Ray Mantilla

Raymond Mantilla (born June 22, 1934, in New York City, New York) is an American jazz drummer. He has played as a session musician and toured with some of the most significant jazz musicians of his time. Mantilla has been bandleader of his own ensembles and was a founding member of the percussion ensemble M'Boom, with Max Roach.

Biography

Mantilla played in New York from the 1950s, inspired by Afro-Cuban jazz. He played with a number of latin jazz ensembles in the 1950s, including the La Playa Sextet, Xavier Cugat, Lou Perez, René Touzet, Miguelito Valdez, and Monguito Conjunto. He played behind Eartha Kitt in 1955. In 1960 he toured with Herbie Mann and recorded with Max Roach. He recorded with Al Cohn in 1961, and recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich, and Larry Coryell in the 1960s. From 1963 to 1969 Mantilla led his own band in Puerto Rico, and in 1970 joined forces with Max Roach's percussion ensemble, M'Boom.

Mantilla was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the 1970s, during which time the ensemble toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Following this he recorded with Gato Barbieri, Joe Farrell, Michał Urbaniak (1974), Richie Cole, Don Pullen (1976–77), Charles Mingus (1977–78), Walter Bishop, Jr., and Morgana King (1979). He toured Cuba with Dizzy Gillespie in 1977.

In 1979 he founded his own ensemble, the Ray Mantilla Space Station, and through the 1980s toured or recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Burrell, Shirley Scott, and Warren Chiasson. In 1991 he put together a new ensemble, the Jazz Tribe.

Discography

As leader

• Mantilla (Inner City Records, 1978)
• Hands of Fire (Red Records, 1984)
• Synergy (Red, 1986)
• Dark Powers (Red, 1988)
• The Next Step (Red, 2000)
• Man-Ti-Ya (Savant Records, 2004)
• Good Vibrations (Savant, 2006)

As sideman

With Gato Barbieri

• Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata (Impulse!, 1974)
• Yesterdays (Flying Dutchman, 1974)

With Art Blakey

• Child's Dance (Prestige, 1972)
• In My Prime Vol. 1 (Timeless, 1977)
• In My Prime Vol. 2 (Timeless, 1977)

With Joe Chambers

• The Almoravid (Muse, 1974)
• New World (Finite, 1976)

With Herbie Mann

• Flute, Brass, Vibes and Percussion (Verve, 1959)
• The Common Ground (Atlantic, 1960)
• The Family of Mann (Atlantic, 1961)
• Herbie Mann at the Village Gate (Atlantic, 1961)
• Herbie Mann Returns to the Village Gate (Atlantic, 1961 [1963])
• Our Mann Flute (Atlantic, 1966)
• Discothèque (Atlantic, 1975)
• Waterbed (Atlantic, 1975)

With M'Boom

• Collage (Soul Note, 1984)
• To the Max! (Enja, 1990–91)

With Jack McDuff

• Magnetic Feel (Cadet, 1975)

With Jeremy Steig

• Firefly (CTI, 1977)

With Mickey Tucker

• Mister Mysterious (Muse, 1978)

With Cedar Walton

• Mobius (RCA, 1975)
• The Pentagon (East Wind, 1976)
• Soundscapes (Columbia, 1980)
• Latin Tinge (HighNote, 2002)
• The Bouncer (HighNote, 2011)

References

• Ray Mantilla at Allmusic
• Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford, 1999, p. 433.