'The best of the best': Toty Ramos, leader of Milwaukee Latin jazz band La Chazz, dies

The fact that Latin jazz group La Chazz was one of the longest running bands in Milwaukee says a lot about its leader, Toty Ramos.

It speaks to his talent, friends and collaborators say — but also, to his character.

"He was the best of the best," said Ulisis Santiago, who played congas in La Chazz and, most recently, the Toty Ramos Sextet, which started about two years ago.

To be in a band with Ramos, Santiago said, "was a very high privilege."

"When you play with him, you know you are going to play with the best," Santiago said of Ramos, and his ability to draw top-notch musicians for his groups. "When you can keep a band for that long, that says a lot about your patience and love for what you do."

Ramos, who established and led La Chazz as chief songwriter, arranger and lead guitarist from 1974 through the 2010s, died Jan. 31 after a battle with bladder cancer. He was 73.

"He did his homework, studying some of the great musicians of the past and somehow was able to incorporate all of that stuff and come up with his own distinct sound and style," said Dave Bayles, percussionist with the Ramos Sextet and La Chazz. "Toty's palette for music was pretty extensive, from straight-ahead jazz to jazz fusion to flamenco style. All of that was under his fingers, and it's right there with his composing and arranging.

"Toty had such a mastery of music that anybody who played with him learned something from him."

Got his passion for music from his parents

Growing up in Milwaukee, Ramos learned to love and appreciate music from his parents, said La Chazz co-founder Cecil Negrón. Toty Ramos' father, Tocho, played accordion in a band that specialized in Mexican cumbias, Negrón said, while his mother Toni in the late '60s and early '70s hosted a radio program on WYMS-FM (88.9), spotlighting local Puerto Rican events and playing a variety of Latin music.

"His mother was always very polished and his father was very polished when he played music," Negrón said. Following their example, Negrón added, it was only natural for Ramos to become "a master at his craft."

When La Chazz was started in 1974 — inspired by a New York group, Tipica 73 — Negrón said Ramos was writing a new song every week, and Bayles said he continued "writing all the time" well into his later years. At shows, Ramos originals would be played side by side with distinct arrangements of songs by jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis.

"It was very progressive," Negrón said of La Chazz's sound, which he described as "Latin jazz with a Puerto Rican feel." "A lot of people wanted to play with him because he'd give them a lot of food to perform. … It was very difficult."

A 'very complicated' style

But always with dancing in mind, La Chazz became very popular, packing the Jazz Gallery in Riverwest once a week in those early years, Negrón said.

"People would freak out," he said. "It was just amazing. He would be all over the place on guitar."

"His style … was very complicated," Santiago said. "I really can't compare him to another guitar player. … He could go into a trance when he played."

When Ramos would show off with a solo, Bayles said, he never played it safe, putting his inventiveness and soulfulness on full display.

"A lot of jazz musicians talk about having a voice, and I think Toty was one of those people that definitely had a voice," Bayles said. "I can think of 30 musicians in the world that if I listen to them I think, 'Well that's this person or that person.' When I heard Toty I knew, yeah, that's Toty."

Despite his singular skills, Ramos "was not selfish as a musician," Bayles said. "When he needed to support somebody he could do that extremely well."

That was his offstage persona as well. While Santiago and Negrón said Ramos was strict about his arrangements, Ramos was still "extremely encouraging," Bayles said, even when Bayles struggled as a Latin music novice in La Chazz in the early '90s.

Bayles described him as "polite" and "soft spoken," and Santiago said, "I never saw him mad."

"He was way calm and very respectful," Santiago said. "He was just an awesome guy all the way around."

A visual artist who transformed his east side home

Ramos also was an accomplished visual artist, including being selected as an artist in residence at MATC. His artwork was displayed at the Ramos home on the east side, including murals he painted on a wall in the stairway and on the living room ceiling. A Dutch Colonial that had been a party house for college students before Toty and Janis Ramos bought it 30 years ago, the house underwent a transformation, with richly colored walls, antique furniture and light fixtures inspired by houses at the turn of the century, and lush gardens with an expansive variety of plants and flowers.

Major renovations took five years with another five years of refinements. Toty Ramos did much of the labor himself, including designing the front porch and a cabinet and countertop with a sink for the kitchen. The home was spotlighted in the Journal Sentinel in 2019 and featured on the Lakeside Garden Tour.

"The Latino population was very proud," Negrón said of Ramos. "He was representing our community."

Ramos is survived by his wife, a sister and a brother. Memorial services are pending.

Negrón said Ramos will be honored at McKinley Marina in Veterans Park June 23, which also will be a celebration of his son Cecilo Negrón Jr., co-founder of Milwaukee band De La Buena, who died last year. Bayles said a celebration of Ramos' life with live music is planned at a favorite Toty Ramos Sextet performance spot, Riverwest Pizzeria (930 E. Wright St.), on June 2. Details are pending but will be shared at davebaylesmusic.com.

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Best of the best' Toty Ramos, leader of Milwaukee band La Chazz, dies