Cuban percussionist Tata Guines has died in Havana at the age of 77 after suffering from a kidney infection. Guines, real name Federico Aristides Soto, was dubbed 'King Of The Congas' and over a sixty year career performed with the likes of Josephine Baker, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra. Despite this success in the US, he returned to Cuba following Castro's 1959 revolution because he found he couldn't get used to the racial segregation in America at that time. "Fame did not extend beyond the stage," he said in a recent interview: "Once you left the stage, it was like the signs said: 'Whites only'".
Feb 5, 2008
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1 min read
Tata Guines dies
Cuban percussionist Tata Guines has died in Havana aged 77 after a kidney infection, having worked with Josephine Baker, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra.