Jack James Costanzo (September 24, 1919 – August 18, 2018) was an American percussionist.
Biography
Costanzo is of Italian descent, both his parents being from Italy.[1]A composer and drummer, Costanzo is best known for having been a bongo player, and was nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana three times in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bongos and congas.
Costanzo started as a dancer, touring as a team with his wife before World War II. After his discharge from the Navy, he worked as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Latin band leader Bobby Ramos heard Costanzo playing bongos in a jam session and offered him a job. Throughout the 1940s, Costanzo worked with several Latin bands, including a revived version of the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Desi Arnaz, and Rene Touzet.
Costanzo was in retirement until 1998 when he decided to make a comeback and in 2001 recorded Back From Havana under the Ubiquity Records umbrella. This album featured the likes of Black Note's Gilbert Castellanos, Steve Firerobing and the Panamanian singer Marilu. In 2002 he released another album with the same cast called Scorching the skins this time he also added Quino from Big Mountain. Costanzo has continued to tour and perform in California and abroad.
Costanzo died of complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at his home in Lakeside, California, on August 18, 2018, aged 98.[2]
2006: American Masters (TV series documentary) - The World of Nat King Cole, as himself
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jack Costanzo.
^Genzlinger, Neil (August 26, 2018). "Jack Costanzo, Musician Known as Mr. Bongo, Dies at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
^"Jack "Mr Bongo" Costanzo, dead at 98, collaborated with Judy Garland, Nat 'King' Cole, Marlon Brando". San Diego Union Tribune. August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
External links
Jack Costanzo at Allmusic.com
http://www.spaceagepop.com/costanzo.htm
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0182447/
Jack Costanzo Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2004)
Jack Costanzo Interview by Alex Pertout Alex Pertout MPhil ANU (2007)