Yomo Toro
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro (26 July 1933 – 30 June 2012) was a Puerto Rican left-handed guitarist and
cuatro Cuatro, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4, number 4, may refer to: * Cuatro (instrument), a family of Latin American string instruments, including: ** Cuatro (Venezuela) ** Puerto Rican cuatro * Cuatro (TV channel), a Spanish free-to ...
player. 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 Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; August 31, 1911 – December 30, 1970)Giro, Radamés 2007. ''Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba''. La Habana, v. 4, p. 45 et seq. was a Cuban musician, composer and bandl ...
and Alfonso "El Panameño" Joseph; salsa artists
Willie Colón William Anthony Colón Román (born April 28, 1950) is a Puerto Rican and American Salsa musician and social activist. He began his career as a trombonist but also sings, writes, produces and acts. Colón was a pioneer of Salsa music and a be ...
,
Héctor Lavoe Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez (September 30, 1946 – June 29, 1993), better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican salsa music, salsa singer. Widely regarded as one of salsa’s most important and influential vocalist ...
and
Rubén Blades Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948), known professionally as Rubén Blades (, but in Panama and within the family), is a Panamanian musician, singer, composer, actor, activist, and politician, performing musically most often in th ...
; and artists from other music genres including Frankie Cutlass,
Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...
,
Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
,
Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...
and
David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...
.


Early years

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 Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
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. At age 15, Toro formed the
string trio A string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. From at least the 19th century on, the term "string trio" with otherwise unspecified instrumentation normally refers to the combination violin, viola and cello ...
''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 Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
program ''La Montaña Canta'' (The Mountain Sings).


The cuatro

The cuatro is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. Larger than a
mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
, it contains ten strings which generate complex tones and multiple harmonic series. The Puerto Rican cuatro spans five courses, tuned in fourths from low to high B-e-a-d'-g',54321, with B and E in
octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
s and A, D and G in
unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...
s. Yomo Toro and his cuatro music became internationally known, when he performed the opening theme song to the 1971
Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...
film ''
Bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...
''. In the U.S., Toro's reputation as a cuatro player had already grown steadily throughout the 1950s and 60's. In the 1970s and 80's, his concert tours with the
Fania All Stars The Fania All-Stars is a musical group formed in 1968 as a showcase for the musicians on Fania Records, the leading salsa music record label of the time. History Beginnings In 1964, Fania Records was founded in New York City by Jerry Masucc ...
and studio recordings on numerous
Willie Colón William Anthony Colón Román (born April 28, 1950) is a Puerto Rican and American Salsa musician and social activist. He began his career as a trombonist but also sings, writes, produces and acts. Colón was a pioneer of Salsa music and a be ...
and
Héctor Lavoe Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez (September 30, 1946 – June 29, 1993), better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican salsa music, salsa singer. Widely regarded as one of salsa’s most important and influential vocalist ...
albums, made him a musical sensation in
Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
. His
Christmas album Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of Je ...
s ''Asalto Navideño'' and ''Feliz Navidad'' became instant classics, and are now rare collector's items.


Folkloric style

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. 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 The barril de bomba is a traditional drum used in bomba music of Puerto Rico. The ''barriles de bomba'' are built from the wood of rum storage barrels and goatskin, adjusted with tourniquets, screws, cuñas or wedges. At least two drums are requ ...
'' – a Puerto Rican
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
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 A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a record ...
for hundreds of album releases, he also played
Latin jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave (rhythm), clave, and Afro-Brazil ...
,
classical guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...
, bluegrass, and even R&B. As noted by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', "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."


International career

Toro played traditional Puerto Rican and
Mexican music The music of Mexico is highly diverse, featuring a wide range of musical genres and performance styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, primarily deriving from Europeans, Indigenous, and Africans. Music became an expression of M ...
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, '' Yomo Toro covered two famous compositions titled "Fuikiti" and "Una Pena En La Navidad" by Miguel Poventud copyrighted by Peer and covered on Fania recordings of Yomo Toro performances in Albums "Celebremos Navidad" and "Herencia" 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 Fania Records is a New York City, New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his American lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964 in music, 1964. The label took its name from a popular luncheonette fre ...
, 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 Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...
. Short, round and joyous, Toro was well-suited to the role, and went on to reprise it in many holiday concerts. Toro toured the world with the
Fania All-Stars The Fania All-Stars is a musical group formed in 1968 as a showcase for the musicians on Fania Records, the leading salsa music record label of the time. History Beginnings In 1964, Fania Records was founded in New York City by Jerry Masucci, ...
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 Cheo Feliciano (3 July 1935 – 17 April 2014) was a Puerto Rican singer and composer of salsa and bolero music. Feliciano was the owner of a recording company called "Coche Records". He was the first tropical singer to perform at the "Amira ...
, Típica 73, and many others.


Musical legacy

Yomo Toro's artistry with the cuatro was celebrated throughout the world. He recorded with major artists such as Cuban legend
Arsenio Rodríguez Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; August 31, 1911 – December 30, 1970)Giro, Radamés 2007. ''Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba''. La Habana, v. 4, p. 45 et seq. was a Cuban musician, composer and bandl ...
and Arsenio's bassist Alfonso "El Panameño" Joseph. Toro appeared in over 150 albums and over 20 solo albums on various record labels such as
Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...
,
Fania Records Fania Records is a New York City, New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his American lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964 in music, 1964. The label took its name from a popular luncheonette fre ...
, Rounder, and Green Linnet Records. He also recorded four albums with '' Trio Los Panchos'', including one featuring
Eydie Gormé Eydie Gormé ( ; born Edith Gormezano; August 16, 1928 – August 10, 2013) was an American singer who achieved notable success in pop, Latin, and jazz genres. She sang solo and in the duo Steve and Eydie with her husband, Steve Lawrence, on a ...
. Toro crossed over to many other genres and recorded songs with
Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...
,
Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
,
Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...
and
David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...
. He also worked on several film tracks such as ''
Bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...
'' by director Woody Allen and ''
Crossover Dreams ''Crossover Dreams'' is a 1985 American comedy-drama film directed by Leon Ichaso. The film follows salsa singer Rudy Veloz (played by musician Rubén Blades) on his rise to fame as he tries to break into the mainstream music scene. The film m ...
'' with
Ruben Blades Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Reuvein in Yiddish or as an English variant spelling on th ...
. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', Yomo Toro "electrified his cuatro, performed as a soloist with salsa's flashy
Fania All-Stars The Fania All-Stars is a musical group formed in 1968 as a showcase for the musicians on Fania Records, the leading salsa music record label of the time. History Beginnings In 1964, Fania Records was founded in New York City by Jerry Masucci, ...
, and appeared on several hundred albums, ranging from straight jibaro to mainstream Latin-pop." Despite his fame and musical virtuosity, Yomo Toro was a modest and unassuming man. He composed only one song about himself. It appeared on the Fania label as ''El Lechon de Cachete.''


Television career

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 Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...
) and featured Yomo Toro's music, plus entertainment news and interviews of Latin celebrities. Toro also many ''bombas'' and ''aguinaldos'' on the children's television show
Dora the Explorer ''Dora the Explorer'' is an American media franchise centered on an eponymous animated interactive fourth wall children's television series created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes, and Eric Weiner, and produced by Nickelodeon Animation ...
.


Later years

Yomo Toro was a member of the Toro (Touro) family of Guanica. He died of kidney failure in Calvary Hospital in
the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
, on 30 June 2012. He was buried at Saint Michaels Cemetery in
East Elmhurst, Queens East Elmhurst is a residential neighborhood in the northwest section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Jackson Heights and Corona, to the north and east by Bowery Bay, and to the west by Woodside and Dit ...
Yomo Toro was survived by his sisters, Lydia, Iris, Gloria, 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. The three great-grandchildren's names being Ethan, Brayden and Kassandra Toro.


Recorded works

Yomo Toro performed on hundreds of albums throughout his 60-year career. He also released over 20 solo albums on major record labels including Island Records,
Fania Records Fania Records is a New York City, New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his American lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964 in music, 1964. The label took its name from a popular luncheonette fre ...
, and Polygram. The following are some of his better-known recordings. #''Asalto Navideño'' ( Fania, 1972) #''Los Rivereños'' Cuando Mexico Canta con Yomo Toro y su Conjunto (SEECO – Gold series – SCLP-9255) (SEECO 27.342 , Discophon) #'' Funky Jibaro'' (Island, 1988) #''Gracias'' (Mango, 1990) #''Las Manos de Oro'' (Xenophile Records, 1995) #''Celebremos Navidad'' (Protel, 1996) #''Celebrando Navidad'' (Ashe Records, 1999) #''Romantico'' (1999) #''Musica Para El Mundo Entero'' (Fania Records Barbaro Vinyl Lp 99.598 (1982) Cd Reissued (2000) #''Alma de Ramito'' ( Fania, 2000) #'' El Espíritu Jíbaro'' (The Jibaro Spirit), with
Roswell Rudd Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr. (November 17, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American jazz trombonist and composer. Although skilled in a variety of genres of jazz (including Dixieland, which he performed while in college), and other genres of musi ...
(Sunnyside Records, 2007) #''24 Canciones Inolvidables de R. Hernandez'' (Combo, 2008) #''La Herencia'' ( Fania, 2008)


See also

*
List of Puerto Ricans This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...
*
Edwin Colón Zayas Edwin Colón Zayas (October 27, 1965), is a Cuatro (instrument), Puerto Rican cuatro player from Puerto Rico. He joins a large number of Puerto Rican artists, "innovative tradition-bearing," who focus their talents in extolling the virtues of ...
* Andrés Jiménez, "el Jíbaro" * El Cuatro (Spanish Wikipedia) *
Music of Puerto Rico The Music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have primarily included Music of Africa, African, Taino Indigenous music, Indigenou ...


References


External links


Remembering/Recordando Yomo Toro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toro, Yomo 1933 births 2012 deaths People from Guánica, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican musicians Puerto Rican composers Puerto Rican male composers Puerto Rican-cuatro players Puerto Rican Jibaro music musicians Fania Records artists Deaths from kidney failure in New York (state) Sunnyside Records artists Fania All-Stars members