Ray Barretto
Encyclopedia
Ray Barretto was a Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican
jazz
musician.
of Puerto Rican descent. His parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico
in the early 1920s, looking for a better life. He was raised in Spanish Harlem
and at a very young age was influenced by his mother's love of music and by the jazz
music of musicians such as Duke Ellington
and Count Basie
.
In 1946, when Barretto was 17 years old, he joined the Army
. While stationed in Germany
, Barretto met Belgian vibist Fats Sadi, who was working there. However, it was when he heard Dizzy Gillespie
's "Manteca" with Cuban
percussionist, Chano Pozo
, that he realized his true calling in life.
playing. On one occasion Charlie Parker
heard Barretto play and invited him to play in his band. Later, he was asked to play for Jose Curbelo and Tito Puente
, for whom he played for four years. Barretto developed a unique style of playing the conga and soon he was sought by other jazz band leaders. Latin percussionists started to appear in jazz groups with frequency as a consequence of Barretto's musical influence.
and a musical genre called "pachanga" was the Latin music craze of the time.
In 1961, Barretto recorded his first hit, "El Watusi," the first Latin song to enter the Billboard charts (April, 1963.) He was quite successful with the song and the genre, to the point of being typecast (something that he disliked).
After recording a number of albums for the United Artists label, Barretto joined the Fania
record label in 1967, and his first recording for the new label was the 1968 album Acid, an experiment joining rhythm and blues
with Latin music. The album contained the song "A Deeper Shade Of Soul", which was sampled for the 1991 Billboard Hot 100
#21 hit
"Deeper Shade of Soul
" by Dutch band Urban Dance Squad
.
After a number of successful albums, and just as his Afro-Cuban band had attained a remarkable following, most of its members left it to form Tipica 73
, a multinational salsa conglomerate. This left Barretto depressed and disappointed with salsa; he then redirected his efforts to jazz, while remaining as musical director of the Fania All Stars.
Barretto played the conga in recording sessions for the Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees
. In 1975 he was nominated for a Grammy Award
for the song "Barretto". From 1976 to 1978, Barretto recorded three records for Atlantic Records, and was nominated for a Grammy for Barretto Live...Tomorrow. In 1979, he recorded La Cuna for CTI records, and produced a salsa
record for Fania, titled Ricanstruction, which was named 1980 "Best Album" by Latin N.Y. Magazine, with Barretto crowned as Conga Player of the Year.
. Also in 1990's, a Latin Agent approached Barretto with a concept he also pitched to Larry Harlow
that agent was Chino Rodriguez
, the idea was "the Latin Legends of Fania" so Barretto, Harlow, Yomo, Pete "el Conde", Jr. Gonzalez, Ismael Miranda and Adalberto Santiago came together and formed "the Latin Legends of Fania" booked by agent Chino Rodriguez of Latin Music Booking.com. Then in 1999, Barretto was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame
.
Barretto lived in New York and was an active musical producer, as well as the leader of a touring band which has embarked in tours of the United States
, Europe
, Israel
and Latin America
.
; his remains were eventually cremated.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician.
Early years
Barretto (whose surname is really "Barreto"; a mistake at the time Ray's birth certificate was filed gave his last name its formal spelling) was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
of Puerto Rican descent. His parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
in the early 1920s, looking for a better life. He was raised in Spanish Harlem
Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
and at a very young age was influenced by his mother's love of music and by the jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
music of musicians such as Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
.
In 1946, when Barretto was 17 years old, he joined the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. While stationed in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Barretto met Belgian vibist Fats Sadi, who was working there. However, it was when he heard Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
's "Manteca" with Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
percussionist, Chano Pozo
Chano Pozo
Chano Pozo was a percussionist, singer, dancer and composer who played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz...
, that he realized his true calling in life.
Barretto plays for Charlie Parker
In 1949, when Barretto returned home from military service, he started to visit clubs and participated in jam sessions, where he perfected his congaConga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
playing. On one occasion Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
heard Barretto play and invited him to play in his band. Later, he was asked to play for Jose Curbelo and Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
, for whom he played for four years. Barretto developed a unique style of playing the conga and soon he was sought by other jazz band leaders. Latin percussionists started to appear in jazz groups with frequency as a consequence of Barretto's musical influence.
Success with "El Watusi"
In 1960, Barretto was a house musician for the Prestige, Blue Note, and Riverside labels.He also recorded on Columbia Records with Jazz flautist Herbie Mann. New York had become the center of Latin music in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and a musical genre called "pachanga" was the Latin music craze of the time.
In 1961, Barretto recorded his first hit, "El Watusi," the first Latin song to enter the Billboard charts (April, 1963.) He was quite successful with the song and the genre, to the point of being typecast (something that he disliked).
After recording a number of albums for the United Artists label, Barretto joined the Fania
Fania Records
Fania Records was a New York based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and Italian-American lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964. The label took its name from an old Cuban song by the singer Reinaldo Bolaño. Fania is known for its promotion of what has become...
record label in 1967, and his first recording for the new label was the 1968 album Acid, an experiment joining rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
with Latin music. The album contained the song "A Deeper Shade Of Soul", which was sampled for the 1991 Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
#21 hit
Deeper Shade of Soul
"Deeper Shade of Soul" is the debut single by Dutch band Urban Dance Squad. It was taken from their debut album Mental Floss for the Globe and samples the Ray Baretto song with a similar name . Originally released in 1989, the single reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1991 and...
"Deeper Shade of Soul
Deeper Shade of Soul
"Deeper Shade of Soul" is the debut single by Dutch band Urban Dance Squad. It was taken from their debut album Mental Floss for the Globe and samples the Ray Baretto song with a similar name . Originally released in 1989, the single reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1991 and...
" by Dutch band Urban Dance Squad
Urban Dance Squad
Urban Dance Squad was a Dutch rap rock band formed after what was originally intended as a one-time jam-session at a festival in Utrecht on December 20, 1986...
.
After a number of successful albums, and just as his Afro-Cuban band had attained a remarkable following, most of its members left it to form Tipica 73
Tipica 73
Tipica 73 was a popular New York salsa band in the 1970s and early 1980s, formed with a number of musicians from Ray Barretto's band.Tipica 73's music was notable for its experimental style, and was the first US-based salsa orchestra to record in Cuba with the album Tipicá 73 En Cuba Intercambio...
, a multinational salsa conglomerate. This left Barretto depressed and disappointed with salsa; he then redirected his efforts to jazz, while remaining as musical director of the Fania All Stars.
Barretto played the conga in recording sessions for the Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
. In 1975 he was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for the song "Barretto". From 1976 to 1978, Barretto recorded three records for Atlantic Records, and was nominated for a Grammy for Barretto Live...Tomorrow. In 1979, he recorded La Cuna for CTI records, and produced a salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
record for Fania, titled Ricanstruction, which was named 1980 "Best Album" by Latin N.Y. Magazine, with Barretto crowned as Conga Player of the Year.
Later years
In 1990, Barretto finally won a Grammy for the album Ritmo en el Corazon ("Rhythm in the Heart"), which featured the vocals of Celia CruzCelia Cruz
Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums...
. Also in 1990's, a Latin Agent approached Barretto with a concept he also pitched to Larry Harlow
Larry Harlow
Larry Harlow is an American salsa music performer, composer and producer.Larry Harlow was born into a very-musical American family of Jewish descent.-Summary:...
that agent was Chino Rodriguez
Chino Rodriguez
Chino Rodriguez is an internationally acclaimed music producer, band leader, musician, manager, booking agent, record company executive, business consultant, and record label owner, specializing in Latin music, most notably Salsa and Latin jazz...
, the idea was "the Latin Legends of Fania" so Barretto, Harlow, Yomo, Pete "el Conde", Jr. Gonzalez, Ismael Miranda and Adalberto Santiago came together and formed "the Latin Legends of Fania" booked by agent Chino Rodriguez of Latin Music Booking.com. Then in 1999, Barretto was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame
International Latin Music Hall of Fame
The International Latin Music Hall of Fame was established in 1999.In addition to the induction into the Hall of Fame, the award ceremonies include Special Recognition Awards and Beny Moré Memorial Award.-1999:...
.
Barretto lived in New York and was an active musical producer, as well as the leader of a touring band which has embarked in tours of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.
Death
Barreto died on February 17, 2006 at the Hackensack University Hospital of heart failure and multiple health complications. His body was flown to Puerto Rico, where Barretto was given formal honors by the Institute of Puerto Rican CultureInstitute of Puerto Rican Culture
The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture , or ICP, for short, is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preserve, promote, enrich, and diffuse the cultural values of Puerto Rico...
; his remains were eventually cremated.
Discography
Solo albums
- Barretto para bailar (Riverside, 1960)
- Latino! (Riverside, 1962)
- Charanga moderna (Tico, 1962)
- Moderna de Siempre (Tico, 1964)
- On Fire Again (Encendido otra vez) (Tico, 1963)
- The Big Hits Latin Style (Tico, 1963)
- Guajira y guaguancó (Tico, 1964)
- Viva Watusi! (United Artists, 1965)
- Señor 007 (United Artists, 1966)
- El Ray Criollo (United Artists, 1966)
- Latino con Soul (United Artists, 1966)
- Fiesta En El Barrio (United Artists, 1967)
- Acid (Fania, 1968)
- Hard Hands (Fania, 1968)
- Together (Fania, 1969)
- Head Sounds (Fania, 1969)
- Barretto Power (Fania, 1970)
- The Message (Fania, 1971)
- From the Beginning (Fania, 1971)
- Que viva la música (Fania, 1972)
- Indestructible (Fania, 1973)
- The Other Road (Fania, 1973)
- Barretto (Fania, 1975)
- Tomorrow: Barretto Live (Atlantic, 1976)
- Energy to Burn (Fania, 1977)
- Eye of the Beholder (Atlantic, 1977)
- Can You Feel It? (Atlantic, 1978)
- Gracias (Fania, 1978)
- La Cuna (CTI, 1979)
- Rican/Struction (Fania, 1979)
- Giant Force (Fania, 1980)
- Rhythm of Life (Fania, 1982)
- Todo se va poder (Fania, 1984)
- Aquí se puede (Fania, 1987)
- Irresistible (Fania, 1989)
- Handprints (Concord Picante, 1991)
- Soy Dichoso (Fania, 1992)
- Live in New York (Messidor, 1992)
- Salsa Caliente de Nu York (Universe, 2001)
- Fuerza Gigante: Live in Puerto Rico April 27, 2001 (Universe, 2004)
- Standards Rican-ditioned (Zoho Music, 2006)
With New World Spirit
- Ancestral Messages (Concord Picante, 1992)
- Taboo (Concord Picante, 1994)
- My Summertime (Owl, 1995)
- Contact! (Blue Note, 1997)
- Portraits in Jazz and Clave (RCA, 2000)
- Trancedance (Circular Moves, 2001)
- Homage to Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers (Sunnyside, 2003)
- Time Was - Time Is (O+ Music, 2005)