After 32 international gold and platinum records, Carlos Alomar’s place in music history is secure. The legendary guitarist burst upon the rock scene with David Bowie in the mid-1970s, when he, Bowie, and John Lennon co-wrote the hit song “Fame.” Over the next 30 years, Alomar would record and tour the world as Bowie’s music director. His ability to play R&B, Philly soul, hard rock, and ambient music made him invaluable—and perfectly suited to keep pace with Bowie’s ever-evolving musical personas.

Alomar also co-wrote Mick Jagger’s first solo effort, “She’s The Boss,” and Iggy Pop’s comeback hit “Sister Midnight,” while lending his guitar to a Who’s Who of pop/rock royalty—among them: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Simple Minds, Yoko Ono, Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Graham Parker, Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, Mystikal, and Duran Duran. (See full discography for more.)

As one of the few Latino musicians in the rock scene, Alomar also holds a singular place in Latin music history. A dedicated producer, co-founder of the National Rock Movement of Puerto Rico, and advisor to the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (LARAS), he has championed Latino rock musicians for decades. He produced Argentina’s seminal band Soda Stereo’s landmark album Doble Vida—on which he also played guitar and rapped—and toured Puerto Rico recording and producing emerging local rock bands. “Everyone just expected Puerto Rican musicians to play salsa,” Alomar recalls. “So I came back with these incredible rock tapes and took them to the labels. The response? ‘NO.’ Puerto Rican music was salsa, not rock. The irony of telling that to rock’s most successful Puerto Rican guitarist seemed lost on them.”

This may seem like a surprising detour from a road that began with Young Americans, but Carlos Alomar’s entire career is a study in versatility. The son of a Puerto Rican minister, raised in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, Alomar first played guitar in his father’s church. After his father’s passing when Carlos was just 14, he pursued music with fervor—and at 17 became the youngest guitarist in Apollo Theater history, captivating audiences with Motown solos. He joined the Apollo house band, performed with James Brown, and soon became a go-to session player for RCA Studios in New York.

It was at RCA that Alomar met David Bowie in 1974. He brought much of the band to the Young Americans sessions, including two standout vocalists—Luther Vandross and Robin Clark. “Luther was my best friend when we were fifteen,” Alomar recalls. “And I met Robin through him.” Carlos and Robin would go on to marry, perform together extensively, and raise a daughter, singer/songwriter Lea Lorien. Robin later became the lead female vocalist for Simple Minds during their global success with Once Upon a Time—an album on which Alomar also played guitar.

Alomar’s decades-long relationship with Vandross was recently honored in CNN’s critically acclaimed documentary Luther: Never Too Much, where he appears as a featured voice reflecting on their deep musical bond. He also contributed to PBS’s We Want the Funk, a celebration of the genre and its cultural impact, underscoring his role as a key architect of that rhythmic revolution.

Today, Carlos Alomar remains as vital as ever. He and Robin Clark continue to perform. Their daughter, Lea Lorien, hit No. 1 on the Hot Dance Music chart with David Morales’ “How Would U Feel” and continues working on her solo career.

Throughout his career, Alomar has formed long-standing partnerships. His musical relationship with David Bowie spanned over three decades, anchored by mutual respect and trust. He led Bowie’s rhythm section across the Station to Station, Serious Moonlight, and Glass Spider tours, and co-wrote many of Bowie’s songs during that prolific era—“DJ,” “Dancing With the Big Boys,” “Never Let Me Down,” and more. “When Bowie wanted blue-eyed soul, I was doing the Philly sound. When he switched to rock or ambient, I just did it.”

Indeed, Alomar was integral to Bowie’s and Brian Eno’s groundbreaking Berlin Trilogy: Low, “Heroes”, and Lodger. Those experiments with sound synthesis inspired his solo album Dream Generator, one of the first instrumental records ever composed and performed on a guitar synthesizer—moving fluidly through genres from ambient to rock, classical to global sounds.

But Carlos Alomar is not about history—he’s about the future.

In addition to working with contemporary artists like the Scissor Sisters and Alicia Keys, and playing on the global smash “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, Alomar has dedicated himself to the future of music education and technology. As Distinguished Artist in Residence and Director of the Sound Synthesis Research Center at Stevens Institute of Technology, he is shaping the next generation of musicians—equipping them with the creative and technical tools needed to transform the future of sound. It is here that his lifelong passion for musical discovery and innovation continues to flourish… and where Dream Generator finds new life, inspiring students to let go—or be dragged.

Carlos Alomar will be presenting :
THE D.A.M. Trilogy Tour -Back to Berlin
November of 2025.