Trombonist
and friend of Cuban music, Barry Rogers died on
April 18, 1991, at the age of 56. A premier session
player, he leaves behind a huge body of works
with artists such as "The Average White Band,"
"Aerosmith," George Benson, the Brecker
Bros., Roy Buchanan, David Byrne, Ron Carter,
Cachaco, Cesta All Stars, and Chic.
I
first met Barry Rogers when he was working with
Eddie
Palmieri's group "La Perfecta."
The story goes that Eddie and Barry met in the
1960's while they were both working the Catskills
resorts north of New York City. The setting was
a Jewish resort that had a taste for Latin music,
specifically for the cha-cha, a style Barry executed
with ease and authenticity. I wasn't aware just
how great Barry's sound was until his son played
a compilation of his solos from Palmieri recordings
at his memorial service.
In
all my years of involvement in Latin music, there
have been few musicians outside the Latin community
who drove my passion to such an extent. Barry
mastered the clave and maintained a high level
of integrity in executing his parts.
When
I was recording Jose
Mangual's "Buyu" album, Barry Rogers
was brought in to overdub trombone on a tune from
Ralph
MacDonald's songbook arranged by Artie Jenkins.
Barry kept stumbling over one section. After a
few tries, Barry, who was normally a one-take
kind of guy, realized that the clave got crossed
during his solo. He politely excused himself from
the session saying that he had put in too many
years working at the Palladium learning the clave
to violate it for the sake of fixing a bad arrangement!
The tune was completed without Barry and ended
up on one of Ralph MacDonald's albums. And this
was another defining moment in my career. When
your opinion is not popular, you have to be prepared
to act on your own judgment of what is right,
in spite of what people say.
At
the memorial service, Michael Brecker made the
observation that Barry was the only Jewish guy
he knew who could fix a car! During his years
with Eddie, Barry had carried a piano wrench to
deal with all the out-of-tune pianos they encountered
in clubs. Everyone I have met thought that Barry
was a significant contributor to Latin music.
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