Mongo Santamaria

Ramon Santamaria, the quintessential "one-hit wonder" forever in search of a follow-up hit, made his mark in Latin music both before and after the phenomenal success of "Watermelon Man." Chief among his accomplishments: his tune "Afro Blue" (there are many others); the Watermelon Man album, a classic of mod jazz (or jazz boogaloo); and his soul jazz albums with Neal Creque. But way back when he contributed to many of the most important and influential records featuring Latin percussion.

Mongo and Willie Bobo supplied the percussion on an incredible number of discs 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 slowly as a leader, Mongo recorded an important body of Afro-Cuban music for Tico (at first under the baton of Tito Puente) and Fantasy (at first under the mallets of Cal Tjader). His "Cuban Fantasy" for Tjader's Concert on the Campus LP is legendary.

On the Riverside label Mongo produced some wonderful Latin jazz with musicians who would go on to become stars in their own right (Frank "El Pavo" Hernandez is one). It was Mongo's turn to develop new talent. But any hit tunes tended to become identified more with singers and other musicians who covered them. Then came a godsend from Herbie Hancock: a basic groove in search of a beat that the young piano star had stumbled on after hours. "Watermelon Man" quickly became Mongo's signature tune and the title of an entirely great, mod, uptempo, soul-jazz album.

Unfortunately the same spark never quite lit up his subsequent albums as brightly, although some of the 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 distracted him and 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: The best Columbia LPs tend to be those that do not rely on covers of soul hits. The rarities are fantastic, and the rest vary.