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Ray Mantilla
After a stint in Puerto Rico where he honed his skills on the trap set, Ray returned to the States to find himself touring nationally and in Europe and Japan with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. For the seven years Ray was with Blakey he occupied his off-hours doing studio work while recording and performing with almost every major figure in jazz including singers Eartha Kitt and Josephine Baker.
In 1977, Ray Mantilla became the first North American Latin musician to play in Cuba since the Cuban Revolution when he appeared there as an essential member of the historic goodwill ensemble led by Dizzy Gillespie.
Ray Mantilla's career has included membership in many legendary Jazz and Latin Jazz ensembles. A short list of Mantilla's credits includes, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Ray Barretto, Gato Barbieri, Sonny Stitt, Bobby Watson, Herbie Mann, Tito Puente, Cedar Walton, and Freddie Hubbard. Prolific in the studio, Mantilla can be heard on more than 200 albums. He has appeared in all major clubs in New York City — the Apollo Theater, Palladium, Blue Note, SOB's, Birdland, Fat Tuesday's, Village Gate and the Village Vanguard in addition to many major international jazz festivals such as Sanremo, the Pori Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival and the Grande Parade du Jazz.
Ray Mantilla describes his music as "Latin Jazz with authentic Latino rhythms." His goal, he says "is to keep playing good music, have people come to see us, and to preserve the tradition." In 2003 Ray Mantilla signed with Savant Records and his first record for the label, “Man-Ti-Ya” was released (SCD 2059). His latest recording, “Good Vibrations” (SCD 2073) adds the unique sound of Mike Freeman's vibes to his ensemble.
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Larry Coryell: Improvisations: Best of the Vanguard Years
by Josef Woodard
There have been many smoother operators in the world of jazz guitar than Larry Coryell, the brainy rough rider who was a natural-born fusioneer, in the best sense. There have been cleaner technicians on the instrument, with a more lucid sense of identity and careers that have followed a logical, rolling landscape. But not many have quite attained Coryell's strange, madly eclectic state of grace: into music he came, he saw and heard things not yet articulated, he conquered on ...
read moreMax Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite
by Chris May
Re-released following the passing of drummer Max Roach in August 2007, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960) remains a work of enduring musical and social importance. Notwithstanding Roach's central role in the creation of bop, or his later hard bop explorations with trumpeter Clifford Brown, it is, by some margin, the most perfectly realised album he recorded. 1960 was the year in which black Americans' struggle for civil rights reached critical mass. In February, anti-segregationist lunch-counter sit-ins ...
read moreRay Mantilla: Good Vibrations
by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
On the cover of Good Vibrations, Ray Mantilla is dressed in black, as if in mourning. It seems appropriate. Two of the nine songs are tributes to the late Tito Puente, and in the liner notes, he dedicates baritone con Bata to honor all our heroes of percussion who are here now and who have passed on. Good Vibrations takes a jab at the supernatural, not asking questions about life, death, the pursuit of happiness and what have you, but ...
read moreRay Mantilla: Good Vibrations
by Nic Jones
Politeness has always been a dubious quality in music. It is, however, one of the most obvious characteristics of this disc. With the exception of baritone sax and flautist Enrique Fernandez, not one of the musicians raises the heat. Instead, a bland uniformity prevails. The percussionists dovetail without injecting the kind of rhythmic impetus that would have elevated the material, and the results could serve well as background music for cocktail parties. They would certainly be unlikely to get in ...
read moreRay Mantilla & The New Space Station: Man-Ti-Ya
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Man-Ti-Ya is the latest launch of percussionist Ray Mantilla's Space Station, featuring a full-size sounding septet. As usual, Mantilla recruits skilled musicians for his releases. On this occasion, highlights include veteran pianist Eddie MartÃ-nez, who enhances this recording not only with his remarkable performance, but also through his arrangements; saxophonist Willie Williams, who distinguished himself with trombonist Papo Vásquez; and flutist and woodwind player Enrique Fernández, who issued MelodÃ-a para congas--one of the salient Latin jazz notes of the late ...
read moreRay Mantilla: High Voltage
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
A week or so ago I received a call from Harry Sepulveda. Harry and I go way back. We first met in the 1970s, when I used to buy Latin-jazz albums at Record Mart, his store in the Times Square subway station, down a flight of stairs from the Shuttle. Today the store still exists, though it now has a more prominent location facing the shuttle. Latin music still pours out the door, adding flavor to the expansive station. Harry ...
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Ray Mantilla: The Complete Percussionist
Source:
All About Jazz
On Sunday, June 22nd Tony V / Latin Perspective will feature a 75 min presentation, on WRUW 91.1FM in Cleveland, streaming live at wruw.org from 6-8 pm EST that will cover the life, music, and musical career of Ray Mantilla, the complete percussionist. Ray Mantilla is considered by many as one of the most respected percussionists in both the jazz and Latin idioms. Throughout his career, that spans over fifty years, he has performed and/or recorded on more than 200 ...
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Red Records releases The Jazz Tribe featuring Ray Mantilla & Bobby Watson
Source:
All About Jazz