Ray Barretto
Born on April 29, 1929, Ray Barretto spent his youth listening to both his family’s traditional Puerto Rican music and the big band jazz of Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey on the radio. Looking for a better life, he joined the army in 1946. While stationed in Germany, he fell in love with Bebop through his exposure to the Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie recording “Shaw ‘Nuff.” Soon after, he heard Gillespie’s “Manteca,” and Barretto decided that music would be his post-military career direction. He began training himself on percussion using the back head of a banjo. He returned to New York in 1949 and bought a drum kit, maintaining a regular performance schedule at the Bucket of Blood club. In 1957, he replaced Mongo Santamaria in Tito Puente’s band, immediately going into the studio to record the classic Puente album Dance Mania. During his time with Puente, Barretto also worked as a studio musician, recording for a variety of traditional jazz artists, including Art Blakey and Kenny Burrell. Barretto formed his own group in 1962 and later that year recorded the album Charanga Moderna for the Tico label. The album included the boogaloo “El Watusi,” a huge crossover hit that placed Barretto in the star status. He continued to record a combination of boogaloo and charanga music in the sixties, experimenting with the inclusion of brass and jazz elements. Barretto joined the Fania label in 1967 and released the classic album Acid, which fused R n’ B with Latin music. Within the next couple of years, Barretto became a mainstay in the Fania All-Stars, beginning with the recordings Live at the Red Garter, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. Over the following decades, Barretto directed the Fania All-Stars and recorded many influential albums including Live at Yankee Stadium, Vol. 1, Bamboleo, and California Jam. Also in the early seventies, Barretto led a chain of brass powered salsa bands that included young musicians such as bassist Andy Gonzalez and timbalero Manny Oquendo. The bands created a variety of now classic albums such as the 1972 albums The Message and Barretto Power. After a short stay with Atlantic records, Barretto returned to Fania in 1979 to record the album Rican/Struction, an instant hit. He continued to produce Salsa into the early 90s, including the Grammy award winning 1990 album Ritmo en el Corazon. Tired of the Salsa industry, Barretto formed New World Spirit in 1992 made a move to Concord Picante records. Over the next ten years, Barretto made a wide span of Latin Jazz releases including the electronic tinged albums Handprints and Ancestral Messages, Portraits in Jazz and Clave with a variety of traditional jazz superstars and the 2003 Blakey tribute Homage to Art. Barretto was recognized for his contributions to jazz in 2006 with an NEA Jazz Master award. He died on February 17, 2006, due to heart failure, leaving a musical legacy tracing the history of modern Latin music.

Mongo Santamaria
Ramon Santamaria was born on April 7, 1922 in Havana, Cuba where his father nicknamed him ‘Mongo’ – a Senegalese word for tribal chief. He began studying violin at a young age, but moved to drums and percussion in his teens. He soon dropped out of school and jumped into the Havana music scene as a percussionist. He spent his early twenties playing at the Tropicana with bands such as Conjunto Matamoros and Conjunto Azul. In 1948, he traveled to Mexico City with a dance troupe, and then moved onto New York in 1950. Upon arriving in New York, he started working with Perez Prado, and then got a job with Tito Puente. Santamaria played with Puente for more than six years, recording several albums including Cuban Carnival and Top Percussion. In 1958, Santamaria moved to California and began working with Cal Tjader. He recorded a series of albums with Tjader including Monterey Concerts and Cal Tjader’s Latin Concert. At the same time, he released several influential albums under his own name, including the 1960 album Our Man in Havana. He left Tjader’s group in the early sixties, leading his own band exclusively. While performing in an empty nightclub in 1962, Santamaria’s band experimented with a new song from their piano player, a young Herbie Hancock – Watermelon Man. The song became a permanent part of their repertoire, and eventually a huge recorded hit for Santamaria. The combination of Latin, jazz, and R n’ B meant success for Santamaria, and he released a series of albums using that mixture including the 1967 album Mongo Explodes. In the late 70s, Santamaria returned to his Latin roots on the Vaya label, producing the Grammy award winning 1977 album Amanacer. The early 80s brought a jazz focus for Santamaria, collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie and Toots Thielsmans on the 1980 album Summertime. He then moved to the Concord Picante label, an affiliation that lasted into the mid-90s. His albums for Concord Picante included Olé Ola, Live at Jazz Alley, and the 1995 collaboration with Poncho Sanchez, Conga Blue. Santamaria retired from live performance in the nineties, yet still recorded albums including the 1996 album Brazilian Sunset. He suffered a stroke and died on February 1, 2003 in Miami. Mongo Santamaria left a lengthy recorded legacy and an undeniable influence on the next generation of percussionists.

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