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Obituaries

Tata Guines | 'King of the Congas,' 77

    Inquirer
    Published 

Tata Guines, 77, the conga drummer whose six-decade career helped popularize Afro-Cuban rhythms worldwide, has died.

Known as the "King of the Congas" and "Golden Hands," Mr. Guines died Monday in Guines, Cuba, after being hospitalized for hypertension and kidney problems. The Cuban Institute of Music reported his death.

Born Federico Aristides Soto on June 30, 1930, Mr. Guines was best known for playing the conga, a tall, barrel-like drum central to rumba and Afro-Cuban music and culture. He took the stage in Havana in the early 1940s with the Partagas Sextet and moved to the United States in 1957, where he performed with Josephine Baker, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.

Though he enjoyed success in the United States, he was upset by the racial segregation he experienced and returned to Cuba after Fidel Castro's rebels toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Mr. Guines won a Latin Grammy in 2004 for

Lagrimas Negras,

or

Black Tears,

a collaboration with legendary exiled Cuban jazz pianist Bebo Valdes and Spanish singer Diego La Cigala.

- AP

    Inquirer