Early years Barretto was born on April 29, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents moved to New York from
Puerto Rico in the early 1920s, looking for a better life. His father left their family when Barretto was four, and his mother Delores moved the family to first Spanish Harlem (El Barrio) on NYC's East Side then at the age of 7 to the
Bronx. From a young age he was influenced by his mother's love of music and by the
jazz of
Duke Ellington and
Count Basie. In 1946, when Barretto was 17 years old, he joined the
Army. While stationed in
Germany, he met Belgian vibraphonist
Fats Sadi. However, it was when he heard
Dizzy Gillespie's "
Manteca" with
Gil Fuller and
Chano Pozo that he realized his calling. On one occasion
Charlie Parker heard Barretto play and invited him to play in his band. Later, he was asked to play for
José Curbelo and
Tito Puente, for whom he played for four years. It was in 1958, while playing for
Puente, that Barretto received his first recording credit. New York had become the center of Latin music in the
United States and a musical genre called
pachanga was the Latin music craze of the early 1960s. In 1962, Barretto formed his first group, Charanga La Moderna, and recorded his first hit, "El Watusi" for
Tico Records. In 1975, he was nominated for a
Grammy Award for the album
Barretto. From 1976 to 1978, Barretto recorded three albums for Atlantic Records, and was nominated for a Grammy for
Tomorrow: Barretto Live. In 1979, he recorded
La Cuna for CTI Records and produced a
salsa record for Fania, titled
Rican/Struction, which was named 1980 "Best Album" by Latin N.Y. Magazine, with Barretto crowned as 'Conga Player of the Year'. In 1999, Barretto was inducted into the
International Latin Music Hall of Fame. Barretto lived in Northern New Jersey and was an active musical producer, as well as the leader of a touring band which embarked on tours of the
United States,
Africa,
Europe,
Israel and
Latin America.
Death A resident of
Norwood, New Jersey, Barretto died of
heart failure and complications of multiple health issues on February 17, 2006, at
Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. His body was flown to Puerto Rico, where Barretto was given formal honors by the
Institute of Puerto Rican Culture; his remains were cremated. ==Discography==