Puente, Tito

Puente, Tito , multitalented Latin-jazz percussionist, vibraphonist, timbalist, saxophonist, pianist, conga and bongos player; b. N.Y., April 20, 1923; d. there, May 31, 2000. When the rock group Santana recorded “Oye Corno Va,” a classic Latin hit that Tito Puente had written and recorded, the composer was slightly outraged that such a band would dare sully his music. As soon as the royalty check came (based on massive sales of Santana’s first album), Puente discovered the up side of having other people perform his songs. He prefaced the playing of “Oye Corno Va” with that little story many times and came to realize that his music did as much to promote Latin jazz for current audiences as Machito’s did for an earlier generation. Puente’s musical career began with Latin groups such as the Cuarteto Caney and, after World War II, Xavier Cugat.

In the mid-1940s, after serving in the United States Navy during World War II, Puente came back to New York where Noro Morales and Machito gave the budding percussionist work. By the early 1950s, he had formed his own ensemble, The Piccadilly Boys, and played the Palladium, New York’s cultural Mecca for Latin bands. His band meanwhile had mutated into The Tito Puente Orchestra and, with lead vocalist Vincentico Valdes, proceeded to change the face of Latin music. Puente took the Cuban charanga form (with its flutes and violins) and arranged them in more of a jazz big band context, punching up the brass and reeds for a more powerful sound. He also started using a lot of non-Latin jazz artists like Doc Severinsen within his bands and playing arrangements of jazz standards with a Latin beat. During the 1960s and 1970s Puente recorded albums for GNP, Tico, and Fania with large bands and small groups, continuing the heavy schedule of touring he had developed in the 1950s. By the 1980s Puente’s popularity was even stronger than it was in the early 1950s due to a base of fans that included not only the hard-core Latin music lovers, but a fair number of jazz musicians and fans as well.

It was in 1983 that the multi-talented Puente (timbales, drums, marimba, vibraphone, percussion, vocalist, arranger) won the first of his many Grammy Awards, for the album Tito Puente and His Latin Ensemble on Broadway. With over 100 albums to his credit, Puente recorded with most of the major names in Latin music and become a major force in the Latinization of jazz during the last half of the 20th century.

Discography

Puente Goes Jazz (1956); Let’s Cha Cha with Puente (1957); Top Percussion (1957); Night Beat (1957); New Cha Cha/Mambo Herd (1958); Cha Cha at El Morocco (1958); Dance Mania (1958); Puente in Love (1959); Mambo with Me (1959); Dancing under Latin Skies (1959); The Exciting Tito Puente Band in Hollywood (1961); In Puerto Rico (1963); More Dance Mania (1963); My Fair Lady Goes Latin (1964); Latin World of Tito Puente (1964); Tito Puente and His Latin Ensemble on Broadway (1982); Puente Now! The Exciting Tito Puente (1984); El Key (1984); Mambo Diablo (1985); Un Poco Loco (1987); Sensacion (1987); Salsa Meets Jazz (1988); Out of This World (1990); Mambo of the Times (1991); The Mambo King: His 100th Album (1991); Live at the Village Gate (1992); Tito Puente & His Latin Jazz All Stars (1993); Royal T (1993); Tambo (1993); Master Timabelero (1993); Tito Swings…(1994); Tito Puente & His Concert Orchestra (1995); Bossa Nova by Puente (1995); Mambos by Tito (1995); Jazzin’ (1995); Tito’s Idea (1995); Special delivery (1996); Tito Meets Machito: Mambo Kings (1997); Dance Mania ’98: Live at Birdland (1998); Mambo Birdland (1999); Por Fin (2000).