Ramon “Mongo” Santamaria Rodriguez (07 april 1922 - 01 februari 2003) was born in Havana, Cuba and became throughout the years worlds most famous conga-player. After spending 30 years of his life in Cuba, in the early fifties he fled to New York. He started to play in the band of Tito Puente, that he left after about a year. He developed a music style that mixed Afrocuban rhythms with jazz and soul. His song “Afro Blue”, written in 1958, is commonly referred to as jazzstandard, and was recorded by a lot of artists, e.g. John Coltrane. Mongo’s version of Herbie Hancocks “water melon man” was also a world wide succes.
In 1981 he played in the Congeshal in The Hague at the North Sea Jazz Festival. The song and the lyrics of the number “Come Candela” are written by Mongo Santamaria himself. In the band we mean to recognize Trevor Gale on drums, Tony Villarini on trumpet and Doug Harris on flute. Please inform us if you have more information.
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