Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez ("Mongo" is Cuban slang for Ramón) is best known for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he became an integral figure in the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with R&B and soul, paving the way for the boogaloo era of the late 1960s. His 1963 hit rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. This release presents Mongo's complete LP Mongo Introduces La Lupe, on which he is joined on some tracks by singer Guadalupe Victoria Yoli Raymond, known as "La Lupe. "