Ray Barretto Quotes

My roots are Latin and jazz. With my brother, sister and mother, We lived in the barrio, Spanish Harlem. My mother would go to night school to learn English, to be a better citizen. When she was away, it was a drag to be left alone. I turned the radio on and fell in love with the American big band. At the time it was Glenn Miller, Harry James and others. During the day, she would play the music of our culture, the Latin music. So I had music as the background in my life and it [music] kept us up and kept our sanity during the course of some bad years. Out of my listening to the big bands, it evolved eventually to the jazz of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and others. 
Ray Barretto

I've been prodded to put down my lifetime in music and all the encounters, stories that are fascinating to tell of the people I've met. I don't see it right now. The only time something like that works is if you are will to let everything out. The games that one had to play in order to survive during a certain time. Only if you want to be totally honest would it work.
Ray Barretto