Acclaimed Latin and jazz master percussionist Steve Berrios, who played with a wide range of artists for forty years and participated in more than 300 recordings, died on Wednesday, July 24th, 2013, at his home in Manhattan. Steve Berrios was 68.
During his career, Steve played in groups led by Max Roach, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Ernesto "Tito" Puente and Grover Washington Jr.
He was a founding member of the Fort Apache Band, a popular Latin jazz fusion ensemble led by Jerry Gonzalez.
He also led his own group called Son Bacheche. 'And Then Some!' (1997), one of the few albums he recorded at the head of his own group, was nominated for a Grammy award in the category Best Latin Jazz Performance.
Steve Berrios was born in uptown Manhattan in 1945, soon after his parents arrived in New York from Puerto Rico. His father was a professional drummer with some of the major Latin dance bands of the era, including Noro Morales, Miguelito Valdez and Pupi Campo.
Steve started learning to play the trumpet in junior high and won several music competitions, including five Apollo Theater first places, before he decided his father's drum set was a better fit.
Only nineteen years old, he got his first steady job as house drummer with a hotel band in Manhattan. A few years later, Steve joined Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria's band, playing both drum set and timbales.
He learned to play batá drums, the hourglass shaped instruments used in the Afro-Caribbean religion called Santería, from Julito Collazo, the legendary master of the batá.
Steve Berrios is survived by four daughters, Aisha Jafar, and Merida, Cindy and Angela Barrios; and a son, Steve.
