Ray Mantilla

Raymond Mantilla (born June 22, 1934, in New York City) is an American jazz drummer. He has played as a session musician and toured with some of the most significant jazz musicians of his time. Mantilla has been a bandleader of his own ensembles and was a founding member of the percussion ensemble M'Boom with Max Roach.

Mantilla played in New York from the 1950s, inspired by Afro-Cuban jazz. He played with a number of latin jazz ensembles in the 1950s, including the La Playa Sextet, Xavier Cugat, Lou Perez, René Touzet, Miguelito Valdez, and Monguito Conjunto. He played behind Eartha Kitt in 1955. In 1960 he toured with Herbie Mann and recorded with Max Roach. He recorded with Al Cohn in 1961, and recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich, and Larry Coryell in the 1960s. From 1963 to 1969 Mantilla led his own band in Puerto Rico, and in 1970 joined forces with Max Roach's percussion ensemble, M'Boom.

Mantilla was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the 1970s, during which time the ensemble toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Following this he recorded with Gato Barbieri, Joe Farrell, Michał Urbaniak (1974), Richie Cole, Don Pullen (1976–77), Charles Mingus (1977–78), Walter Bishop, Jr., and Morgana King (1979). He toured Cuba with Dizzy Gillespie in 1977.

In 1979 he founded his own ensemble, the Ray Mantilla Space Station, and through the 1980s toured or recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Burrell, Shirley Scott, and Warren Chiasson. In 1991 he put together a new ensemble, the Jazz Tribe.

As leader

• Mantilla (Inner City, 1978)
• Hands of Fire (Red, 1984)
• Synergy (Red, 1986)
• Dark Powers (Red, 1988)
• The Next Step (Red, 2000)
• Man-Ti-Ya (Savant, 2004)
• Good Vibrations (Savant, 2006)
• The Connection (Savant, 2013)

As sideman

With Ray Barretto

• 1961 Barretto Para Bailar
• 1963 Latino! & Afro-Jaws
• 1973 Carnaval: Latino!/Pachanga with Barretto

With Herbie Mann

• Flute, Brass, Vibes and Percussion (Verve, 1959)
• The Common Ground (Atlantic, 1961)
• The Family of Mann (Atlantic, 1961)
• Herbie Mann at the Village Gate (Atlantic, 1962)
• Herbie Mann Returns to the Village Gate (Atlantic, 1963)
• Our Mann Flute (Atlantic, 1966)
• Discothèque (Atlantic, 1975)
• Waterbed (Atlantic, 1975)

With Gato Barbieri

• Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata (Impulse!, 1974)
• Yesterdays (Flying Dutchman, 1974)

With Art Blakey

• Child's Dance (Prestige, 1972)
• In My Prime Vol. 1 (Timeless, 1977)
• In My Prime Vol. 2 (Timeless, 1977)

With Joe Chambers

• The Almoravid (Muse, 1973)
• New World (Finite, 1976)

With Cedar Walton

• Mobius (RCA, 1975)
• The Pentagon (East Wind, 1976)
• Soundscapes (Columbia, 1980)
• Roots (1997)
• Latin Tinge (HighNote, 2002)
• The Bouncer (HighNote, 2011)

With Joe Beck

• 1975 Beck & Sanborn
• 1975 Beck

With Richie Cole

• 1976 New York Afternoon: Alto Madness
• 1977 Alto Madness
• 1986 Pure Imagination
• 1996 West Side Story
• 1998 Richie & Phil & Richie
• 2006 Rises's Rose Garden

With Charles Mingus

• 1978 Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
• 1979 Me, Myself an Eye
• 1981 Something Like a Bird

' With Larry Coryell

• 1975 Basics (1968–1969)
• 1979 Return
• 2002 Birdfingers

With Teresa Brewer

• 1982 Midnight Cafe (A Few More for the Road)
• 1984 Live at Carnegie Hall & Montreaux, Switzerland
• 1983 I Dig Big Band Singers

With M'Boom

• Collage (Soul Note, 1984)
• To the Max! (Enja, 1990–91)
• Live at S.O.B.'s New York (1992)

With Kenny Burrell

• 1991 Sunup to Sundown
• 1998 Kenny Burrell and the Jazz Giants

With Morgana King

• 1998 Looking Through the Eyes of Love
• 2000 Tender Moments

With Mose Allison

• 1994 The Earth Wants You
• 1997 Jazz Profile

With Bob McHugh

• 1994 Manhattan Sunrise
• 2003 Another Sunrise

With Jack McDuff

• Magnetic Feel (Cadet, 1975)

With Jeremy Steig

• Monium (1974)
• Firefly (CTI, 1977)

With Mickey Tucker

• Mister Mysterious (Muse, 1978)

With The Players Association

• 1980 We Got the Groove
• 1998 The Players Association/Turn the Music Up!

• "Ray Mantilla | Album Discography | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 December 2016.