Yomo Toro (July 26, 1933 - June 30, 2012) was a guitarist and one of Puerto Rico's most famous cuatro players. Known internationally as "The King of the Cuatro," Toro recorded over 150 albums throughout a 60-year career and worked extensively with Cuban legends Arsenio Rodríguez and Alfonso "El Panameño" Joseph; salsa artists Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe and Ruben Blades; and artists from other music genres including Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Linda Rondstadt and David Byrne. Yomo Toro (birth name: Victor Guillermo Toro) was born in Ensenada, within the municipality of Guánica, near the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico. His father, Alberto, drove a truck for the sugarcane mills of the South Porto Rican Sugar Company and played cuatro in a band along with Yomo Toro's uncles. Nicknamed "Yomo" by his father, Toro began to play music at age 6. [3] During a live interview on Canto Tropical, a radio station in Los Angeles, KPFK 90.7FM, in mid-1990's, Yomo recalled his father had a cuatro hanging on the wall. "Yomo would practice for about a year, while his dad was away working. One day his father caught him, stormed into the backyard, and began chopping down a tree. Frightened by all the racket, Yomo didn't realize his father was making a personalized cuatro for him." At age 15, Toro formed the string trio La Bandita de la Escuela ("The Little School Band").[ He continued his musical career by performing at events with La Bandita and other trios, all over the island of Puerto Rico, as well as on the radio program La Montaña Canta ("The Mountain Sings"). Yomo Toro preserved the traditional Puerto Rican form known as Jibaro music - a folk music from the Puerto Rican hill country that is buoyant, romantic, humorous, and extremely life-affirming. Many of Toro's lyrics were arranged 10-line verses called decimas, a poetic Spanish form that was popular as early as the 17th century. African rhythms also influenced both Jibaro music, and Yomo Toro's own evolving style.[6] External videos You can watch a video of Yomo Toro playing his cuatro guitar, live in concert, here For orchestration and song structure, Yomo Toro often used the bomba format. For rhythm and instrumentation, he made heavy use of the traditional Barril de bomba - a Puerto Rican drum with African origins - and Toro improvised spiraling cuatro solos over the bomba rhythms. Though firmly grounded in Puerto Rican musical tradition, Yomo Toro's style was extremely textured and eclectic. As a studio musician for hundreds of album releases, he also played Latin jazz, classical guitar, bluegrass, and even R&B;. As noted by The New York Times, "Mr. Toro absorbed all these influences, plus the African, Spanish and Creole folk traditions of his native Puerto Rico. The richness and variety of these sources is at least partly responsible for the depth, range and vitality of Mr. Toro's playing." Toro played traditional Puerto Rican and Mexican music on guitar and cuatro in New York through the 1950s and '60s — with the singers Odilio González and Victor Rolón Santiago and with the Trio Los Panchos, the internationally famous Mexican bolero trio, Los Rivereños, and others. He was hired to play on a Christmas-themed salsa record by Willie Colón called Asalto Navideño ("Christmas Assault") which included several of Toro's aguinaldos and songs from the Puerto Rican parranda, or caroling, tradition. Asalto Navideño became one of the most successful releases for Fania Records, and its fame solidified the cuatro's role in the salsa scene. The success of Asalto Navideño led to a sequel in 1973, as well as a third holiday record in 1979 with Hector Lavoe and the singer Daniel Santos. On the covers of those two albums, Yomo Toro is dressed as Santa Claus. Short, round and joyous, Toro was well-suited to the role, and went on to reprise it in many holiday concerts.[3] Toro toured the world with the Fania All-Stars in the 1970s and recorded two solo albums for Fania, Romantico and Musica Para El Mundo Entero. During the height of the salsa era he also played on more albums with Willie Colón, Ismael Rivera, Larry Harlow, Cheo Feliciano, Tipica 73, and many others. During the late 60s and early 70s, Toro hosted the "Yomo Toro Show." It aired on Channel 41 in New York (later known as Univision) and featured Yomo Toro's music, plus entertainment news and interviews of Latin celebrities.[9] Yomo Toro was featured in a major television production about the era of Afro-Cuban music at the Palladium in New York. Toro also played many bombas and aguinaldos on the children's television show Dora the Explorer. Yomo Toro was survived by his sisters, Lydia, Iris, Mirza and Milagros Toro; his brothers, Juan, Angel and Arcangel Toro; his wife of 31 years Minerva; his daughter Denise, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

• published: 09 Aug 2012
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