Louis "Sabu" Martinez was one of the most prolific conga players in the history of Afro-Cuban music. In addition to his own albums,
Martinez recorded with such influential jazz musicians as
Dizzy Gillespie,
Horace Silver,
Buddy DeFranco,
J.J. Johnson,
Louis Bellson,
Art Farmer, and
Art Blakey, and jazz vocalists including
Tony Bennett and
Sammy Davis, Jr. Emigrating to Sweden in 1967, he continued to apply his highly melodic rhythms to a lengthy list of recordings by top-notch Swedish performers.
A native of New York's Spanish Harlem,
Martinez spent his childhood beating rhythms on tin cans on 111th Street. By the age of 11, he was performing every third night on 125th Street for 25 cents a night. He was still in his early teens when he began playing with Latin bands including those led by
Marcelino Guerra and Catalino Rolón. In 1944, he spent an extended period living in Puerto Rico.
After serving a year in the military, at the age of 17,
Martinez resumed his musical career as a member of mambo originator
Joe Loco's trio. Within a few months, his playing attracted the attention of jazz musicians. In 1946, he began a long association with drummer
Art Blakey.
Martinez and
Blakey continued to periodically work together until 1959. In addition to leading the rhythm section on
Blakey's groundbreaking album Orgy in Rhythm in 1954, he was featured on the
Jazz Messengers albums Cu-Bop and Messages in 1957.
Martinez continued to be a much-in-demand session player. In addition to playing traditional Latin music with the Lecuono Cuban Boys, he collaborated with
Charlie Parker and
Max Roach during a 13-week stint at the New York club the Three Deuces. In April, 1949, he performed with swing clarinetist
Benny Goodman.
The high point of
Martinez's career came in 1948 when he joined
Dizzy Gillespie's band, following the murder of influential conga player
Chano Pozo. During the nine months that he performed with the group, he played on five albums: Dizzy,
Dizzier and Dizzier, 16 Rare Performances, When Be-Bop Met the Big Band, and Diz. In return,
Gillespie nicknamed
Martinez "Sabu" when he noticed a resemblance to popular Indian actor Sabu, the "Elephant Boy."
Despite his fame,
Martinez struggled with heroin addiction. In the mid-'50s, he briefly left music to run a strip joint in Baltimore. Although he overcame his addiction in 1956, it took several years for him to become "psychologically free" from the grasp of the drug. Forming his own quintet,
Martinez recorded three memorable albums: the Afro-Cuban masterpiece Palo Congo in 1957, and two, Safari and Sorcery, in 1958, that have been described as "the wildest exotica records ever."
In 1960,
Martinez collaborated with
Louie Ramirez to record the history-making Latin jazz album
Jazz Espagnole. Four years later, he relocated temporarily to Puerto Rico, where he performed with several bands including the Johnny Conquet Orchestra and met his future wife, Agneta. In 1967, they were married and moved to Agneta's homeland in Sweden.
Martinez remained there for the rest of his life.
Shortly after moving to Sweden,
Martinez took a gig with Lill Lindfor's Musical Revue. This began a long involvement with Swedish musicians. In addition to sharing his knowledge of music and the conga as a teacher, he performed and recorded with such artists as Cornelius Vreeswick,
Merit Hemmingson, Radiojazzgruppen, Björbobandet, the Eero Koisvistoinen Music Society, the Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination and Brass, Gugge Hedrenius' Big Band, and Ivan Oscarsson. While in Sweden, he occasionally collaborated with American musicians including
Kenny Clarke,
Art Farmer, and
George Russell. In 1973, he formed his own band, New Burnt Sugar, and released a book of conga exercises. His final recording sessions came while working on
Debbie Cameron and
Richard Boone's album Brief Encounter in 1978.
Martinez died on January 13, 1979, of a gastric ulcer. ~ Craig Harris