ABOUT

I was born in Puerto Rico, and music has been at the center of my life for as long as I can remember.

My career eventually took me far beyond the island. I spent much of the 1970s performing and recording with The Beach Boys, and over the years I have had the privilege of working with artists across jazz, rock and popular music, including Wilson Pickett, George Benson, Charles Lloyd, Etta James, Catherine Russell, Chico Hamilton, Les McCann, Eddie Gómez, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Chambers, Lenny White, Billy Drummond, Chris Potter, Don Byron and David Sánchez.

But Puerto Rico was always home.

For nearly three decades, I have created and nurtured Carli’s Fine Bistro & Piano in Old San Juan. I wanted it to be more than a restaurant. I imagined a place where food, conversation, music and atmosphere could become one experience—intimate enough to feel personal, but alive with the energy of the city around it.

The piano has always been at the heart of Carli’s. I still perform regularly on our Steinway, joined throughout the week by guest musicians and longtime musical friends. Live music is not an occasional attraction here; it is part of the identity of the restaurant and has been from the beginning.

Over the years, Carli’s has welcomed visitors from around the world, as well as generations of Puerto Rican patrons who have made it part of their own lives. That, to me, is one of the most rewarding things about having created it.

My life outside the restaurant continues to revolve around creativity. I compose and record music, write, paint and photograph, and I am the author of the memoir A Fool’s Journey: To the Beach Boys & Beyond and the poetry collection TRUCE.

At this point in my life, I no longer see those pursuits as separate things. Music, food, writing, painting, conversation—they are all different ways of doing the same thing: creating a place where people can meet one another, feel something, and perhaps leave a little different from the way they arrived.

Carli’s is one of those places