I find it hard to believe that the father of bossa nova, Antonio Carlos Jobim, hasn't been mentioned in this Latin jazz thread
And every time one talks about Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Carlie Byrd are also always in the mix.
Growing up, my dad always played Latin and jazz samba records and CDs. Besides Carlos Santana, Jobim is my other major Latin guitar influence. And yes, I find it a little bit under-appreciated. On acoustic, my friends within my age group (early 30s) mostly like acoustic rock and folk... lots of arpeggiated chords. Ako lang ang bumabanat ng jazz samba-style jazz chords and syncopated tempo... hindi sila maka-relate, haha.
Another type of Latin Jazz music I like is Gypsy Jazz. Same story... my dad always liked the music of The Gypsy Kings (sumikat kasi yung "Volare" noon). I was amazed with the musics percussive tempo and high-speed lead runs.
They -- bossa nova and Gypsy Jazz -- are both Latin Jazz, but sound drastically different. With bossa, there are a lot of jazzy chords, chords substitutions, and laid-back syncopated tempo... but the improvisation is more conservative. With Gypsy Jazz, you get upbeat percussive tempo, at a lot of improvisation using diminished scale runs and embellished diminished arpeggios. In fact, the diminished scale runs are very similar to shred guitar.
And back to Santana, Latin Rock naman. His riffs and licks are mostly pentatonic and blues-based. But in a good number of his songs, the rhythm accompaniment has the same syncopated tempo of bossa nova and samba, and Latin percussion. Same story again... whenever I play classic Satana riffs like the ones from Oye Como Va and No One To Depend On, no one in my age group can relate to me. My friends are only familiar with Santana's crossover stuff like Smooth from the Supernatural album.
I don't know if I have my theory terms entirely are accurate... I'm just self taught
I just know that a good part of my guitar influences are the Latin guys.