And now Barretto
Internationally renowned artist Ray Barretto Passes This MorningNew York, NY – February 17, 2006 – Family spokesperson George Rivera announced this morning that Ray Barretto died at the Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J. at 5 a.m. Annette Rivera (Brandy) who had been a constant by his side since he was taken to the hospital late last month was taken home to rest. We will get more information from the family later.
For nearly 40 years, conguero and bandleader Ray Barretto has been one of the leading forces in Latin jazz. His hard, compelling playing style has graced the recordings of saxophonists Gene Ammons, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, and guitarists Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell.
Born April 29, 1929, in Brooklyn, Barretto is one of the most prolific and influential Latin percussionists in the history of modern jazz. With a musical heritage as deeply rooted in the bebop jam sessions held in Harlem during the late-’40s as in his Puerto Rican ancestry, Barretto has spent over four decades refining the integration of Afro-Caribbean rhythms with the improvisational elements of jazz. Coincidentally, it was the tune “Manteca” recorded by Gillespie with Chano Pozo on percussion that drove Barretto to music. And it was a version of that same tune that became Barretto’s first recording with Red Garland.Few artists have been as successful over the years at fusing these two genres as Barretto, an undisputed master of this style. A pioneer of the salsa movement, Barretto achieved international superstardom and released nearly two dozen albums with the Fania label from the late-’60s until salsa’s popularity peaked in the mid-1980’s.
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“Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021)” Contra Mundum Press
“Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello” Contra Mundum Press
“Conversations in the Pyrenees”
“A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly.” Edited by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh
“An American Suite” (Poems) —Inpatient Press
“Arabia (not so) Deserta” : Essays on Maghrebi & Mashreqi Writing & Culture
“Barzakh” (Poems 2000-2012)
“Fox-trails, -tales & -trots”
“The Agony of I.B.” — A play. Editions PHI & TNL 2016
“The Book of U / Le livre des cormorans”
“Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry of Paul Celan”
“Paul Celan, Microliths They Are, Little Stones”
“Paul Celan: Breathturn into Timestead-The Collected Later Poetry.” Translated & with commentary by Pierre Joris. Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Whoa, one quieted heart after the other, it’s a sad couple of days on your blog.
And I’ve said what I did above because I feel this may not be the appropriate place to say how much I’ve been enjoying reading your blog. There are so many of them, it’s difficult to keep up, and unlike MANY OTHER FOLKS I am NOT one to EVER feel that there’s “too many.” Too many in that sense that — well, if I get into this I’m going to have to do an entire cross section of the people who say so, and of the why of the people who say so. Who cares, it’s like soap and clocks that at first seem suspicious, but then, it’s okay, and everyone wants to use them. Smell good and be on time? Oh, not everyday, please.
It’s 6:30 in the morning, shit. But I’m up early here in Philadelphia because YOU are here, and I’m quite excited. Looking forward to hearing you today at the Writers House at Penn, and again at Frank Sherlock’s NIGHT FLAG series. By midnight I’ll have a Red Bull, or something, and hope we all continue smoking cigarettes and drinking beer for many more hours.
Your post toward the very beginning (5/27/05) on the anthology POEMS FOR THE MILLENNIUM rattled me, in a good way, meaning in a good way I need to adjust my thinking on it. There were some names, in particular ONE, that being Spicer, that I was curious about not seeing in the pages. But the following (and what follows of the following) makes me unknot and scratch my chin a darn good bit:
“Seems to me Silliman is missing the forest for his American tree: the book is a world-wide anthology, not a polemic concerning US movements, & in that global context the presence of a number of Fluxus poets or Fluxus-inspired ones is a far more accurate representation of what was happening in the second part of the 20C.”
Anyway, nomad, till later,
CAConrad
CA,
loved the timewarp that made me read your comment after I returned from Philly — where I did enjoy myself tremendously: lovely, appreciative audiences at both the talk & the reading.
Meanwhile we have talked through the Spicer matter viva voce, so no use going back there.
But the talk of all the other broached & to be broached matters should go on, now & forever!
It was excellent meeting you & hanging for awhile,