Carlos "Patato" Valdés | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Carlos Valdés Galán |
| Also known as | Patato |
| Born | November 4, 1926 Los Sitios, Centro Habana, La Habana, Cuba |
| Died | December 4, 2007 (aged 81) Cleveland, Ohio, US |
| Genres | Cuban rumba, son cubano, big band, Afro-Cuban jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, bandleader, composer |
| Instrument(s) | Congas, percussion |
| Years active | 1944–2007 |
| Labels | Panart, Blue Note, Verve, Latin Percussion |
| Website | http://pmrecords.com/Patato.shtml |
Carlos Valdés Galán (November 4, 1926 – December 4, 2007), better known as Patato, was a Cuban conga player.[1] In 1954, he emigrated from La Habana to New York City where he continued his prolific career as a sideman for several jazz and Latin music ensembles, and occasionally as a bandleader.[2] He contributed to the development of the tunable conga drum which revolutionized the use of the instrument in the US.[3] His experimental descarga albums recorded for Latin Percussion are considered the counterpart to the commercial salsa boom of the 1970s.[4] Tito Puente once called him "the greatest conguero alive today".[5]