Rafael Antonio Cortijo Verdejo (December 11, 1928 – October 3, 1982)[2] was a Puerto Rican musician, orchestra leader, composer and percussion instrument craftsman.

Throughout his life, he had a chance to meet and work with some of them, and learned how to make his own congas and pleneras, the handheld drums used in bomba and plena music.

[3] Salsa composer and singer Ismael Rivera met Cortijo when both were youngsters, as they both grew up in the Villa Palmeras neighborhood of Santurce; they became lifelong friends.

Rivera was impressed with Cortijo's conga-playing skills and was asked to join his orchestra, which played at Fiestas patronales all over Puerto Rico.

Getting his formal start in 1942 as a bongo player with Conjunto Monterey, the young Cortijo played with a range of groups in those years and made a radio appearance with Trio Matamoros.

But its breakthrough came in 1954 when he joined pianist Rafael Ithier on the Secco label with his soulmate Ismael Rivera…”[3] By 1954, Cortijo was a member of "El Combo".

From then until 1960, his orchestra played live on Puerto Rican television shows (sometime in the 1960s, they became the house band at La Taberna India).

[12] The sound of the album was completely unique than his past works, since Castillo provided a fusion of Latin folklore and jazz in his arrangements that were not popularized at that time.