Francisco Aguabella left Cuba in the 1950's and quickly established himself as a master conguero and bata musician in the American and nascent Afro-Cuban jazz scenes. Noted for his fluidity and energy ...

Chico O'Farrill was one of the main guiding lights in the emergence of Afro-Cuban Jazz in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He arrived in New York from his native Cuba at a point where musicians like ...

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 ...

Havana in the 1950s was an exotic suburb of Las Vegas. How the Cuban capital became the playground of American tycoons, celebrities and hustlers is a long and sordid story. Here's the short version: ...