Jazz Articles about Ray Barretto

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Remembering Ray Barretto

by AAJ Staff
April 10, 2006

By David Amram When Ray and I first met and played together in the Fall of 1955 at the Monday night sessions at the 125 club in Harlem, Ray was the only conga player and I was the only French horn player who always showed up. We used to always laugh because we were surrounded by a small army of great musicians who played what were then considered traditional jazz instruments. ...

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Ray Barretto: Time Was - Time Is

by Russ Musto
January 29, 2006

Ray Barretto continues to refine his brand of swinging, Latin-inflected jazz with each succeeding release. On Time Was - Time Is, the venerable conguero leads a polished instrumental ensemble featuring Joe Magnarelli on trumpet and Myron Walden on alto with Robert Rodriguez at the piano and Sean Conly and Vince Cherico on bass and drums. The set kicks off with a couple of Afro-Cuban classics. Bobby Sanabria joins the group on percussion to emphasize the folkloric rhythms ...

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Ray Barretto: Time Was - Time Is

by Jim Santella
October 18, 2005

The Ray Barretto Sextet delivers. It turns a program of traditional songs and original pieces into a performance of modern jazz designed to inspire. The conguero, who knows about finding rich talent, has put together a stellar ensemble that performs with cohesion, precision, and passion.

It's been nearly fifty years since Barretto replaced Mongo Santamaria in Tito Puente's ensemble. During his varied career he's experienced jazz from every angle: from traditional Latin to funk, bebop, and straight-ahead. With ...

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Ray Barretto: Acid

by John Ballon
October 31, 2003

By the time 1968 rolled around, Ray Barretto was a celebrated studio session player whose hard-driving conga rhythms could be heard all over the records of Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley, and countless others. Once he dropped Acid onto the music world, Barretto firmly established a reputation for himself as an innovator in his own right.

Like the drug itself, Acid had a mind-expanding influence on everyone, allowing for a far more adventurous and eclectic edge to slip into ...

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Ray Barretto: Homage to Art: Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

by Javier AQ Ortiz
April 17, 2003

Quick and to the Point: Old sages die like they play: hard... very hard.... Art Blakey bolstered his musical cause by endlessly refreshing his Jazz Messengers with youthful, eager, and determined virtuosi carefully embedded amongst old hands. Ray Barretto, whose early professional path shared saunters with Blakey, implements a similar strategy to ever-growing and maturing effect, even as Wayne Shorter's compositions dominate this kind memorial from one percussive master to another. Arguably, this might be Barretto's ...

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Ray Barretto and New World Spirit: Trancedance

by Jim Josselyn
January 1, 2002

Ray Barretto and New World Spirit are one of the finest ensembles in Latin jazz and on the elegantly swinging “Trancedance" they prove why throughout. The date opens with a simply wonderful arrangement of a simply wonderful Monty Alexander tune, “Renewal". Pianist John Di Martino's solo is a delight, as is the playing of special guest James Moody, here and on the other four numbers he contributes to. Trumpeter John Baily and the tireless percussion section shine on the Randy ...

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Gene Ammons: Boss Tenor

by Douglas Payne
November 1, 1999

This relaxed, swinging quintet session from 1960 isn't the landmark that many of the other releases in this series are. But it is among the finest, most rewarding music tenor great Gene Ammons (1925-74) ever made. Boss Tenor -- easily confused with Boss Tenors , the 1961 Verve record Ammons cut with Sonny Stitt -- is probably included here due to Ammons's enduring and unprecedented affiliation with Prestige. Ammons recorded over 50 albums for the label from 1950, around the ...