Carlos Quintana nicknamed Carlos 'Tabaco' Quintana (Caracas, Venezuela, September 15, 1943 - Caracas, Venezuela, May 30, 1995) was a Venezuelan bongosero and singer. He was a member of two large known salsa groups, the "Sexteto Juventud" and "Tabaco y sus Metales", the last of which he founded.

He began to train as a musician in the corners of San José. The youth took him by the hand with the street brave salsa, the rebellion of the trombone of Palmieri and Mon Rivera and the casting sound of Joe Cuba's sextet.

His nickname won him because of his height: he was so tall that they started calling him "tabaquito." Carlos Quintana worked as a shoeshine boy, and when he finished his work, he ran to meet his great passion, the music. to the area of ​​January 23 in Caracas to listen to the rehearsals of a group that was born and away from their hard work.

Over time, Carlos Quintana met each of the members of the group until in 1963, when he was just 20 years old, he was recommended by his friend Elio Pacheco to Olinto Medina, the leader of that band. Olinto was preparing to rehearse "Guasancó" and the singer they had did not reach the tone. They tested with Quintana and Elio's recommendation took effect: "Tabaco" did his thing, very well. So the Sexteto Juventud had a new voice and something else, because Carlos Quintana could walk through all the instruments of the group. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.