Mongo Santamaria

Ramon Santamaria, the quintessential "one-hit wonder" in search of a follow-up hit, made his mark in Latin music both before and after the success of "Watermelon Man." Chief among his accomplishments: his tune "Afro Blue" (there are others); the Watermelon Man album, a classic of mod jazz (or jazz boogaloo); and his soul jazz albums with Neal Creque.

Mongo and Willie Bobo supplied the Latin percussion on an incredible number of recordings in the 1950s, working for many of the top stars in Latin and jazz as well as taking "first-call" sideman work on all kinds of albums. Emerging as a leader, Mongo recorded Afro-Cuban music for Tico and Fantasy. Then came a godsend from Herbie Hancock, a basic groove the young piano star stumbled on after hours. "Watermelon Man" quickly became Mongo's signature tune and the title of an entirely great jazz album.

Unfortunately the same spark never lit up his subsequent albums, although some of the same players stayed with or returned to him, notably arranger Marty Sheller. The Sheller-Santamaria collaboration continued for the rest of Mongo's career, just as the teamwork with Willie Bobo had lasted before. Personnel was never the problem, but the drive for further commercial success surely limited his creativity.

Following Watermelon Man, Mongo and friends moved to Columbia, which pumped out album after album of mostly soul covers to no avail. Great Latin jazz tunes were ignored as everyone hoped for another Latin-soul hit. ("Mongo's Boogaloo" and "We Got Latin Soul" are fairly memorable.) Eventually Latin soul gave way to soul jazz, and Mongo was picked up by Atlantic while, ironically, his son Monguito was enjoying some success on Fania with Latin soul. There, Neal Creque pumped fresh life into composition and arrangement, and the Sheller-Santamaria team hit their stride again.

From the soul-jazz years at Atlantic, Mongo went on to Vaya, where he indulged everything from pop ballads to Latin jazz to harder funk. Bass player William Allen contributed most of the funkier tunes. In the later Vaya years the band developed a slicker, keyboard-led style not unlike Eumir Deodato's work on CTI.

Buying: LPs on Battle and two on Atlantic are best, followed by certain ones on other labels. The Fantasy LPs mainly are charanga.

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