Ray Mantilla, a percussionist and bandleader whose career spanned six decades and an array of styles in jazz, Latin music and beyond, died on March 21 in Manhattan. He was 85.

His brother Kermit said the cause was complications of lymphoma.

Mr. Mantilla never quite became a star in his own right. But he was one of the most respected percussionists in American music, adept at a range of instruments — particularly the congas and timbales — and able to make himself at home in almost any ensemble.

He tended to use a full suite of congas, sometimes four at once, each differently tuned, together forming a drum kit of its own.

He was 44 and almost a quarter-century into his professional career when he released his first album as a leader, “Mantilla,” in 1978. By that point, he had reached at least the third phase of a protean musical existence.