Ray Barretto, a Grammy-winning Latin jazz percussionist known for integrating the conga drum into jazz, died on Friday, officials said. He was 76.
Barretto had undergone heart bypass surgery in January and suffered from pneumonia, said George Rivera, a friend and family spokesperson. He died at Hackensack University medical centre with his wife and two sons by his bedside.
”He was suffering too much, so the Lord took him,” Fidel Estrada, a family friend, said in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila said news of Barretto’s death was met with great sadness.
”He left us a great musical legacy of humility, love and fullness that should be emulated to serve as an inspiration for the benefit of future generations,” the governor said in a written statement. ”We give thanks to God for the opportunity to have celebrated his music, and the happiness that characterised all of his life.”
Barretto won a Grammy for best tropical Latin performance in 1989 for the song Ritmo en el Corazon with Celia Cruz.
The following year, Barretto was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame, and last month, he was honoured as one of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters of 2006, the nation’s highest jazz honour.
Barretto’s Time Was — Time Is, which looks back at jazz’s Afro-Caribbean roots, was released last September and nominated for a Grammy this year as best Latin jazz album.
Born on April 29 1929 in Brooklyn, Barretto grew up in New York City listening to the music of Puerto Rico and the jazz of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman. He credited the tune Manteca, recorded by bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo, with influencing him to pursue a career in music.
In the late 1950s, he played in Tito Puente’s band, and his popularity grew in the New York jazz scene. Over the years, he recorded with such musicians as Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader and Dizzy Gillespie.
Barretto was also a pioneer in salsa music, recording nearly two dozen albums for the Fania label from the late 1960s through the 1980s. His 1979 album Ricanstruction is considered one of the classic salsa recordings. — Sapa-AP