of sounds from the ‘50s, not only the classic jazz tunes such as “Joy Spring” but the ballads such as “Darn that Dream,” which he renders as slow, slinky boleros.

“I’ll hear something old, and say, ‘We gotta redo this,’ ” he said. “There’s some beautiful music out there. You just have to open your ears and listen.”

These days, Sanchez has discovered the music of Louis Jordan, the ‘40s and ‘50s saxophonist-singer whose mix of jazz, swing and boogie-woogie was called “jump swing” and which later was a basis for R & B. He is planning to record three Jordan classics on his new CD and may try one or two such as “I Want You to Be My Baby” at La Ve Lee.

“I dig it,” he said.

BE THERE

Poncho Sanchez plays Saturday at 9:30 and 11:30 p.m. at La Ve Lee, 12514 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. $10. Call (818) 980-8158.