NG la Banda was formed in 1988 by Jose Luis Cortes “flutist who had acquired much of their training in two of most charismatic Cuban bands of the twentieth century: Los Van Van and Irakere.

With this experience Jose Luis Cortes also known as “El Tosco” formed a group that has always been characterized by a rich and unique punchy rhythmic arrangements of extraordinary precision and first class soloists. José Luis Cortés on the flute, Rolando Perez on the saxophone, Feliciano Arango on the bass earned the name “los metales de terror” (the horns of terror)

His first album titled “No puede tapar el sol” (1988) included some of the early successes of the banda as the “La expresiva” and “Los sitios entero”. Indeed the latter marked a trend piece on the work of NG to incorporate thematic and musical elements associated with Afro-Cuban religion called Santeria, which is repeated in later selections such as “Que viva Chango” and “Santa Palabra”.

The next project was an album made with Malena Burke called “Salseando” (1990) where instead of working with own material as was his custom, reworked and revisited some of the classics of the genre as “Bruca Maniguá” and “Me voy pa’l pueblo,” in a range of rhythms and styles ranging from guajira to guaguancó through chachachá and, of course Son.

The next recording “En la calle” (1993) was a mixture of numbers of previous albums with new material that stands between a special version of the classic Celina González, “Que viva Chango” and one of his first Latin pop songs “Necesito una amiga” NG released three more records that year, “De NG para Curazao” “Cabaret panorámico” and “Llegó NG, camará”.

Their most recent productions include “La que manda” (1994), “La bruja” (1995), the live album “En Directo desde el patio de mi casa” (1995), and the jazziest ‘descarga’ “Nuestro hombre en La Habana” (1995).