Raymond Barretto Pagán (Nueva York, 29 de abril de 1929 - †Nueva Jersey,
17 de febrero de 2006), conocido como Ray Barretto, fue un
percusionista estadounidense de origen puertorriqueño, y uno de los más
destacados compositores e intérpretes de jazz latino. Sus congas se han
podido escuchar en cientos de discos, tanto de Jazz como de música
latina.
La trayectoria musical de Barretto muestra una gran inquietud y una
amplia gama de influencias musicales, quizá en parte debido a que, al
contrario que la mayor parte de los músicos de jazz latino, su
aproximación a la música afro-caribeña y a la salsa fue a partir del
jazz y no a la inversa. De hecho, en una ocasión afirmó que él aprendió a
tocar al estilo swing antes de llegar a dominar los ritmos latinos.
Barretto empezó a tocar las congas mientras estaba en la marina en
Alemania. Trabajó con músicos de jazz estadounidenses tras regresar a
Nueva York, donde a finales de los 50 sustituyó a Mongo Santamaría en la
banda de Tito Puente durante cuatro años. Barretto hizo su debut
discográfico como líder de una banda en 1961 para Riverside, que fue un
gran éxito no sólo dentro del campo del jazz (llegó a número 17 en las
listas de música pop). Al año siguiente grabó para Tico "El Watusi",
aprovechando la fiebre de este baile existente en el momento, que
resultó un éxito fulgurante y suscitó decenas (sino cientos) de
versiones y, más recientemente, de usos como samples por parte de
raperos, como es el caso de la española Mala Rodríguez en su primer
álbum.
Intentó modernizar el sonido de la charanga, dominante en la música
latina de la época, reforzando la sección de viento y haciendo versiones
de melodías provenientes del rock y del pop, como hicieron muchos otros
artistas latinos.
Lo cierto es que Barretto logró sus mayores éxitos en los 60 como músico
de sesión, acompañando a Gene Ammons, Cannonball Adderley, Kenny
Burrell, Lou Donaldson, Red Garland, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard,
Wes Montgomery, Cal Tjader y muchos otros artistas de jazz y pop.
Tras firmar con el sello Fania en 1967, Barretto comenzó a alcanzar
reconocimiento como uno de los más importantes artistas de jazz latino y
llegó a ser director musical de la Fania All-Stars. De esta época
destaca su álbum Acid (1968). En los 70, siguió grabando álbumes bajo el
sello Fania, cada vez con un éxito mayor. En 1973, varios de los
músicos habituales de su orquesta deciden separase para conformar a
Típica '73, lo cual hace que Ray Barretto decida producir el disco The
Other Road, su primer acercamiento al Jazz. Continúa con la Fania hasta
1975, cuando firma un contrato con la Atlantic Records, donde graba
discos de funk, música disco y rock sin mucho éxito. Sufrió un accidente
que imposibilitó usar una de sus manos durante casi dos años, siguiente
a la recuperación volvió a la Fania y lanzó Rican-Struction en 1979,
como símbolo de la recuperación de ésta.
En 1980, grabó un muy aclamado álbum para CTI, La cuna, con Puente, Joe
Farrell y Charlie Palmieri como intérpretes invitados. En 1991 estrenó
un nuevo sexteto, New World Spirit, con él ha realizado al menos ocho
discos de larga duración (sin contar recopilaciones) para distintos
sellos discográficos. Curiosamente (y en contra del caso de otros
artistas de música moderna), Barretto, ya en su etapa de madurez, llegó
con este grupo a una plenitud creativa, alcanzando cotas nunca antes
alcanzadas por él ni por ningún otro artista de jazz, latino o de
cualquier otro tipo.
Como el mismo Barretto (que hasta poco antes de su muerte siguió
actuando en directo) afirmaba, esta nueva etapa de su carrera no se basa
en la fusión de elementos de música latina y jazz, sino en el empleo de
instrumentos de origen afro-caribeño como la conga o, en raras
ocasiones, temas de origen latino, pero con una concepción del jazz
totalmente tradicional, lo que constituye una óptica probablemente nunca
abordada por ningún otro músico ni grupo, quizá con la excepción del
grupo cubano de jazz Columna B.
Barreto es conocido por los aficionados y coleccionistas de la salsa
como uno de los más destacados ejecutores de la denominada salsa dura y
por exponer uno de los sonidos más duros y clásicos dentro del género.
Además destacó por atraer y presentar excelentes cantantes como Ruben
Blades, Adalberto Santiago, Tito Allen y Tito Gómez.
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Ray Barretto (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American Grammy
Award-winning Latin/Latin jazz musician of Puerto Rican ancestry.
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 City. 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 composer/percussionist Chano Pozo 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
conga playing. On one occasion Charlie Parker heard Barretto play and
invited him to play in his band. Later, he was asked to play for José
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.
Success with "El
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 States and a musical genre called "pachanga" was the Latin
music craze of the time.
In 1961, Barretto recorded his first hit, "El Watusi." 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. During this
period, Adalberto Santiago was the band's lead vocalist. In 1972
Barretto's Que viva la musica was released. "Cocinando," a track from
the album, opened the soundtrack of the Fania All Stars film Our Latin
Thing in which Barretto had a role.
In 1973, Barretto recorded the album Indestructible, in which he played
"La Familia", a song written by José Curbelo in 1953 and recorded by the
sonero Carlos Argentino with the Cuban band Sonora Matancera; Tito
Allen joined as new vocalist. 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 Típica 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. In 1975 he released Barretto, also
referred to as the Guarare album, with new vocalists Ruben Blades and
Tito Gomez.
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.
In 1990, Barretto won his first Grammy for the album Ritmo en el Corazón
("Rhythm in the Heart"), which featured the vocals of Celia Cruz. Also
in the 1990s, a Latin agent, Chino Rodríguez, approached Barretto with a
concept he also pitched to Larry Harlow. The idea was "The Latin
Legends of Fania", and Barretto, Harlow, Yomo Toro, Pete "el Conde"
Rodrguez, Junior González, Ismael Miranda, and Adalberto Santiago came
together and formed "The Latin Legends of Fania", booked by Chino
Rodríguez of Latin Music Booking.com. 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 embarked on tours of the United
States, Europe, Israel and Latin America.
Barretto died of heart failure and complications of multiple health
issues on February 17, 2006 at the Hackensack University Medical Center
in New Jersey. His body was flown to Puerto Rico, where Barretto was
given formal honors by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture; his
remains were eventually cremated.