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Inspired by his South Bronx Afro-Cuban roots, percussionist
Ray Mantilla rose to prominence in the late '70s after spending the previous decade in bands led by
Herbie Mann,
Charles Mingus,
Joe Farrell, and
Gato Barbieri, to mention a scant few. In 1977
Mantilla was selected by
Dizzy Gillespie to accompany him to Cuba as the first U.S. band to visit the island since the travel embargo of 1962.
Mantilla issued his self-titled leader debut for Inner City in 1978. In the mid-'80s he formed
the Ray Mantilla Space Station. The band issued three acclaimed albums; the last of which,
Dark Powers in 1989, included
Bobby Watson as a guest saxophonist.
Mantilla remained active, playing with an astonishing variety of jazz talents including
James Spaulding,
Max Roach,
Watson,
Lou Donaldson, and
Amina Claudine Myers. In 1998, he assembled the
Ray Mantilla European Space Station to record Head Games featuring pianist
Fabrizio Puglisi.
Mantilla's 21st century tenure with pianist
Cedar Walton netted two titles:
The Latin Tinge (2002), and
The Bouncer in 2011. Two years later,
Mantilla released his own outing,
The Connection, on HighNote. In 2017,
Mantilla took time away from the road and his other sideman projects to release
High Voltage.
Born in 1934 in the South Bronx,
Mantilla's musical career began early. By the time he was in his twenties, he was already performing in New York, blending his Afro-Cuban roots with the contemporary jazz idiom of the time. After becoming a known entity among musicians for his long tenure with
Herbie Mann from the early '60s to the mid-'70s, the culmination of
Mantilla's upward climb came when he began touring the States, Europe, and Japan with
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He remained with
Blakey for several years until 1972, when he left to join
Max Roach's all-percussion ensemble
M’Boom (he remained a member for the rest of
Roach's -- and his own -- life). He also managed to work with countless others, including
Charles Mingus,
Gato Barbieri,
Sonny Stitt,
Amina Claudine Myers,
Diedre Murray and
Fred Hopkins, and even
James White & the Blacks.
His solo debut, Mantilla, surfaced in 1978 on the Inner City label; however, it wasn't until his next album,
Hands of Fire (1984, Red), that his solo recording career gained momentum. His group,
the Ray Mantilla Space Station, returned two years later with another album for Red,
Synergy (1986), followed shortly by
Dark Powers featuring
Bobby Watson in a guest role.
In 1991, he returned with a new band,
the Jazz Tribe, but didn't release another album until 2000,
Next Step. He then re-formed the
Mantilla Space Station for 2004's
Man-Ti-Ya. Two years later, he joined pianist
Edy Martinez, vibraphonist
Mike Freeman, bassist
Cucho Martínez, drummer Bill Elder, and percussionist
Steve Berrios on
Good Vibrations. A similar group with
Martínez and Elder was featured on 2013's
The Connection. In 2017,
Mantilla delivered the
Joe Fields-produced
High Voltage on Savant Records.
In late 2019,
Mantilla surrounded himself with his long-time colleagues to prove that the music he made came from the heart as well as from his lifetime of experience. Knowing he was quite ill, he completed the date in early 2020. He passed away just two months later on March 21 from complications due to lymphoma.
Rebirth,
Mantilla's tenth album as a leader, was issued in late June. ~ Jason Birchmeier