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December 25, 1939. He studied piano and guitar as a boy but turned to percussion, learning from the rhythms he learned on New York's streets and the one-on-one lessons with the percussionist Mongo Santamaria. At 16 years old, he was enrolled as a conga player for the Eartha Kitt Dance Foundation, when he landed his first professional gig playing with Dizzy Gillespie at the Newport Jazz Festival.

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