Mongo Santamaria › Similar Artists

Ray Barretto - 100% 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

Poncho Sanchez - 99% 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

Eddie Palmieri - 95% 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

Cachao - 81% match to Mongo Santamaria

Cal Tjader - 80% 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

Willie Bobo - 77% 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

Tito Puente - 74% 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

Charlie Palmieri - 63% 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

Roberto Roena - 57% match to Mongo Santamaria

16 January c.1940, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico; his last name is occasionally spelt as Rohena. A salsa band leader, Roena began his musical career as a dancer with various bands in Puerto Rico - he later became known as ‘El Gran Bailarín’ (The Great Dancer). While performing as a dancer and chorus singer with Cortijo Y Su Combo, the band’s leader Rafael Read more

Joe Cuba - 52% 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

Irakere - 46% 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 Bataan - 46% match to Mongo Santamaria

Bataan Nitollano, 1942, New York City, New York, USA. Although he became noted in the world of Latin music, Bataan’s mother was African American and his father Filipino. Bataan started singing in informal doo-wop groups in the streets of Spanish Harlem but fell in with bad elements. At the age of 15 he was sent to a correctional facility following charges connected with Read more

Cheo Feliciano - 40% match to Mongo Santamaria

José Feliciano, 3 July 1935, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Feliciano took an early interest in music, especially bolero, and when only eight years old he and some friends formed a group, El Combo Las Latas, in which he was a percussionist although all of their instruments were homemade. In his early teens he had some formal tuition in music but then, in 1952, his father moved t Read more

Joe Cuba Sextet - 38% match to Mongo Santamaria

Deodato - 36% match to Mongo Santamaria

Eumir Deodato Almeida, 21 June 1942, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a child, Deodato (which translates as ‘god given’) taught himself to play keyboards and graduated to playing in local pop bands in his teens. He also worked as a session musician (keyboards, bass, guitar) before recording under his own name. His first success came in Brazil with his 1964 solo debut In& Read more