About / Biography

Manny Santos is a jazz percussionist/bandleader/vocalist who hails from New Bedford, Massachusetts  and is of Cape Verdean decent. He became interested in jazz percussion at an early age and began performing professionally at the age of 15. His future would become one of polyrhythmic expressionism, inclusive of the jazz and latin experience.

Manny moved to Boston and became a pharmacist, later to receive his MBA degree in Marketing. While in Boston he spent much of his time developing his musical “gift” at the New England Conservatory and Berklee Colleges of Music, attending some classes and performing with many of the instructors and famous recording artists. It is also during this time period when Manny became a proficient conga-drum player after studying and performing with Les Lumley and Brandon Guillermo.

Manny has worked with a host of musicians spanning an over 30-year musical career… He has worked with multiple Grammy Award Nominee and Recipient vocalist KURT ELLING (Democratic National Convention in Boston 2004), ANDRE WARD, DONALD HARRISON, MAURICE STARR, STEVEN TYLER (of AEROSMITH), RICKI FORD, RAN BLAKE, HILLIARD GREENE,  WALTER BEASLEY, and the late JAKI BYARD…to name but a few.

His latest project, "MANGROOVE" was divinely-inspired and developed after moving to Wilmington, NC in 2012. Manny feels Blessed to have acquainted himself with such creative and passionate musicians as JACK KRUPICKA, TEDDY BURGH, NATALIE BOEYINK, FELICIA JACKSON, JERALD SHYNETT, DOUG IRVING, BENNY HILL, and Durham’s BRIAN MILLER (who regularly perform in the “MANGROOVE” collective).

Manny appears on a number of recordings, including with flutist Treg Monty and pianist Yasko Kubota, “No Place To Hide,” (available on CDFreedom.com),... with  The Geoffrey Hicks Quartet, entitled “Cartagena,” (available on Amazon.com),… with Willie Sordillo,  “Echoing” (available on Amazon.com), and with World Music KabuJazz vocalist Candida Rose, “The Sum of Me,” (available on cdbaby.com).