Ray Barretto & New World Spirit - Full Concert [HD] | Live at North Sea Jazz Festival 1994

Ray Barretto (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American jazz and salsa musician. Barretto was born to Puerto Rican parents. He grew up in the ghettos of East Harlem and the Bronx where he became acquainted with both the music of Puerto Rico and the music of bands Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. At the age of 17, he escaped the ghettos by doing military service. After returning from military service in 1949, influenced by conga player Chano Pozo on the album "Manteca", he learned to play the conga and quickly moved into the highest circles of Latin music. Until shortly before his death, he remained an active conga player. Barretto died in the hospital as a result of complications after heart surgery. Although Barretto is best known as the leader of a few bands, his career as a conga player begins on jazz recordings. Barretto starts in Eddie Bonnemere's Latin Jazz Combo. He then played for four years with the Cuban band leader and pianist Jose Curbelo. In 1957 he replaced Mongo Santamaria in Tito Puente's band. He makes his first record, Dance Mania, with him. After four years with Puente, Barretto is one of the most sought-after percussionists. He does jam sessions with celebrities such as Max Roach, Charlie Parker, and Art Blakey and records with Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Red Garland, Gene Ammons, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Julian Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others. In 1961, Barretto became bandleader when Riverside Records asked him to form a charanga for a recording. This collaboration resulted in films such as Pachanga With Barretto, Latin jam Latino and Charanga Moderna (1962). The song "El Watusi" from the latter album reached the American Top-20 and became a gold record. The next eight albums (1963-1966) were not a commercial success. In 1967 Barretto signs a contract with Fania Records, exchanges the violins for brass and becomes popular with Acid. Between 1968 and 1975 he recorded nine successful albums, including the well-known Que Viva La Musica, Carnaval (both 1972), Indestructible (1973) with songs by Cuban composers, and the bestseller Barretto (1975) with the hit "Guarare". The latter album earns him a Grammy Award nomination in 1976. In 1975 and 1976 he was named best conga player of the year. At the end of 1975, Barretto stops working in nightclubs. He continues with his band under the name "Guarare" with which he makes three albums Guarare (1977), Guarare (1979) and Onda Tipica (1981). In addition, he continues to organize a fusion band, but commercially it becomes a flop. Nevertheless, in 1977 he becomes 'Best Conga Player Of The Year' again. In 1979 he returned to Fania Records and resumed working with Adalberto Santiago (who left in 1972 with four members of the Ray Barretto Orchestra and started his own band.

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