Ray Barretto

American Latin jazz musician

• Born: April 29, 1929
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
• Died: February 17, 2006
• Place of death: Hackensack, New Jersey

Known as the godfather of Latin jazz, drummer and bandleader Barretto is music’s most important and influential Latin jazz percussionist. He integrated the African conga drum into American jazz music and, because of his prowess as conga player or conguero, he came to be known as the “King of the Hard Hands” (rey de las manos duras).

Early Life

Raymond Barretto Pagán (bah-REHT-oh) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to parents who had immigrated from Puerto Rico. Raised by his mother in the South Bronx, Barretto stayed at home listening to the radio while his mother worked or attended school; as a result, he was highly influenced by the music of the popular big bands of the day, such as those led by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey.

At age seventeen, Barretto joined the Army to escape the restrictions of school and the racial tensions of his neighborhood. While stationed in Germany, his life changed when he heard a recording of “Manteca” by bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. It was conguero Chano Pozo’s drum work on that record that inspired Barretto to enter the music world as a conga player. Discharged from the Army in 1949, Barretto returned to New York and joined jam sessions in Harlem with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker. Through the 1950’s and into the 1960’s, he began his lifelong practice of moving in both jazz and Latin music circles. In 1978, Barretto married Annette “Brandy” Rivera, with whom he had a son; an earlier marriage had produced three other children.

Life’s Work

Barretto began his musical career as a jazz musician in the style of swing and bebop, but soon also made his mark in the world of Latin music. His greatest commercial hit came early in his career with 1963’s “El Watusi.” One of the first Latin songs to be successful in the United States, “El Watusi” combined charanga music’s flutes and violins with the new, catchy fusion of African American soul music and Latin rhythms known as boogaloo and featured an ebullient “Spanglish” rap. An early crossover hit, “El Watusi” demonstrated Barretto’s musical range, which enabled him to join Afro-Carribbean and Cuban rhythms with various forms of American music, including blues, rock, disco, and jazz.

A major phase in Barretto’s career began in 1967 when he joined Fania Records, the legendary New York record company known for its blend of traditional Latin dance music and American jazz called salsa. In 1968, he became a member of the Fania All-Stars, an orchestra composed of the leading Latin jazz artists of the day. Barretto was a part of this group for the rest of his life and was crucial to the formulation of the group’s musical identity as well as the unique identity of the Fania label itself. The move to Fania Records also allowed Barretto to develop his jazz-oriented percussive style and to continue his interest in fusing Latin sounds with American musical currents. His musical compositions became more sophisticated, including experimentation with electronic music and novel instrumental combinations. These musical explorations led to his 1968 album Acid, one of his most influential works. An inventive hybrid of soul, Latin, and jazz music that Baretto himself saw as a major reinvention of his musical identity, Acid is widely regarded as a landmark in Latin jazz. From 1968 to 1975, Barretto made eight more bold and diverse albums for Fania, establishing the label as the center of Latin jazz in America and worldwide.

Barretto recorded with many different musicians but is especially associated with major jazz figures such as Sonny Stitt, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Art Blakey, Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley, and Dizzy Gillespie. He became the jazz world’s most recorded conga player but, considering himself at heart a jazz musician, he turned away from salsa music to form the jazz sextet New World Spirit in 1992. This later period produced such admired albums as 1993’s Ancestral Messages and 1994’s Taboo, which fused Latin soul, salsa, and Afro-Cuban sounds with hard bop and bebop. Barretto died in 2006 in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Significance

Barretto’s intense, innovative drumming style pioneered the role of the conga in jazz, establishing its validity as a jazz instrument. His sustained significance in the world of mainstream jazz was such that he won the DownBeat magazine’s critics poll for percussion as late in his career as 2003 and 2005. Barretto’s significance in the world of Latin music led to his induction into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

One of the industry’s most influential Latin musicians, Barretto was vital to all of the developments in Latin music in the last half of the twentieth century. He also was a major force in the cross-cultural blending of Latin music with such American idioms as bebop, rock, soul, and rhythm and blues. Barretto was awarded many honors, including a Grammy for an album with vocals by Cuban salsa legend Celia Cruz, and a Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006.

Bibliography

Alava, Silvio H. Spanish Harlem’s Musical Legacy: 1930-1980. New York: Arcadia, 2007. Includes consideration of Barretto’s contribution to Spanish Harlem’s influential music scene from the 1930’s to the 1980’s.

Flores, Juan. From Bomba to Hip-Hop. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Barretto is examined in the context of the development of Puerto Rican culture in the United States over the second half of the twentieth century.

Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music, from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. Barretto is placed in the context of the history of Latin music.

Rondón, César Miguel. The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean to New York City: Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. This thorough examination of salsa music from the 1950’s to the 1970’s includes detailed coverage of Barretto and a discography.

Waxer, Lise. Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular Music. New York: Routledge, 2002. Includes Barretto in a comprehensive examination of salsa music, including its global impact.