José Alexis «Alex» Díaz is a Dominican conguero from Baní, known in his career’s later years as «the Master of Merengue Jazz», one of the New York Latin jazz scene’s most in-demand percussionists.

From Baní to Los Juveniles del Sabor

At sixteen he was already playing with Los Juveniles del Sabor, a band whose lineup at the time featured the future stars Rubby Pérez and Aramis Camilo.

New York

He moved to New York in 1980 and joined pianist Hilton Ruiz’s band, quickly establishing himself as one of the city’s top conga players. The invitations that followed included stints with Tito Puente, Chucho Valdés, Mario Bauzá’s Afro-Cuban Band, Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra, Xavier Cugat, Celia Cruz, Alfredo «Chocolate» Armenteros and fellow Dominican Mario Rivera.

«Number Seven»

In 2013 he released «Number Seven» on his own label, Bani Music, named for his hometown; the album’s «Son Pa Bani» paid it direct tribute. Reviewing it for Latin Jazz Network, critic Raul Da Gama called Díaz «a wonderful rhythmist», «stylish to the point of being hip», praising an approach he described as painterly, drawing on rustic, earthen tones across the record’s Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban repertoire.

Legacy

From a teenage sideman in a Dominican dance band to a first-call conguero across four decades of New York Latin jazz, Alex Díaz carried the rhythms of his hometown into rooms that included some of the genre’s most demanding bandleaders.