[1] Known internationally as "The King of the Cuatro," Toro recorded over 150 albums throughout a 60-year career and worked extensively with Cuban legends Arsenio Rodríguez and Alfonso "El Panameño" Joseph; salsa artists Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe and Rubén Blades; and artists from other music genres including Frankie Cutlass, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt and David Byrne.

His father, Alberto, drove a truck for the sugarcane mills of the South Porto Rican Sugar Company and played cuatro in a band along with Yomo Toro's uncles.

Yomo Toro and his cuatro music became internationally known, when he performed the opening theme song to the 1971 Woody Allen film Bananas.

In the 1970s and 80's, his concert tours with the Fania All Stars and studio recordings on numerous Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe albums, made him a musical sensation in Latin America.

As noted by The New York Times, "Mr. Toro absorbed all these influences, plus the African, Spanish and Creole folk traditions of his native Puerto Rico.

Toro played traditional Puerto Rican and Mexican music on guitar and cuatro in New York through the 1950s and '60s – with the singers Odilio González and Victor Rolón Santiago and with the Trio Los Panchos, the internationally famous Mexican bolero trio, Los Rivereños,[6] Yomo Toro covered two famous compositions titled "Fuikiti" and "Una Pena En La Navidad" by Miguel Poventud copyrighted by Peer and covered on Fania recordings of Yomo Toro performances in Albums "Celebremos Navidad" and "Herencia" He was hired to play on a Christmas-themed salsa record by Willie Colón called Asalto Navideño ("Christmas Assault") which included several of Toro's aguinaldos and songs from the Puerto Rican parranda, or caroling, tradition.

During the height of the salsa era he also played on more albums with Willie Colón, Ismael Rivera, Larry Harlow, Cheo Feliciano, Típica 73, and many others.

[7] Toro crossed over to many other genres and recorded songs with Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt and David Byrne.

[7] According to The New York Times, Yomo Toro "electrified his cuatro, performed as a soloist with salsa's flashy Fania All-Stars, and appeared on several hundred albums, ranging from straight jibaro to mainstream Latin-pop.

It aired on Channel 41 in New York (later known as Univision) and featured Yomo Toro's music, plus entertainment news and interviews of Latin celebrities.