Ray Barreto

While Ray Barreto’s congas have honored more recording sessions than any other conguero of his time, he has also led some progressive Latino jazz bands for decades. His records often have a tenser side to them, more riskily eclectic than the more conventional salsa groups and he has not been afraid of using new electronic instruments or structural combinations, led by an infinitely more flexible percussion.

This, without a doubt, reflects Barreto’s wide range of interests, as well as the fact that he discovered Latin music through jazz and not vice versa, which is the normal way for musicians of Latin origin. In fact, he mentioned that he learned to play swing before grasping the Latin rhythms. Of Puerto Rican background, Barreto adopted the congas when he was in Germany doing his compulsory military service.

He began working with American jazz players after his return to New York, eventually replacing Mongo Santamaría in the band led by Tito Puente for four years. Barreto débuted as band director for Riverside in 1962 and attained the 17th position on the pop charts the following year with "El Watusi" (related to a dance that was all the rage at that time). He tried to modernize the sounds of the charanga, adding brass instruments and playing new versions of various popular rock and pop tunes, as quite a few Latin musicians did back then.

However, Barreto made his mark in the sixties as a great accompanist, playing in albums with Gene Ammons, Cannonball Adderly, Kenny Burell, Lou Donaldson, Red Garland, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Wes Montgomery, Cal Tjader and various other jazz and pop records. When changing over to the Fania label in 1967, Barreto began to be acknowledged as one of the Latin jazz musicians that was at the top, eventually becoming musical director of Fania All Stars. In the seventies, he began incorporating influences of rock and funk into his music – with limited success – while recording for Atlantic and in 1981 he released a highly regarded album for CTI, "La Cuna", with Puente, Joe Farell and Charlie Palmieri as guest musicians.

He was director of the television program Bravísimo and took part in the recording of Sun City in many languages, along with other stars in protest against apartheid. In 1992, he formed a new Latin jazz sexteto, New World Spirit, which made some of the albums of unpredictable interest to Concord Picante.