Ramon "Monchito" MUNOZ

Excerpt from Mambo Kingdon: Latin Music in New York By Max Salazar

Chapter 15 MONCHITO MUNOZ New York City's Latin music (son, guaracha, rumba) aficionados of the 1930s began their appreciation of Latin music percussionists at the beginning of the 1940s when Chino (not Chano) Pozo came on the scene. Pozo, born in Havana April 10, 1915, arrived in New York City in 1937 (Chano Pozo arrived a decade later).

Subsequently, Chino performed on bongós, conga and timbaesl for the orchestras of Machito, Jack Cole Dance Troupe, José Curbelo, Noro Morales, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Enric Madriguera, Pérez Prado, Stan Kenton, Herbie Mann, Xavier Cugat, René Touzet and Billy Taylor, as well as the Jack Cole Dancers. During the '40s, his unique percussion skills made him a invaluable sideman, a bandleaders favorite for dances and recordings. Pozo was so in-demand that he worked only with bands that could offer him top dollar.

Then in 1952, Pozo's reign of popularity appeared to decline when New Yorkers first experienced the unprecedented conga drum sounds of Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría. Then Tito Puente's timbal and vibraharp artistry focussed the spotlight of recognition on outstanding percussionists the following five decades, including Mongo Santamaría, Cándido Camero, Willie Bobo, Ray Barretto, José Mangual, Francisco Aguabella, Carlos "Patato" Valdés, Carlos Vidal, Sabú Martínez, Orestes Vilató, Armando Peraza, Nicky Marrero, Orlando Marín and Puerto Rico's Giovanni Hidalgo. For more than fifty years now, a number of deserving percussionists have enjoyed the spotlight, that is, all but one.

The musician I refer to has mastered percussion instruments and has drummed for the bands of Pérez Prado, Alfredito Levy, Xavier Cugat, Miguelito Valdés, Johnny Conquet, César Concepción, Emilio Reyes, Bartolo Hernández, Charlie Palmieri, Rafael Cortijo, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Eddie Palmieri, his father Rafael Muñoz, and the Hotel San Juan's show orchestra. I am referring to Monchito Muñoz, a soft-spoken gentleman who proudly stated "I never had a day job. I've always supported my wife and children from my work as a musician."

He was born Ramon Munoz-Rodriguez to parents Rafael and Carmen on June 6, 1932, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During the 1920s, his father played bass for theater orchestras that accompanied silent movies, In 1935, Rafael directed an orchestra at El Escambron Beach Club that included Noro Morales on piano. At age seven, Monchito attended Catholic school and took piano lessons from Noro Morales's sister Alicia. At that time, percussion students in Puerto Rico learned by performing on trap drums-- the type of drum sets used by North American jazz and pop bands. Tony Sanchez, Rafael's drummer, tutored young Monchito until Sanchez was called to serve in World War II. Candido Segarra replaced Sanchez and became Monchito's teacher until Segarra was drafted. At age ten, Monchito was the drummer when his father's orchestra played for the opening of San Juan's Hotel Normandy. In 1943 the popular bands in Puerto Rico were those of Rafael Munoz, Mario Dumont, Cesar Concepcion, Moncho Usera, Miguelito Miranda, Panchito Minguella, Pepito Torres, and Armando Castro. In addition to Latin music, they all played swing music of North American jazz orchestras such as those of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Gene Krupa, and Artie Shaw. Munoz had been a devotee of Gene Krupa--at the time the most popular big-band jazz drummer--since he first heard Krupa on "Sing, Sing, Sing" (with Benny Goodman's band) and "drum Boogie." In 1944, at age twelve, Munoz moved with his family to New York City, where they settled in an apartment at 164 West 108th Street, near Manhattan Avenue. In the immediate vicinity lived Latin musicians Mario Bauza, Alberto Iznaga, Steve Berrios, Chuck Duchesne, Tony Escoiles, Papi Pagani, Frankie Colon, and Robert "Chinky" Olivencia. At PS 165, Monchito fell in love with a beautiful Puerto Rican girl whom he married years later.

In 1945, there was a club on the East Side of Manhattan where the bands of Harry James, Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey, Stand Keaton, and other American jazz icons appeared for two weeks at a time. "One Sunday, my father took me to the club," said Monchito. "Backstage I saw a bongo and I began to play it. Gene Krupa, whose band was the featured act, heard me and urged his manager to convince my father to let me tour with his band. My father declined the offer because I was only fifteen, still attending school, and I spoke very poor English. Mr Krupa posed for a photo with my father and me. Months later, I went to the Strand Theatre in midtown Manhattan to see the Gene Krupa orchestra. Krupa offered me a recording date. I was recorded playing bongo on the tune "Chiquita Banana." When I left Puerto Rico for New Yor in 1944, I played trap drums only. I learned to play timbal while I was in Bartolo Hernandez's band."

Throughout 1945, Monchito Muñoz worked with several rumba bands, all club dates he got from the musicians union, local # 802. In 1947, the newly formed Rafael Muñoz orchestra debuted at the Bronx Tropicana Club. On bass was Luis Barretto, Charlie Palmieri on piano and son Monchito on drums. Music impresarios Federico Pagani, Catalino Rolón and Willie Chevalier booked the Muñoz band in all the theatres in Spanish Harlem.

In 1949, Rafael Muñoz disbanded and returned to Puerto Rico. Monchito remained in New York as Catalino Rolón's drummer. One year later, Muñoz replaced Humberto Morales in brother Noro's band and participated in the Decca recordings of The Up and Down Mambo, Sha-Wan-Ga Mambo and Cuban Mambo, which featured jazz trumpeter Doc Severinson. During his three-year tenure with Noro Morales, on his days off Muñoz drummed for the bands of Miguelito Valdés, Emilio Reyes, Bartolo Hernández and Tito Puente's Picadilly Boys. Before the summer of 1952, Muñoz joined Tito Rodriguez's band and recorded the tunes Zambele, El Rinconcito, Luna De Miel and Levante Manuel for Tico Records.

"When the chachachá caught fire in 1954, I, along with a few musicians in the band, got annoyed when we had to play six chachachás in a row. For two years beginning in 1953, I am on all the RCA recording sessions."

On October 24, 1955, Monchito Muñoz was Tito Rodriguez's drummer in a 20-minute Universal Motion picture called "Mambo Madness," filmed at the Palm Gardens, then located at 50th Street and 8th Avenue.

In 1959, when his father Rafael Muñoz's orchestra opened at San Juan's La Concha Club, Monchito and his family moved to Puerto Rico. One evening, while drumming for his father's band, Charles Fisk, the music director at the San Juan Hotel learned of Muñoz's trap drumming skills and that he could read music. Monchito accepted Fisk's offer and went on to play stage shows whose music backed artists like Tony Bennett, Perry Como and Carmen McRae, to name a few. After three years, Fisk's contract terminated. Muñoz formed a quartet that included trumpeter Juancito Torres.

In January, 1980, when Charlie Palmieri and his family moved to Puerto Rico, Palmieri formed his group and the first musician he contacted was Monchito Muñoz. Since then, Muñoz has always had work as a percussionist and recognition of his drumming virtuosity was finally noticed when the widely known drummer Alex Acuña was quoted in the May, 1982 Drummer's monthly magazine: "I found another excellent drummer named Monchito Muñoz who played with Tito Rodríguez in the '50s. He showed me clave like when a tune starts a certain way, you automatically have to know which clave to use. For example, take The Peanut Vendor, I used to start on three, and he said 'start on two, which goes with the melody, the other way is like you and the melody are having a fight.' And I said WOW! I've been playing wrong all my life. So I started to find out. I don't want to say anything bad about them, but there are a lot of drummers here in Los Angeles now who do not play in clave and do not play sambas correctly. I was lucky to meet Monchito."