Latin jazz musician Poncho Sanchez is the stuff of legend.

Born in Texas, the caboose in a Mexican-American family of 11 kids, Sanchez is a hard-working soul who shaped his own destiny as the godfather of Latin jazz with dedication, determination and experimentation.

He tried playing guitar but settled on drums in high school. As a young adult, he concentrated on congas to augment his singing.

Today, he is regarded as the King of the Congas.

"I'm really blessed," said the 53-year-old conguero in a phone interview from his Whittier, Calif., home. "I'm lucky to have brothers and sisters who exposed me to radio and TV, where I heard black, gospel and jazz music ... along with the Latin stuff."

Sanchez, who has performed in the Islands before, is returning with his band to play Saturday at Andrews Amphitheatre on the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus.

He enjoys mixing genres.

"As far back as I can remember, it's always been Latin and jazz," he said. "The family moved from Laredo, Texas, to Los Angeles when I was 3 or 4, and we were poor growing up, but not in influences.

"As a kid, I was listening to all kinds of music. Through my older brothers and sisters, I got exposed to mambo and cha-cha, but thank heavens they were hip — they also liked Johnny Otis, too. Rhythm 'n' blues happened to be big in my family. As a kid, I liked 'American Bandstand' like other young people, and I even remember watching Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson."

But he gravitated to acts like James Brown, whose moves he adopted.

Though sold on soul, blues and jazz, he never abandoned his Latin roots.

Good friend Benny Rodriguez introduced him to the guitar — even sold Sanchez one for 50 cents. So he started joining neighborhood bands, often doing blues tunes learned from pop and rock bands of the day and eventually becoming a member — playing congas — in a band called Sabor.

Sanchez got a big break when he met one of his jazz idols, Cal Tjader, who invited the young musician to jam.

It was the beginning of many mutual-admiration relationships Sanchez would form over the years.

Sanchez — real name Ildefonso Sanchez — said he's always been known as Poncho. (He pronounces his name "pohncho," not "pahncho.")

"It was a nickname from my family when I was a little boy," he laughed. "Pancho means Frank, in Mexican. I suppose it was a little hard for me to say, so it was Poncho. Poncho, of course, is what you put on when it rains."

Sanchez's just-out CD, "Do It," typifies his iconic stature in the music business — and continues his union with powerhouse acts (see story at right for his recollections of Ray Charles). For the recording, Sanchez was able to recruit and play with Tower of Power, the blues-rock band, and Hugh Masekela, the superstar from South Africa.

"I asked, they agreed to play," he said. "I was worried about the budget, whether we could afford to get 'em all, but I was lucky.

" 'Do It' originally was going to be called 'Duet,' based on a song written by Francisco Torres, a member of my band, who brought it to rehearsals. It was to feature the sax and the trombone (Torres plays trombone), like in a duet. But eventually, it was called 'Do It' because we'd do it a lot, and they'd always announce it as 'Do it.' "

Despite changing technology, Sanchez remains true to old-school traditions.

"My band is one of the few who record the old-fashioned way," he said. "The whole band is in the studio at the same time; the only thing we overdub is vocals. Otherwise, we're playing live, together."

Sanchez paces his work schedule to allow plenty of quality time with family, picking and choosing when and where he goes.

"What we do these days is go out for long weekends — like Thursdays through Sundays — but we play all over the world," he said. "The only time we stay out longer than a weekend is when we go to Japan and Europe. And Hawai'i, of course."

Mostly, he looks forward to playing the role of grandfather. "I wait for my 2-year-old grandson to come over, to get in the pool," said Sanchez. "I enjoy the company of my two sons. It's quality time, when we do things together."

His music room upstairs at his home is his sanctuary, said Sanchez.

"I collect old records, CDs, videotape. All kinds of music," he said. "I can spend weeks up there, and don't come out of the room. It's my escape."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.