John Santos

Since the 1970s, percussionist/bandleader/arranger/producer John Santos has been one of the San Francisco Bay Area's strongest proponents of salsa/Afro-Cuban music and Latin jazz (mainly Afro-Cuban jazz). The Bay Area, like most of California, has a large Hispanic population; millions of people of Mexican descent live in Northern California, where regional Mexican music (mariachi, ranchera, norteņo, banda, tejano, duranguense, tierra caliente, grupero, sierreņo) has been extremely popular for many years. But the Bay Area has also had a community of musicians who specialize in the Afro-Cuban/tropical realm of Latin music rather than the regional Mexican realm of Latin music -- and Santos (not to be confused with alternative rock singer Johnny Santos of Spineshank and Basic Enigma fame) has long been a part of that community (which, over the years, has given us heavyweights like Latin jazz vibist Cal Tjader and percussionist Pete Escovedo, father of Sheila Escovedo, aka Sheila E.). The term "tropical" is used to describe the forms of Spanish-language Latin music (as opposed to Latin music from Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken) that have a major African influence, including Afro-Cuban salsa, Dominican meringue and bachata, Puerto Rican plena and bomba, and Colombian cumbia; Santos' approach has been heavily tropical, and the percussionist has long been interested in the relationship between drumming in Sub-Saharan Africa and African-influenced drumming in parts of Latin America. Santos plays a variety of Afro-Cuban percussion, and his influences have included, among others, Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaria, Chano Pozo (who is best remembered for his legendary collaborations with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s), and Candido Camero. Although most of...