A place to discover Latin artists and dance salsa or bachata all night, the Conga Room, founded by entrepreneur Brad Gluckstein, became a Los Angeles institution, backed with some major star power.
Jennifer Lopez, Sheila E., Jimmy Smits, and Paul Rodriguez were among the initial investors and at least two of them occasionally performed in the space.
Other Latin music clubs existed in L.A., but the vibe of the Conga Room was new to the city in the late 90s. The L.A. Times described it as having “two things most [salsa clubs] didn’t: money and taste.”
It first opened on Wilshire Boulevard in 1998 with Celia Cruz headlining the intimate venue with the hit “Que Le Den Candela.”
Attendees over the years could catch acts ranging from Tito Puente to Ivy Queen to Bad Bunny, and performers of other genres also came across the stage. The venue shifted from salsa club to pan-Latin and world music.
In the 90s, you might have seen South African trumpeter Hugh Masekala, as well as Prince play the Conga Room. Private events included the post-Grammy win party for Carlos Santana, where a dinner of 125 attendees sang “Las Mañanitas” to Edward James Olmos for his birthday.
The space was “old Havana for the new millennium,” Gluckstein says.
By 2008, the Conga Room had outgrown its Miracle Mile location and moved to a larger space, downtown, at LA Live. More artists, including Black Eyed Peas rapper and producer will.i.am were brought on as investors. The new venue was nearly three times as large, with a VIP area, and a lot more parking. Food was “nueva Latina” cuisine and the “pan-Latin” interior was designed in collaboration with artists Jorge Pardo and Sergio Arau.
The venue was all the rage.
“You get 1100 people in a room listening to some beautiful Latin sounds…It's going to be more than lively,” says actor and Conga Room investor Jimmy Smits with a laugh.
The Conga Room was a place to be in L.A. LAist’s Cynthia Covarrubias, senior human resources generalist, says she would go to the Wilshire location as “a young, professional Latina trying to find [her] place in the club world.”
Besides, her roommate at the time “really wanted to meet Jennifer Lopez.”
The reasons this beloved venue are closing are two-fold.
As Gluckstein puts it, some of the reasons behind the venue’s closure are obvious — the effects of the pandemic and the economy. Rising rents at LA Live coupled with changes in music booking trends also meant the Conga Room wasn’t seeing the numbers it was used to.
“A staple of our venue was being able to attract international artists in a small venue,” says Gluckstein. But post pandemic, Gluckstein says, “royalties and other means of survival for the artists were tougher.” Artists who would normally stop by the Conga Room couldn’t afford a smaller stop on a tour, and there weren’t enough private events coming through the space to make it profitable.
The venue will be closing up in style, however, with a friends and family celebration on March 27th, hosted by Smits and Paul Rodriguez. The music-filled event will include performances by Salsa legend Gilberto Santa Rosa, and a jam session led by Jerry Rivera, Andy Vargas, and Reggaetón sensation BLESSD.
“I opened the Conga Room because I was a salsa aficionado, you know, I lived and died for it,” says Gluckstein.
Despite the sadness and nostalgia conjured up around the closure, Gluckstein is still finding joy in salsa, and in bringing music to classrooms around Southern California.
There’s a passing of the torch with the non profit Conga Kids, also founded by Gluckstein in 2016.
“We're into this thing called the Conga Kids, which is serving many Los Angeles schools with bringing music and culture to young people,” Smits says. “So it's like another generation passing down to another generation.”
Conga Kids brings music and dance from the African diaspora, where Latin music has roots, to 18 school districts across Southern California. That includes dances and genres like merengue, cumbia, salsa, and hip-hop. It’s got programs specific to 4th and 5th grades but includes school assemblies and family workshops for students in both elementary and middle school. Schools can request the Conga Kids program online through its website.
Working with the dancers, musicians, and artists in the Conga Kids program means “it's hard to be sad,” says Gluckstein.
And Smits adds that the Conga Room will "live on because music lives on, and music transcends everything.”
