Robyn Lobe's home makes it clear to see that she marches to the beat of her own drum.

The Connecticut native started out as a classically trained dancer before abandoning ballet for disco in the 1970s. Lobe starred in her own TV show in Chicago and later went on tour in Las Vegas before she decided to try her hand at making music herself.

"Well, I couldn't concentrate on dancing, I wanted to play congas ... the guy who was playing said, you know you're white, you're a woman, I don't think you can do it. And that was all I needed to hear," said Lobe.

Her raw talent caught the attention of some of the best. Lobe got her big break drumming with salsa star Johnny Colon.

Later, she saw the world and played percussion for the likes of Robert Palmer and Deee-Lite. Lobe even performed on Saturday Night Live three times before an encounter at one of the schools she attended determined her next professional move.

"I see one of the percussionists that I would jam with every Saturday and Sunday and he says to me, oh you going up to take Eddie Torres' class? And I was like, who's Eddie Torres?" said Lobe.

"The Mambo King" would later become Lobe's dance partner, as well as American musician Tito Puente.

Whenever Lobe was home in the city, she would keep drumming in an all-women Latin percussion band called Retumba. She says it was some of her fellow musicians in the group who convinced her to consider City Island as a place to call her own after she decided to stop touring the world.

"When I came home, I had no furniture, so everything is made out of drums. So all of this, every one of the masks, is from some place I toured," said Lobe.

Lobe's artistic journey is now documented through her condo. She says it is a reminder of where she's been and what she has accomplished along the way.

"I was a trailblazer like that, but I never really thought of it like that, I just did it,' said Lobe.