Victor Venegas

Mexican-born Latin-jazz bassist (1932-2006).

Born on February 26th, 1932 in Durango, Mexico, Víctor Venegas was a leading bassist in the budding North-American Latin-jazz, boogaloo, and salsa scene of the 60 and 70s. His album credits quickly show how, shortly after his service in the U.S Army during the Korean War, Venegas got to work playing with many of the artists who would define and push these genres to new heights of popularity; these included: Mongo Santamaria, Celia Cruz, Ismael Rivera, La Lupe, Johnny Pacheco, Cal Tjader, and Eddie Palmieri, among other individual artists, groups--even appearing on Broadway soundtracks. According to [a303163], a contemporary Puerto Rican bassist in the same orbit, it was Cuban bassist [a2936607] who helped Venegas transfer his jazz foundations toward the Latin tumbao which he would hone throughout his career.

Venegas died of an unspecified illness on February 12th, 2006 in Henderson, Nevada.