Montego Joe

Roger "Montego Joe" Sanders (born 1929, New York City; d. June 28, 2010, Brooklyn, New York City) was an American jazz percussionist and drummer.

Career

Sanders as a teenager played with a number of bands, led by top jazz musicians, including Babatunde Olatunji's (Drums of Passion, 1959) Art Blakey's Afro-Drum Ensemble (African Beat, Blue Note 1962), also with Ted Curson, Max Roach, Monty Alexander, Phil Upchurch, Dizzy Gillespie, Willis Jackson, Herbie Mann, Harold Vick, Teddy Edwards, George Benson, Jack McDuff, Rufus Harley (Kings/Queens) and Johnny Lytle. Under his own name he recorded the album Arriba! Con Montego Joe for Prestige Records prior to which he worked with Chick Corea with Eddie Gómez and Milford Graves, followed by the album Wild and Hot.[1]

During the 1960s he worked with a group of Black youth in Harlem, known as HAR-YOU (Harlem Youth Unlimited), founded by sociologist Kenneth Clark. Montego Joe worked with the Harlem Youth Percussion Group for four years before taking them into the studio to record their debut album, HAR-YOU Percussion Group: Sounds of the Ghetto Youth for ESP-Disk in 1967.[2] The reunion album was released in 1996 featuring many of the same personnel that were on the debut album.[3] He subsequently worked with Cornell Dupree, Ralph MacDonald and Curtis Mayfield on the album Voices of East Harlem: Right On, Be Free, which was released by Elektra Records in 1970.[4]

Discography

As leader
  • Arriba! Con Montego Joe (Prestige, 1964)
  • Wild & Warm (Prestige, 1965)

As sideman

With Babatunde Olatunji

  • Drums of Passion (Columbia, 1960)
  • Afro Percussion (Columbia, 1961)
  • Flaming Drums! (Columbia, 1962)
  • High Life! (Columbia, 1963)

With others

References
  1. http://www2.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/Arriba-Con-Montego-Joe/
  2. # Uarvjtjybt0 discussion of HAR-YOU Percussion Group: Sounds of the Ghetto Youth (2009) with All About Jazz.
  3. http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-har-you-percussion-group-mw0000602304
  4. http://www.allmusic.com/album/right-on-be-free-mw0000360714
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