Julito Collazo

Julio "Julito" Collazo (1925 - March 5, 2004) was a master percussionist.

Collazo was born in Havana, Cuba. He gained his musical background from the religious cult Santería, a syncretistic form derived from a combination of Catholic and African origins, starting at Batá drums when he was fifteen. He moved to United States in the fifties to join in a world tour with the Afroamerican dancer Katherine Dunham and her Dance Company. After playing with Dunham, Collazo rose to prominence recording and performing with Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Silvestre Méndez, Dizzy Gillespie and Machito, among others. These collaborations were magisterial and provide motivation and feedback for researchers, and assure the relevance of the research to the goal of improving the performance of Batá Drums. Collazo died in New York City of undisclosed causes at age 78.

For more details about Julito Collazo, you can check the liner notes of his CD "Caliente = Hot" (Puerto Rican and Cuban musical expression in New York City) clicking here: [http://newworldrecords.org/cgi-bin/search2/disc.cgi?disc=80244]