Lenny Castro

Lenny Castro (born 1957) is an American freelancing percussionist in the studio recording industry in the Los Angeles area.

Early life

Castro is a percussionist of Puerto Rican descent and was born and raised in New York City. His father, Hector Castro, played the keyboard in a Latin style and gave his son his first pair of congas when he was five years old. Along with the congas the junior Castro played the bongos, which he grew up performing on the streets. Unlike many of his “Latin brothers”, Castro listened and played percussion not to just Latin music but jazz, rock, classical, and anything else that could have percussion added in. He claims not to have planned on becoming a studio musician, only that he wanted to play music. Whether this meant live or in recordings, he didn’t care as long as he got to play.

Castro later began to make money with different gigs in New York, which he called a “playground” at the time, when he was around 14 or 15. This lasted him until he graduated from high school in 1974.