Tue., July 30, 2013 1:00pm (EDT)
It is not easy to play both jazz drum set and Afro-Caribbean percussion. Lots of drummers do it, but few have mastered it in a way that makes their sound in either style unmistakable from the first beat.
The music community lost one of those true innovators Wednesday with the death of percussionist Steve Berrios in New York at age 68. Berrios could move seamlessly from jazz to Afro-Cuban rhythms in a way that perfectly reflected his bicultural roots.
Berrios was a true Nuevoriqueo, born in New York in 1945 to parents who had recently arrived from Puerto Rico. His father was a percussionist who played with many of the top dance orchestras in New York during the height of the 1950s mambo craze. Berrios followed in his dad's footsteps and eventually landed an important gig with Mongo Santamara, perhaps the greatest exponent of Afro-Cuban music in this country. He had a long list of album credits and even a Grammy nomination for one of his two solo albums.
But his most significant contribution was to the group he formed in 1982 with brothers Andy and Jerry Gonzlez: the Fort Apache Band. Just three weeks ago the band played a rare hometown gig, six triumphant nights at the Blue Note.
From his home in Barcelona, Jerry Gonzlez sent this note about his musical compadre of many years.
I'm in great pain over the loss of my brother Steve Berrios.
I met Steve in the '60s when I was still at 'Music & Art' High School. At that time, he was playing with Mongo Santamara's band and I remember doing a few gigs opposite to them at the Village Gate and Bottom Line. We would bump into each other in rumbas in the parks, concerts and "toques de santo" [Santera drum circles], and we kept gravitating towards each other till the point that we started the Nuyorican Village, which was a cultural center for all Latino artists in New York City. We started workshops there and I started a band called Hand Drum Control (who would eventually turn into Jerry Gonzlez & The Fort Apache Band) with Steve Berrios on drums.
Read more: http://www.gpb.org/news/2013/07/30/a-walking-encyclopedia-of-rhythms-remembering-steve-berrios#
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