<Archive Obituary> Willie Bobo (September 15th 1983)
Bill Schenley
Photo: http://i.dir.bg/musics/images/artist-558.jpg
Willie Bobo, 49, renowned Latin jazz percussionist, died Thursday
morning at his Highland Park home two days before a New York benefit
planned in his honor, his former manager said.
Bobo, best known in live performances for a ballad called "Dindi,"
suffered from lung cancer and a brain tumor, said Stan Silverberg, who
was Bobo's manager for six years until Silverberg left the music
business in 1980.
Bobo appeared as a regular on the Bill Cosby television show "Cos" in
the mid-1970s. His last public appearance was this summer at the
Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Silverberg said.
Bobo, who played the timbales, the conga, bongos and a regular drum
set, started out as a dancer in Spanish Harlem in New York where he
was born to Puerto Rican parents, Silverberg said.
He said Bobo had planned to attend the New York benefit, which was to
help him pay for hospital bills, and that 1,000 tickets had been sold.
"A lot of the musicians will be coming and playing for free," he said,
adding that Bobo's family will attend.
Bobo's real name was William Correa, but jazz pianist Mary Lou
Williams dubbed him Willie Bobo when he was young, and the name stuck,
Silverberg said.
"As a young boy, he used to hang out at the halls where they had
dancers and musicians," he said. "He'd run and get sandwiches for the
guys and he'd be an interpreter for the Cuban musicians."
Bobo played frequently with conga player Mongo Santamaria, with the
Tito Puente band, the Cal Tjader band, and his own band. He recorded
more than a dozen albums, Silverberg said.
Bobo is survived by his wife, Alicia, whom he met when he was 17 and
she 16, Silverberg said. He is also survived by two sons, Gill, 29,
and Eric, 16, and four sisters, Anna, Laura, Helen and Pura.
Private funeral services will be held when the family returns from New
York, Silverberg said.
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Photos:
http://www.spectropop.com/tico/Gallery/Willie%20Bobo%2001.jpg