Ben Conga started out as a jazz and salsa musician in the late 70’s working with many jazz and Latin bands in the LA music circuit, particularly on the east side of town. He has worked with artists such as Poncho Sanchez, Luis Conte, Jimmy Sabater, Papo Conga (r.i.p.) and Julio Matta and many others. Having grown up in an urban environment, Ben was exposed to many influences, particularly the Soul/Jazz movement of the mid sixties, progressive jazz, and Latin jazz, all made popular on a local radio station KBCA.

Because Ben lived in a predominantly Black and Latino area of southeast LA, he heard these styles of music being played on the boom boxes and radios that his African-American classmates blasted on the way to school. He was immediately drawn to Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Eddie Harris, Cal Tjader, Wille Bobo, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock. While his peers were all caught up in the acid rock and pop of the time, KBCA’s line up of jazz artists, made an impact on Ben. The Friday night Latin Jazz show, hosted by a DJ, Richard Leos, was one of his favorites. It was here he discovered “salsa” music and soon became immersed.

Ben studied Latin percussion soon after entering college and developed a definite swing and style coming to the attention of Hal Rees, principal percussionist at Fox Studios, and on the faculty of the Pomona College Music Dept. Mr. Rees took Ben on as a student and he began to study mallets and just about everything else. His advice was to never put any musical style down, but to learn it and embrace everything. Ben literally ate it up, practicing 6 hours a day. He was playing jazz gigs within a year.

In the early 80’s a new direction placed Ben in a position where he immersed himself into the MIDI revolution of electronic music. He took up piano with Joanne Grauer at Dick Grove Music Academy and was playing in a Top 40 band within 6 months. Ben soon got bored of the cover band scene and began to write and arrange songs for other artists.

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