Milton Cardona (November 21, 1944 – September 19, 2014) was a percussionist, vocalist and
conga
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...
player from
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez (, ) is a city and the eighth-largest municipality in Puerto Rico. It was founded as Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Mayagüez, and is also known as ''La Sultana del Oeste'' (The Sultaness of the West), ''Ciudad de las Aguas Pura ...
.
Milton Cardona made well over 1000 recordings, nine of which won Grammies. His career and was highly influenced by
Mongo Santamaria
Mongo may refer to:
Geography Africa
* Mongo, Chad, a Sahel city
* Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo (Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction)
* Mongo, Sierra Leone, a chiefdom
* Mongo River (Little Scarces River), Guinea and Sierra Leone, a trib ...
. He studied violin during his childhood in The Bronx, New York, and played bass guitar professionally in New York City as a youth before playing percussion. He collaborated with
Kip Hanrahan
Kip Hanrahan (born December 9, 1954) is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist.
Personal life
Hanrahan was born in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Bronx to an Irish-Jewish family. His father left when he was 6 m ...
,
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...
,
Paul Simon,
Willie Colón
William Anthony Colón Román (born April 28, 1950) is an American salsa musician and social activist. He began his career as a trombonist and also sings, writes, produces and acts. He is also involved in the politics of New York City. Coló ...
,
David Byrne
David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...
,
Cachao
Israel López Valdés (September 14, 1918 – March 22, 2008), better known as Cachao ( ), was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga (improvised jam sessions). ...
,
Larry Harlow,
Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive.
Early life
Pal ...
,
Don Byron
Donald Byron (born November 8, 1958) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet but has also played bass clarinet and saxophone in a variety of genres that includes free jazz and klezmer.
Biography
His mother ...
,
Celia Cruz
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during ...
,
Guaco,
Hector Lavoe
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defe ...
,
Ned Rothenberg
Ned Rothenberg (born September 15, 1956) is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. He specializes in woodwind instruments, including the alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). He is known ...
,
Rabih Abou-Khalil
Rabih Abou-Khalil ( ar, ربيع أبو خليل, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, ...
and
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of British rock band Cream. After the group disban ...
from the rock band
Cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
. He died on September 19, 2014, from heart failure.
Early life
His family moved to the South Bronx, from Mayaguez, when he was 5 years old. He was a santero, a priest of
Santería
Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional Yoruba religion of We ...
.
Selected discography
* ''
Beautiful Scars'' (2007)
* ''
Bembé'' (1985)
* ''
Cambucha'' (1999)
* ''
Cosa Nuestra'' (1969)
* ''
Rei Momo
''Rei Momo'' is the debut solo album by David Byrne and second overall studio album (after the 1981 collaborative album '' My Life in the Bush of Ghosts''), released on 3 October 1989. The album consists of diverse Latin music styles from Cuba (r ...
'' (1989)
* ''
Songs from The Capeman'' (1997)
* ''
Tenderness'' (1990)
With
Rabih Abou-Khalil
Rabih Abou-Khalil ( ar, ربيع أبو خليل, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, ...
*''
Blue Camel'' (Enja, 1992)
*''
The Sultan's Picnic
''The Sultan's Picnic'' is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1994 and released on the Enja label. '' (Enja, 1994)
With
Uri Caine
Uri Caine (born June 8, 1956, Philadelphia, United States) is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.
Biography
Early years
The son of Burton Caine, a professor at Temple Law School, and poet Shulamith Wechter Caine, Caine began p ...
*''
The Goldberg Variations'' (Winter & Winter, 2000)
References
1944 births
2014 deaths
American jazz musicians
People from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Musicians from the Bronx
American Santeríans
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
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