SARDONIKA (SPINews) -- World-famous exotic percussionist Xavier Cesar Tresgatos died suddenly yesterday when on a search for material for a new instrument, he fell out of a large elm tree.
He was 95.
Mr. Tresgatos played triangle, cow bell, camel bell, tambourine, spoons, forks, tabletop, scrub board, dashboard, ironing board, countertop and his recognizable -- and signature -- wood block.
He was born in Cuba and fled his homeland in 1959 when the Castro regime came into power. He landed in Miami and lived there for nine years, playing with Don Diego's Cuba Libra Hoy!. He moved to France, and in Paris, held a steady gig playing jazz wood block at the Club Expat on the city's Left Bank.
"Nobody could play wood block better than Xavier," sniffed ex-bandmate Jean-Paul Georges-Ringeau, lighting a Gauloise. "He knew just when to come in with his trademark tock ... tock tock. I have seen other lesser musicians try it and fail miserably."
Mr. Tresgatos returned to the United States in 1980 and worked in a number of small jazz clubs in New York. He moved here in 2002, where he played wood block in the Sardonikan Symphony Orchestra, winning acclaim for his interpretation of Bach's "Fugue for Pipe Organ Und Assort'd Pots Und Pans."
Wrote Sardonika Sun music critic Bobby the K at the time, "Bach's masterwork was embroidered exquisitely by Xavier Tresgatos' light-but-resolute tock ... tock tock.
Mr. TresGatos is survived by his cat Zorro who can be seen playing the wood block on a YouTube version of "Satisfaction".
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