Daniel Ponce (July 21, 1953 – March 14, 2013) was a Cuban-American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

percussionist. He was born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba, and Ponce played locally in Havana from age 11, and played percussion in a group called Watusi. He was exiled from Cuba in 1980 and fled to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The Gonzalez brothers heard him play in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, and brought him on October 27, 1981 to Soundscape, 500 West 52nd Street, for their Latin Music Tuesdays. It was there that he met Paquito D'Rivera, another eminent Cuban musician who had come to the US via Spain, when he defected from Cuba. Soon after he was working there with D'Rivera, Jose Fajardo, Andy Gonzalez,

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, and

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.Russ Girsberger, "Daniel Ponce". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld. In 1982, he played three

batá drum The Batá drum is a double-headed drum shaped like an hourglass with one end larger than the other. The percussion instrument is still used for its original purpose as it is one of the most important drums in the yourba land and used for trad ...

s as a session musician for the Herbie Hancock song " Rockit". Producer

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, ...

said "Ponce essentially was a musician/priest, and all the rhythms he would play on those batá drums were associated with a Yoruba deity. It was basically Santeria." Although "Rockit" was a major hit for Hancock, it did not impact on Ponce's career. Verna Gillis, the director of Soundscape and the first person in the US to become involved with directing his career, produced his first few albums. These included ''New York Now'' (1982) and ''Arawe'' in 1983. Gillis also produced Ponce's collaboration with Celia Cruz, which rehearsed at Soundscape and performed at

SOB's SOB's is a live world music venue and restaurant in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan. S.O.B.’s is an abbreviation of Sounds of Brazil. Larry Gold started SOBs in June 1982, and he currently still owns the space. Gold opened the ven ...

. He also did work as a session musician for

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

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, and

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

. He married Maritza Rueda and they had a son Daniel Ponce, Jr. He died on March 14, 2013, in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, from a heart attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponce, Daniel 1953 births 2013 deaths Cuban jazz percussionists American jazz drummers Cuban emigrants to the United States