Even if not quite essential, this new release is drawn from the same 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival performance from which Santamaria’s live recording Summertime was previously released (Pablo, 1981) – ...

Afro Blue; Chano Pozo; Yambu; Mongrama; Barandanga; Guaguanco Mania; Para Ti; Las Guajiras; Tenderly; Bacoso; Introduction By "Symphony Sid"; My Sound (congas drum ...

In 1917, Ramon Santamaria Rodriquez was born into poverty in Havana, Cuba. Nicknamed “Mongo” (a tribal chief in Senegal), he began playing the conga drum at an early age and as a teen, Mongo ...

Mongo Santamaria, the pioneering Cuban percussionist who was among the most acclaimed exponents of Latin jazz and whose 1963 Top 10 hit “Watermelon Man” stands as a precursor of pop crossover in Latin ...

Mongo Santamaria, a Cuban conga player and percussionist who arrived in New York at the beginning of the jazz-Latin fusion and was arguably the most popular Latin musician of the 1960s, died Saturday.

Grammy winner Ramon “Mongo” Santamaria, who was among the most popular Latin jazz musicians of the 1960s, died Saturday in Miami. He was 85. He had been on life support since suffering a stroke last ...