by Scott YanowCandido was the Latin percussionist of the 1950s, the first person that jazz people would call when they wanted a conga or bongo player. Early on, he had recorded in his native Cuba with Machito, and he worked regularly with the house band at the Tropicana Club in Havana for six years. Dizzy Gillespie heard him and encouraged him to move to New York in 1952. Soon, Candido was performing and recording with Gillespie. During 1953-1954, he was in the Billy Taylor quartet, and in 1954 he performed and recorded with Stan Kenton. Candido went on to record with the whos who of jazz, including Erroll Garner, Gene Ammons, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, Elvin Jones, and Lionel Hampton, among many others.