Mongo Santamaria › Similar Artists

Poncho Sanchez - 100% match to Mongo Santamaria

30 October 1951, Laredo, Texas, USA. The youngest of 11 children, Sanchez taught himself to play guitar, flute, drums and timbales before choosing the conga. He was raised in Norwalk, California, where he played with local bands although his first engagement was as a singer with an R&B band. Among the artists he listened to in these formative years were Machito, Tito Pue Read more

Ray Barretto - 86% match to Mongo Santamaria

29 April 1929, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA, d. 17 February 2006, Hackensack, New Jersey, USA. Born to Puerto Rican parents, Barretto was raised in East Harlem and the Bronx and was a prominent Latin band leader for many decades. However, he started his professional career as a jazz recording session conga player. To escape the ghetto he joined the army at 17. Infl Read more

Eddie Palmieri - 82% match to Mongo Santamaria

Eduardo Palmieri, 15 December 1936, South Bronx, New York City, New York, USA, of Puerto Rican parentage. The self-avowed pioneering ‘oxygen cocktail’ of contemporary salsa, pianist, band leader, composer, arranger, producer Palmieri began playing the piano at the age of eight. He also played timbales, and wanted to specialize in the instrument, but changed his min Read more

Hilton Ruiz - 70% match to Mongo Santamaria

29 May 1952, New York City, New York, USA, d. 6 June 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Ruiz studied piano from an early age, performing public recitals as a small child. In the mid- to late 60s he worked as a professional musician in bands playing Latin American music. In the early 70s he turned to jazz, studying with Mary Lou Williams. Later in the decade he played on nume Read more

Cachao - 68% match to Mongo Santamaria

Paquito d'Rivera - 63% match to Mongo Santamaria

4 June 1948, Havana, Cuba. Known for a silky-smooth tone and evocative phrasing in the manner of Dexter Gordon, Paquito D’Rivera is one of the great jazz saxophonists of his era and is also a highly proficient clarinettist. After training in the Havana Conservatory and participating in Cuba’s unique avant garde jazz renaissance in the 70s, D’Rivera migrated to Read more

Charlie Palmieri - 61% match to Mongo Santamaria

Carlos Manuel Palmieri Jnr., 21 November 1927, Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, d. 12 September 1988, the Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. Known in salsa as ‘El Gigante de Las Blancas y Las Negras’ (The Giant of the Keyboard), Palmieri’s parents, Carlos Palmieri Manuel Villaneuva and Isabel Maldonado-Palmieri, migrated from Ponce Read more

Irakere - 61% match to Mongo Santamaria

This pioneering Cuban jazz band, which began recording on an ad hoc basis in the late 60s, has been home to some of the country’s leading musicians. Irakere, which literally means ‘forest’, was the name of a drummer in Yoruba legend. The title was adopted by the band as a homage to the great drummer, and to reflect the percussive, Afro-Cuban emphasis of their mus Read more

Joe Cuba - 58% match to Mongo Santamaria

Gilberto Miguel Calderon, 22 April 1931, New York City, New York, USA; of Puerto Rican parentage. Calderon, who was a salesman by day, played conga with the Joe Panama Quintet, whose other personnel were: Panama (leader/piano), Jimmy Sabater (timbales/vocals), Willie Torres (lead vocals), Tommy Berrios (vibraphone) and Roy Rosa (bass). In late 1954, the pianist, composer and Read more

Willie Bobo - 57% match to Mongo Santamaria

William Correa, 28 February 1934, New York City, New York, USA, of Puerto Rican parentage, d. 15 September 1983, Los Angeles, California, USA. Growing up in New York’s El Barrio, Bobo was exposed to substantial doses of Latin music, jazz and R&B. These genres later jostled together in his work as a band leader. He started playing Latin percussion at the age of 14 (t Read more

Cal Tjader - 55% match to Mongo Santamaria

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, 16 July 1925, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, d. 5 May 1982, Manila, Philippines. After studying formally, Tjader played drums with various bands on the west coast before joining Dave Brubeck in 1949. In the early 50s he played with Alvino Rey and also led his own small bands. By 1953, the year he joined George Shearing, he had added vibraphone and various Read more

Tito Puente - 52% match to Mongo Santamaria

Ernesto Antonio Puente Jnr., 20 April 1923, Harlem Hospital, New York City, New York, USA, d. 31 May 2000, New York City, New York, USA. Born of Puerto Rican parentage, Puente began piano lessons when he was seven years old and around the age of 10 started tuition in drums and percussion, which became his forte. Around 1936, Puente commenced his professional career as a drum Read more

Pete Escovedo - 42% match to Mongo Santamaria

13 July 1935, Pittsburg, California, USA. Escovedo began playing saxophone in high school, but switched to vibraphone before choosing a variety of percussion instruments as his true métier. His first professional engagement found him in a band on the same bill as Count Basie, an event that prompted him to settle there and then on a career in music. In 1970, together w Read more

Arturo Sandoval - 38% match to Mongo Santamaria

6 November 1949, Artemisa, Havana, Cuba. Starting out as a student of classical trumpet, Sandoval quickly turned to jazz and during the 70s attracted worldwide attention not only for the technical brilliance of his playing but also through the exhilarating Latin influence of his work. He was a founding member of the Orquestra De Música Moderna, which evolved into Irak Read more

Chico O'Farrill - 32% match to Mongo Santamaria

Arturo O’Farrill, 28 October 1921, Havana, Cuba, d. 27 June 2001, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. After playing trumpet in several Cuban-based bands throughout the 40s, O’Farrill moved to the USA where he concentrated on arranging. During the 50s his work was played and recorded by Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton and Dizzy Gillespie among others, and he also co Read more