March 2001

From the Inside Out
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By Chris M. Slawecki

In the magical realm of music, it somehow makes delightful sense that Jack Costanzo, who became known as Hollywood legend “Mr. Bongo” for introducing 1950s America to the bongos through his work with Stan Kenton, Nat King Cole and other popular stars, was born in that tropical Afro-Cuban musical hotbed of Chicago, Illinois.

Costanzo built the legend of “Mr. Bongo” from a foundation of hard work and good fortune. Costanzo studied bongos and congas as a youth and made several trips to Cuba for authentic Afro-Cuban lessons straight from the source. After serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII he wound up in Hollywood, working as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Exploring bongo and conga beats at local jam sessions, Costanzo was overheard by Latin Jazz bandleader Bobby Ramos. Recognizing how rarely bongos and congas were being employed in a Jazz context, Ramos hired Costanzo to expand the sound of Ramos’ band. Tenure with Ramos led Costanzo to work with other Latin bandleaders including Desi Arnaz, and then with the Stan Kenton Band, whose charts were among the most inventive in late 1940s large ensemble Jazz. Costanzo first became known as “Mr. Bongo” while with Kenton; Pete Rugolo wrote “Bongo Riff” for Kenton just to spotlight Costanzo’s talents.

Throughout the 1950s, “Mr. Bongo” grew increasingly popular through his work with Kenton and Nat King Cole, and performed with Kenton, Cole, Peggy Lee, and Harry James and with his own bands. During this period, Costanzo counted Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Marlon Brando among his bongo students, and even appeared alongside “The King” in an Elvis movie.

Costanzo continued to record and perform through the 1960s and 70s, often with his wife Gerry Woo, a former Playboy bunny, and released albums for several different labels. Then he took a break from recording. That break lasted about twenty-five years.

But fear not – Mr. Bongo has come Back From Havana. His new release on Cu-Bop, the Latin imprint for Ubiquity Records, brings Costanzo back full circle to Latin legend Ramos, who produced this pulsating comeback. Bristling with energy and style and loads (and LOADS) of congas and bongos, Havana digs deeply into the Jazz canon to present a Latin Jazz album that feels equal parts Jazz and Latin music.

Costanzo covers two titles written by Nat Adderley for his brother Cannonball, the famous grooves “Jive Samba,” which thumps and pops atop a funky walking blues bassline, and “Work Song,” which reaches back to the swinging Sixties with an almost Henry Mancini cool. He also conquers Sonny Rollins’ “Airegin” and Miles Davis’ “Milestones,” truly Latin-izing both compositions to the point worthy of comparison with Jerry Gonzales’ monumental Latin tribute to Thelonious, Rhuma Para Monk. Costanzo waits until the ninth track for his first extended solo (“Airegin”), but it’s a stone cold killer, especially how he incredibly builds from a full stop into an almost indecipherable blur.

Throughout this return from Havana, Costanzo’s songs, arrangements and musicians (especially bassist Ignacio Arango and pianists Lynn Willard and Robert Lanuza) cross-pollinate classic son, descarga and other Latin rhythms like master geneticists, coded and re-coded in half-time, regular and full-time. It’s hard to decipher and explain what the pianists are doing rhythmically: It sounds like by skillfully playing against the accents they’re actually reinforcing the beats; whatever they’re doing, it’s obvious that they contribute much to these scalding rhythms.

Two other tunes color Havana with different highlights: The beginning of “Quimbara” sounds like the Talking Heads ripping off a tribal funk version of Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga” – the sound of Cuba filtered through Miami – a killer opening with chants, percussion and a bassline as slippery as a sun-browned backside all coated with tanning oil. “Trumpeta Y Bongo” presents a bass, trumpet, and percussion trio piece; because there are no chord instruments in the usual sense, each instrument seems cast in more stark, sharp lines, which serves to make their masterful playing seem even more brilliant.