Mongo Santamaria

Attending a Mongo Santamaria show delivered a captivating experience for sight and sound alike, since the veteran Cuban percussionist and ensemble leader retained the power to electrify large crowds at places like the Hollywood Bowl well into his later years. As a supreme conguero, he cast a spellbinding rhythmic aura drawn from Cuban sacred ceremonies, settling quietly at his drums and commanding every nuance of pulse while the ensemble sustained an unbroken vamp, a prime recorded instance being the entrancing “Mazacote” on Afro-Roots. His stature as a bandleader proved equally far-reaching, sustaining resilient groups that merged the classic charanga format with jazz-inflected brass, woodwind, and piano improvisations spotlighting emerging talents such as Chick Corea and Hubert Laws; across a lengthy career he occasionally ventured into R&B, rock, and electric jazz as well. Few Cuban percussionists reached wider audiences than Mongo, save possibly Armando Peraza of Santana’s circle, setting aside Desi Arnaz.

Ramon “Mongo” Santamaria began on violin before shifting to drums, leaving school to pursue music professionally. While performing at Havana’s Tropicana Club he joined a dance troupe bound for Mexico City in 1948, then relocated to New York City in 1950. There he made his U.S. debut alongside Pérez Prado, spent six years exchanging percussive volleys with Tito Puente, and worked and recorded with Cal Tjader from 1957 to 1960. His earliest notable American sessions appeared on Fantasy in 1958; the follow-up album Mongo, issued the next year, introduced the piece “Afro-Blue,” which rapidly entered the Latin-jazz canon and was embraced by John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and others.

Santamaria’s breakthrough to mainstream listeners reportedly stemmed from a sparsely attended night at a Bronx Cuban club in 1962. With only three patrons present, the musicians fell into conversation during which substitute pianist Herbie Hancock played his newly composed blues “Watermelon Man.” The group joined in, the tune entered Mongo’s regular set, and producer Orrin Keepnews, upon hearing it, hurried the band to a studio; the resulting single climbed to the number-ten position on the pop charts in 1963.

The cross-genre fusion of jazz, R&B, and Latin elements on “Watermelon Man” and subsequent Battle and Riverside releases secured a prominent Columbia contract, yielding a series of energetic, dance-oriented albums from 1965 to 1970. Under trumpeter Marty Sheller’s bright, propulsive arrangements—frequently reworking contemporary hits—the Santamaria ensemble captured the exuberant spirit of the go-go era, and Mongo kept blending styles through the 1970s. He later revisited his Afro-Cuban foundations on Vaya in the early part of that decade, collaborated with Gillespie and Toots Thielemans on a live Montreux recording for Pablo in 1980, cut several albums for Concord Picante between 1987 and 1990, released one project on Chesky in 1993, and returned to the Fantasy family via its Milestone imprint in 1995. He died on February 1, 2003, at Baptist Hospital in Miami after suffering a stroke.