Raphael Cruz —born in Villa Vásquez, Monte Cristi, on 27 May 1947, died in September 2020— was a Dominican percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the Latin jazz scenes of New York, Puerto Rico and New Orleans, sharing stages and studios with musicians like Ray Barretto, Herbie Mann and The Crusaders.

From Villa Vásquez to Santo Domingo

The son of Spanish parents who had migrated from Cuba, he moved to Santo Domingo as a young child, where he joined the marching band at the Escuela Chile on snare drum, bass drum and xylophone, and later continued his percussion studies — including marimba, snare drum and timpani — at the Colegio Don Bosco.

«Los X 6» and a mentor named Carmelo García

Drawn into the 1960s rock explosion, he formed the group «Los X 6», which became the house band of the Dominican television show «Teenager’s Matinee». It was there that he met the drummer and timbalero Carmelo García, who had played in the bands of Rafael Solano and mentored Cruz in Caribbean folkloric rhythms and the emerging Latin jazz coming out of New York.

Puerto Rico and «Raíces»

He spent the following decade in Puerto Rico, first touring Mexico City with the rock trio «Kaleidoscope» — recording an album for the Orfeon label later reissued in Germany — and then, in 1976, forming his first band, «Raíces». The group was signed to Nemperor Records, an Atlantic subsidiary run by the Beatles’ former lawyer Nat Weiss, and recorded in Miami before relocating to New York, where it opened for Miles Davis at the 1977 Dr. Pepper Jazz Festival in Central Park.

New York and New Orleans

Cruz became an in-demand studio percussionist, recording for major labels and touring with Herbie Mann, Dr. John, Carly Simon, Bette Midler and The Crusaders. A move to New Orleans in the mid-1980s brought him into the circle of Dr. John and pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr.; the pianist in his own Latin jazz group there was a young Harry Connick Jr.

Legacy

Back in New York, Cruz released his debut album as a leader, «A Mano», in 1999, followed by «Bebop Timba», nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album, and later «Time Travel» (2010). Known to friends simply as «Rafi», he continued performing and recording from his home in North Bergen, New Jersey, until his death in September 2020.