At the age of 14, Jack Costanzo was so blown away after hearing bongos for the first time that he went home and created his first set of bongos using two butter tubs.  Fast forward to 1947 when he was asked to be the first bongocero to join Stan Kenton's Jazz Orchestra.  After four years with Kenton he joined Nat King Cole's Trio where he remained for five years.  Jack was dubbed "Mr. Bongo" by the jazz critic, Leonard Feather, and the name stuck.  Cal Tjader called him the  most comfortable bongocero he's ever played with.  Among the legends he's performed with are Machito, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry James and Peggy Lee.  In more recent years, he's returned to the studio to release two strong CD's: "Back From Havana" and "Scorching the Skins," both produced by Bobby Matos with liner notes by Steve Kader.

WPR: You’re a Chicago native. Where in Chicago did you first hear bongos being played?

JC:  I heard and saw my first bongo playing at the Merry Garden dance hall when I was 14. They imported a Puerto Rican band for two weeks and the drummer on one number came in front and played the bongos. I have been hooked ever since.

 WPR: The fact that you were a dance teacher must have helped your playing when you first started?

JC:  Yes, dancing was a help. As a dance team, I would play the bongos when my partner did a dance solo catching her foot work with bongo beats.

 WPR:  Who were your first teachers or are you a self-taught musician?

JC:  I taught myself to play bongos. There were no bongo players in Chicago at that time to show me anything but I must admit no one ever volunteered to help ever.

 WPR:  Did you have any trouble breaking through ethnic barriers as an Italian-American in a Latino music genre?

JC:  Yes, it was a great problem being a non-Latino player being chosen to play with Stan Kenton where we introduced the bongo into American music. The Latino musicians were very upset that I was picked over one of the Latino players, many of whom auditioned for Kenton. It was even worse when Nat King Cole hired me to play in his trio. Now not only were Latinos outraged but so were the African-Americans. .Needless to say, I did very well and became the most well known bongo player in the world which is still the case today may I modestly say.

WPR:  Who were you playing with before you caught the eye of Stan Kenton?

JC:  Before I joined Kenton I played with Bobby Ramos, Lecuona Cuban Boys ,Rene Touzet  and Chuy Reyes.

WPR: In the 1950’s, you entered the motion picture world not only as a musician but as an actor in films like “Harum Scarum” with Elvis Presley and with other stars like Red Skelton, Peggy Lee and a multitude of others. How does a bongocero become a movie star?

JC: I was chosen to do movies and sound tracks because I played very well and I had a high profile that they could exploit and promote to the advantage of all. 

JC: Yes, Marlon’s obsession with playing congas led him to come backstage at Carnegie Hall where I was appearing with Nat King Cole to meet me. We became very good friends for years. I can't count the jam sessions we had at his house and on movie sets like Guys and Dolls.1953 was the year we met, possibly September. Marlon came to a couple of my night club openings, but never allowed any photos to be taken which was a real pain. He never wanted any one to take advantage of our friendship.  Marlon visited Cuba in the fifties as did I.  I have gone there seven times and I loved each visit.  

 WPR:  The 50's seems like a period when everything was opening up for you as an artist. You decided to become the bandleader. You had the experience but that was a brave thing to do considering Tito Puente, Machito and cream of the crop groups who were out there at the time. What was that time of your life like?

 JC:  The 50's was the most exciting period of my musical life. Everything was available to me, movies, recordings, concerts, clubs and hotel gigs. I felt like I could take on anything and anybody. It was very heady. I had the best of situations. I wasn't so famous that I was bothered when I went out to clubs or restaurants but enough so people knew who I was. It was delightful to have the best of two worlds. I ate it up like a dessert.  I very much loved my life and still do. It feels good to have done a few things.

WPR:  You were the bandleader for 15 years and then you took a 30 year break from recording. Now you've got 2 CD's out in the past 4 years. Were you playing at all during that hiatus or did you put away your drums?

JC : In 1966 I started a small musical group featuring my former wife, Gerrie Woo on vocals. It was a Las Vegas lounge and dance band. We did very well for a lot of years. We divorced in 1977 but kept the group intact until the nineties.

WPR:  You have some amazing musicians on both CD's (Back From Havana" and "Scorching the Skins ") and you introduced Marilu on "Back From Havana". What a beautiful voice! Where did you find her?

JC: I discovered Marilu, who works days for Sony Corp, singing with a local group called Primo. She quit that group and I talked to her about recording with me. I was starting to get very excited about playing again and Latin Jazz music was becoming huge. I .was going to Cuba every year until Bush this year put the clamps on traveling. When I came back from Cuba in 2000 we recorded “Back From Havana”. It was released in 2001. It was critically acclaimed all over the world which was very thrilling to us all. Marilu made her mark on that first CD.

WPR: Can you tell us about this phenomenal group of musicians you've assembled?

JC: My musicians are the cream of the crop of west coast players. They were playing with other bands and some had bands of their own some how we came together and I formed the Latin Combustion band.

WPR:  I love the comments that precede each cut in your liner notes. We get a little insight into what you were thinking or what the songs mean to you or how they happened. I think that's a special touch you added for us. Why did you decide to do that?  And please keep doing it.

 JC: It was a way if explaining what we were trying to do and it enabled me to be able to give the musicians their due credit. I am very proud of this band