Raymond Santos (December 28, 1928 – October 17, 2019) was an American

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

-winning Latin musician, composer, and educator. Santos has played and arranged for such artists as

Noro Morales Norosbaldo Morales (January 4, 1911 – January 15, 1964) was a Puerto Rican pianist and bandleader. Biography Morales was born in the subbarrio Puerta de Tierra of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and learned several instruments as a child. He playe ...

Machito Machito (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. Ginell, Richard S. ''Biography''. Allmusic, 2011/ref> He wa ...

Tito Rodriguez Tito may refer to: People Mononyms *Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman *Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journal ...

Eddie Palmieri Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive. Early life Pal ...

, and

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz ...

among many others. He was nicknamed El Maestro.

Early life and education

Ray Santos was born in

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fif ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

on December 28, 1928. His mother was a doll maker and his father was a doorman. They were born in Puerto Rico. When Santos was thirteen, the family moved to

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Yo ...

. As a child, Santos heard Machito and his Afro-Cuban boys and

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

's music, which inspired him to pursue a career in music. He played

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

while in high school at

Haaren High School Haaren High School was an American high school located in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The school was noted for its vocational program including classes focusing on internal combustion engines. The facility was constructed in 1903 to house DeWitt ...

. Santos attended

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

and graduated in 1952.

Career

Santos started his career in music playing Latin-inspired big band music in the 1950s. He played with bands in the

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

and at the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

in New York City. Santos served as music consultant and arranger for the soundtrack of the motion picture ''

The Mambo Kings ''The Mambo Kings'' is a 1992 musical drama film based on the 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel '' The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love'' by Oscar Hijuelos. The film was directed and produced by Arne Glimcher, and stars Armand Assante, Antonio Ba ...

''. He arranged the Oscar-nominated song ''Beautiful Maria of My Soul''. He arranged and directed the orchestra for

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American M ...

's ''

Frenesí "Frenesí" is a musical piece originally composed by Alberto Domínguez Borrás for the marimba, and adapted as a jazz standard by Leonard Whitcup and others. Background The word ''frenesí'' is Spanish for "frenzy". Artie Shaw recording ...

'' album, for which he won a Grammy. He was inducted into the

International Latin Music Hall of Fame The International Latin Music Hall of Fame (ILMHF) was an annual event established in 1999 and held in New York City to honor artists who have largely contributed to the Latin music genre. In addition to the induction into the Hall of Fame, the a ...

in 2003 and received the Latin Grammy Trustees Award in 2011. Santos taught at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

for over 20 years, directing the Latin Band. He retired from City College in December 2013 at the age of 84. In 2016, Santos received an honorary doctorate of music from

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level course ...

. Santos arranged

Jon Secada Juan Francisco Secada Ramírez (born October 4, 1961), better known as Jon Secada, is a Cuban-born American singer. He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 15 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. His music fu ...

's album ''To Beny Moré With Love''. In 2018, Santos contributed arrangements to

's ''Mi Luz Mayor'' album. He died on October 17, 2019 at age 90.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Ray 1928 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American saxophonists American jazz music arrangers American musicians of Puerto Rican descent American male saxophonists City College of New York faculty Haaren High School alumni Juilliard School alumni Latin jazz saxophonists Latin music composers Musicians from New York City People from East Harlem