Tito Puente (1923–2000) was one of the towering figures in the history of Latin music — a timbalero, bandleader, and composer whose five-decade career helped define mambo, Latin jazz, and salsa, and earned him the title "El Rey del Timbal."
Johnny "Dandy" Rodríguez (1945–2024) was one of the most respected and recorded bongoseros in the history of Latin music — the long-time bongo player for Tito Puente, a co-founder of Típica 73, and a first-call studio percussionist across the entire Fania era.
Francisco Aguabella (1925–2010) was one of the most revered Afro-Cuban percussionists ever to bring the sacred and secular drumming traditions of Matanzas to the world stage — a master conguero and batá drummer whose depth of knowledge Dizzy Gillespie once compared to John Coltrane.
