Jack Costanzo is an American percussionist.

Biography

A composer, conductor and drummer, Costanzo is best known as a bongo

Bongo drum

Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...

 player, and is nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

 three times in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban

Afro-Cuban

The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...

 rhythms on the bongos and conga

Conga

The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...

s.

Costanzo started as a dancer, touring as a team with his wife before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. After his discharge from the Navy, he worked as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Latin band leader Bobby Ramos

Bobby Ramos

Roberto "Bobby" Ramos is currently the bullpen coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. During his playing career, he was a catcher, playing parts of six seasons for the Montreal Expos and New York Yankees. He was a minor league manager in the Rays' system from to .-External links:*...

 listened to 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

Lecuona Cuban Boys

The Lecuona Cuban Boys was a popular Cuban orchestra which toured the world for over forty years.The band was founded by Ernesto Lecuona, whose role was that of a patron-entrepreneur. He did not actually play with the band, but sometimes gave a piano recital before the band played. The core of the...

, Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...

, and Rene Touzet

René Touzet

René Touzet y Monte was a Cuban-born American composer, pianist and bandleader.-Career as bandleader:...

.

Costanzo toured with Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

 from 1947–48 and occasionally in the 1950s, and played with Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

 from 1949 to 1953. He also played with the Billy May

Billy May

William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...

 Orchestra, Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

, Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...

, Perez Prado

Perez Prado

Dámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, musician , and composer. He is often referred to as the 'King of the Mambo'.His orchestra was the most popular in mambo...

, Charlie Barnet

Charlie Barnet

Charles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...

, Pete Rugolo

Pete Rugolo

Pietro "Pete" Rugolo was an Italian-born jazz composer and arranger.-Life and career:Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California...

, Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...

, Harry James

Harry James

Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...

, Judy Garland

Judy Garland

Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

, Jane Powell

Jane Powell

Jane Powell is an American singer, dancer and actress.After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens...

, Ray Anthony

Ray Anthony

Ray Anthony is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.- Biography :...

, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye

Frances Faye

Frances Faye was an American cabaret and show tune singer and pianist. She was born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. She was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye.-Career:...

, Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...

, Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...

, and Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher (singer)

Edwin Jack "Eddie" Fisher , was an American entertainer. He was one of the world's most famous and successful singers in the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. His divorce from his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, to marry his best friend's widow, Elizabeth Taylor, garnered...

.

Costanzo formed his own band in the 1950s which recorded and toured internationally. Many Hollywood stars studied bongos with him, including: Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....

, Carolyn Jones

Carolyn Jones

Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress.Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses...

, Hugh O'Brien

Hugh O'Brien

Hugh O'Brien was the 31st mayor of Boston, from 1884–1888. O'Brien is notable as Boston's first Irish mayor, having emigrated from Ireland to America in the early 1830s...

, Keenan Wynn

Keenan Wynn

Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....

, Van Johnson

Van Johnson

Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....

, Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...

, Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...

, Vic Damone

Vic Damone

Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.- Early life :Damone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to French-Italian immigrants based in Bari, Italy—Rocco and Mamie Farinola. His father was an electrician; and his mother taught piano. His cousin was the actress and singer...

, and Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper

Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

.

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 Blue Note's Guilbert 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

Big Mountain

-United States:* Big Mountain Ridge, California, an unincorporated area* Big Mountain, Alaska, a mountain in Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska** Big Mountain Air Force Station, near Big Mountain, Alaska* Big Mountain, Arizona, another name for Black Mesa, Arizona...

. Costanzo has continued to tour and perform in California and abroad.

Discography

• Bongo Cha-Cha-Cha!, Golden Tone C 4061
• King of the Bongos
• Bongo Fever, Sunset SUS-5134
• Afro Can Can, Liberty LRP-3137
• Learn--Play Bongos, Liberty LRP-3177
• Jack Costanzo and His Afro Cuban Band, GNP Crescendo GNP-19
• Vivo Tirado, GNP Crescendo GNPS 2057
• Mr. Bongo Afro Cuban Band, Palladium PLP 126
• 1949: Nat King Cole & His Trio - The Forgotten 1949 Carnegie Hall Concert, Hep Records 2010 CD
• 1954: Afro Cuban Jazz North-Of-The-Border
• 1954: Afro-Cubano
• 1955: Latin Fever, Liberty LRP-3093
• 1950's: Mr. Bongo Has Brass, Zephyr 12003
• 1950's: Mr. Bongo Plays Hi-Fi Cha Cha, Tops 1564
• 1950's: Naked City & Other Themes, Liberty LST-7195
• 2001: Back from Havanna
• 2002: Scorching the Skins
• 2003: Latin Percussion with Soul
• 2005: Versatile Mr. Bongo Plays Jazz, Afro and Latin

Filmography

• The Delicate Delinquent
• Man From the Diners Club
• Stool Pigeon Number 1
• The Satin Bug
• The Ed Sullivan Show (TV), three times as himself
• The Art Linkletter Show (TV), as himself
• The Edward R. Murrow Show (TV), as himself
• 1950: King Cole and His Trio with Benny Carter and His Orchestra, a Universal-International featurette, musician
• 1956: G.E. True Theater (TV series) - Judy Garland Musical Special, Musician
• 1956: Riddles in Rhythm (short), as himself
• 1957: The Nat King Cole Show (TV series), musician on song "Caravan"
• 1957: Bernardine, as himself
• 1957: The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (TV Series) - Episode #2.10, as himself
• 1959: The Danny Thomas Show (TV Series) - Terry Goes Bohemian
• 1959: Johnny Staccato (TV Series) - Nature of the Night, Musician
• 1960: Visit to a Small Planet, Percussionist
• 1965: Harum Scarum, Julna
• 2006: American Masters (TV series documentary) - The World of Nat King Cole, as himself