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Two photos with the late great Ray Barretto. In one Ray is with the ubiquitous LP fiberglass congas and LP bongos; the other is kind of rare Ray is rocking a set of Gon Bops, pretty cool is you ask me. Enjoy!

I remember when he played those Gon Bop' , they had bass drum foot pedal's and he would include them in his solo's. I haven't seen any U -Tube footage of him playing them. Too bad.

I am pretty sure that photo with the Gon Bops was taken during a concert in NYC and If I am not mistaken that presentation was at New York's Beacon Theater on May 28, 1976. This concert was supposed to be his Salsa farewell concert because he had just signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records; also a live recording came out of that concert called "Barretto Live... Tomorrow", this was a two-LP set. If anything from that abum you got listen to "Ban Ban Quere" with Ruben Blades on main vocals and "Que Viva La Musica" with timbal solos from Tito Puente and Orestes Vilato. A very young Jimmy Delgado was RB's timbal player on that night. Three years later Ray returned to the Salsa world with his now legendary recording "Ricanstruction". If you notice on the picture the two Gop Bops to his right are not really full fledged conga drum they looks more like big ass tamboras" from Santo Domingo seating in a stand, the drums have two heads. I guess at that point Ray had say good-bye to LP drums.

Yo Rit, Who played Timbales e bongo on cocinando? The Bongocero ( Who I loved when that record broke) to this day i think that was one of the baddest bongo solos on record. Theres a u tube clip of that live and I know that brother is the original player, cause he nails that solo chop for chop. And I'm certain that is the original timbalero too!

On Cocinando it was Orestes Vilato on timbales..and on bongos it's LiL Ray Romero...the Live version...

In this version I think it's Jimmy Delagado, don't know the bongocero's name but I think he was a regular in ray's band. Monstros!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVcqNocOTGE

pcastag wrote:In this version I think it's Jimmy Delagado, don't know the bongocero's name but I think he was a regular in ray's band. Monstros!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVcqNocOTGE

That's Carlitos Soto on bongó.

Saludos,

JG

11am wrote:Yo Rit, Who played Timbales e bongo on cocinando? The Bongocero ( Who I loved when that record broke) to this day i think that was one of the baddest bongo solos on record. Theres a u tube clip of that live and I know that brother is the original player, cause he nails that solo chop for chop. And I'm certain that is the original timbalero too!

On the studio recorded version on Fania records (1972)"Que Viva La Musica" the bongo player is
Johnny "Dandy" Rodriguez and the timbalero Orestes Vilato. Cocinando it just an amazing percussion
dialogue amongst Ray, Dandy and Orestes.

I saw Ray's band at Madison Square Garden in 72 when they played Cocinando and it was Orestes, Lil Ray Romero, for the show..Yes Dandy did the recording...

sounds like however you dice it up its alwyas slammin! Cocinando!

JohnnyConga wrote:I saw Ray's band at Madison Square Garden in 72 when they played Cocinando and it was Orestes, Lil Ray Romero, for the show..Yes Dandy did the recording...

That's a tremendous combination, Lil Ray Romero was a hell of a player too as I know you know JC.

On the original recording Dandy (Johnny Rodriguez) was the bongocero. Incredible bongo' solos. Dandy is my favorite bongocero and a good friend.. On the album "The Message" (Fania) there is a tune, " Te Traigo Mi Son", that is in my opinion the "national anthem" on bongo solos. I listened to that tune about 500 times, in my opinion the tightest and tastiest bongo solo, once again by Dandy.

No Doubt Omelenko..Dandy is in the TOP 5 bongoseros of all time..though my personal favorite is still Tony Fuentes who was also in Baretto's band ..and Yes LiL Ray did it all and was a consummate professional.. I never heard him get angry or raise his voice to anyone, a soft spoken man...The photo is Tony Fuentes today, who now lives in Orlando..Eddie Gua is the bass player, who also lives in Orlando.

Omelenko1 wrote:On the original recording Dandy (Johnny Rodriguez) was the bongocero. Incredible bongo' solos. Dandy is my favorite bongocero and a good friend.. On the album "The Message" (Fania) there is a tune, " Te Traigo Mi Son", that is in my opinion the "national anthem" on bongo solos. I listened to that tune about 500 times, in my opinion the tightest and tastiest bongo solo, once again by Dandy.

That's a great song! I would get loose with " Son Con Cuero" from Hard Hands, and work out till Abijan ( wrong spelling and what album?) and then burn a hole in Mongos Afro Roots double album, (The Bible)
I loved all that old Fania ,Symphony Sid," We'll start out with the big cough" You guys bring it back! Love it. Harlows " Descarga" was another one. Sorry, back to Ray, lol

Abidjan is on "Hard Hands" Fania Records 1968.