Eugenio Arango | Rumba musician, 76
Eugenio Arango, 76, better known as Totico, a Cuba-born percussionist and singer who was one of the most celebrated figures in the drumming, dancing, and singing culture of New York rumba, died Jan. 21 in the Bronx, where he lived.
Eugenio Arango, 76, better known as Totico, a Cuba-born percussionist and singer who was one of the most celebrated figures in the drumming, dancing, and singing culture of New York rumba, died Jan. 21 in the Bronx, where he lived.
His death, in a hospice, was confirmed by his godson, the percussionist Carlos Sanchez, who did not specify the cause.
Born in Havana, Mr. Arango was a dockworker who played in local rumba circles. He shipped out as a merchant seaman in 1959, landing in Boston and then moving to New York City.
He appeared on jazz drummer Max Roach's 1961 album, Percussion Bitter Sweet, and with the Cuban flutist and violinist Pupi Legarreta's charanga group on the 1963 record Salsa Nova con Pupi Legarreta.
Later in the decade he recorded some of the most famous examples of rumba - the secular, percussion-forward Afro-Cuban music associated with street convocations and dancing - a sound that floats serene vocal melodies over interweaving drums.
- N.Y. Times News Service