Daniel Ponce brings the full percussive vocabulary of Afro-Cuban tradition into conversation with the contemporary jazz and world-music ferment of 1980s New York. As a master of multiple percussion languages—from the sacred rhythms of Santería to the street-dance energy of guaguancó—Ponce has long been essential to understanding how Cuban music evolved beyond its island origins. *New York Now!* captures him in a moment of creative synthesis, where invocations and ancestral African echoes meet the city's restless experimental spirit. The album doesn't just play these traditions; it lets them breathe and transform, finding something genuinely new without severing the roots. For anyone curious about how Latin percussion became a cornerstone of world music in this era, or simply wanting to hear a virtuoso at ease in his own mastery, this is an unforgettable encounter.