Mongo Santamaria, a Cuban conga player and percussionist who arrived in New York at the beginning of the jazz-Latin fusion and was arguably the most popular Latin musician of the 1960s, died Saturday.

Cuban percussionist Miguel “Anga” Diaz, an acclaimed conga master who perfected a dazzling five-drum technique with a versatility that allowed him to span genres from progressive jazz to traditional ...

While Australian tourists flock to the northern parts of the Caribbean, one percussionist is hoping to bring a slice of Cuba back to Canberra. Carrying a conga in one hand, and a bag as vibrant as his ...

In 1917, Ramon Santamaria Rodriquez was born into poverty in Havana, Cuba. Nicknamed “Mongo” (a tribal chief in Senegal), he began playing the conga drum at an early age and as a teen, Mongo ...

The Afro-Brazilian rhythms: Samba de Caboclo, Partido Alto and Barravento are each played by three or more conga players in combination with surdo and chocalho. "Samba de Caboclo" comes from the ...

On many levels, The Conga Kings’ Jazz Descargas is authentic Afro-Cuban jazz. For starters, Carlos “Patato” Valdes and Candido Camero have been Afro-Cuban music pioneers for decades. Patato is ...

Good Morning. At least it is for me, your faithful correspondent for the next couple of days at the NPR blog that likes its signals the same way it likes its drinks. And, for that matter, its ...

In a political climate rife with anti-black and anti-immigrant rhetoric, aimed at not just belittling people of color but also jeopardizing their lives and instrumental histories, the seventh annual ...