Tito Puente

• Born: April 20, 1923
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: May 31, 2000
• Place of death: New York, New York

American musician

Puente is best known for his energetic timbales playing as well as his integration and fusion of jazz elements into his compositions for and arrangements of Latin band music. His musical innovations led to an entirely new style of sophisticated yet danceable Latin music. His musical acumen and electric style of playing led to the popularization of Cuban style dance music.

Areas of achievement: Music

Early Life

Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr. (poo-EHN-tay) was born in New York on April 20, 1923, to Ernesto and Ercilla Puente. His parents were immigrants from Puerto Rico, and he grew up in Spanish Harlem.

Puente took piano, drum, and dance lessons as a child and, with the encouragement of his mother, both he and his sister Anna danced with a local group called Stars of the Future. Puente would later credit his early dance study and success with his ability to arrange and compose dance-based music, going so far as to encourage younger bandleaders to pursue similar courses of study. Early observers commented on Puente’s obsession with music, which included playing boogie-woogie for classmates, singing in impromptu doo-wop groups in school stairwells and on street corners, and teaching himself to play the alto saxophone with the aid of a music teacher to whom his parents had rented a room.

Three major events that influenced Puente’s musical development occurred when he was sixteen. The first was that he quit school to pursue music full time. That same year, he met another sixteen-year-old who was newly arrived from Puerto Rico. Pablo Rodríguez, who years later would become famous in the Latin music community as Tito Rodríguez, became close friends with Puente because of their mutual passion for music. Finally, Puente met the Cuban pianist José Curbelo, who would be integral to Puente’s immediate development as a drummer and professional musician. Curbelo’s musical mentorship of Puente, as well as Puente’s introduction to the Cuban bandleader Frank Grillo (better known as Machito) represent the confluence of Puerto Rican and Cuban music and the merging of the two styles into a single unique New York City-based sound.

Prior to being drafted into the Navy in 1942, Puente traveled widely, played with a number of Latin orchestras including the Machito Orchestra, recorded with a group on Decca Records, appeared in several short films with Noro Morales, and even joined the Jack Cole Dancers for a time. Puente continued to compose and arrange during his tour of duty; upon his discharge from the Navy in 1945, he returned to New York, where he played with several major orchestras, including those of Curbelo, Frank Martí, Fernando Alvarez, and Pupi Campo. He also undertook a period of study at the Juilliard School with the assistance of the G.I. Bill. It was during this course of study that Puente familiarized himself with mathematician and theorist Joseph Schillinger’s system of composition and arranging, which had become widely popular with jazz artists such as Stan Kenton, someone whom Puente admired greatly.

Puente formed his own group, the Picadilly Boys, in 1949. This early era was important in the development of Puente’s sound. The Palladium Ballroom in New York became the center of a multicultural musical fusion movement with jazz and Latin music at its heart. The Picadilly Boys had a heavy brass sound that was influenced by Kenton’s orchestra. Most of Puente’s music was based on Afro-Cuban dance, but his forays into and understanding of jazz music set his style apart.

Life’s Work

Puente’s work in the early 1950’s, especially in recordings and performances at the Palladium Ballroom, reflected the earlier collaborative innovations of musicians like Machito, who had worked with the idea of marrying Cuban dance music with bop. What made Puente’s musical style unique was his ability to create percussion through his use of the entire orchestra as a percussive device. This is particularly apparent in his development of the mambo.

Puente’s innovations are apparent as early as his 1949 recording of “Mambo Diablo.” In this piece, he uses vibraphone, Puente’s unique addition to the Latin orchestra sound, as well as fluid improvisations that integrate both mambo and bop. The rhythmic and melodic concepts Puente borrows directly from both traditions were so completely integrated that the music continued to spawn entirely different and new forms. Puente therefore was able to write instrumental mambos, such as “Mambo Diablo,” which were highly sophisticated and yet still danceable.

Because of his wide ability, Puente’s musical experiments were well-received, and he was able to evolve his own style. He recorded with the Cuban singer Celia Cruz, as well as jazz greats such as Buddy Morrow and Doc Severinsen. The 1950’s and 1960’s were the height of Puente’s early popularity. The younger musicians of the salsa movement of 1970’s, including Willie Colón, Sonny Bravo, Johnny Rodríguez, and Carlos Santana (who created a rock recording of Puente’s “Oye como va”) subsequently revived Puente’s popularity.

Salsa music had developed out of the fusion style of Latin orchestra music that Puente had helped create, and younger musicians looked to him for leadership and inspiration. The salsa explosion of the late 1970’s was, in part, a direct reflection of Puente’s musical evolution and output. Puente won his first Grammy Award in 1978 for his album Homenaje a Beny, demonstrating the importance of older Latin musicians in the development of the newer style. Latin jazz had grown and evolved to a point where Puente and a number of other Latin musical artists began to see it as a separate, specialized category. They lobbied to have it declared as such and their appeals were answered in 1993 when the Grammy Awards included it under the jazz field.

Into the 1980’s and 1990’s, Puente continued to record. His music continued to evolve as he disbanded and recreated his musical ensembles, and his popularity remained constant among fans of many cultures and generations. The children and grandchildren of those who listened to his music in the 1940’s and 1950’s continued to listen, and Latinos and non-Latinos alike found his musical sound and charismatic playing infectious. For non-Latinos, the Spanish lyrics to his songs became secondary in importance to Puente’s musical language. From films such as 1992’s The Mambo Kings to his 1995 guest appearances on the animated television series The Simpsons, Puente proved himself to be an important part of American popular culture. He died on May 31, 2000, in New York.

Significance

Puente’s influence as a musician can still be felt in the music of the younger generations of Latin artists, from Carlos Santana to Jennifer Lopez. His status as a symbol of New York Puerto Rican identity helped elevate countless younger artists and musicians and open the eyes of the larger public to what was once a niche market. During his career, he managed to play with, lead, or influence scores of important Latin and jazz musicians. There are few American composers or musicians who have not been influenced by Puente.

Bibliography

Fernandez, Raul A. From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz. Berkeley: University of Caifornia Press, 2006. Well-researched and thoughtfully written book on the fusion of Latin and jazz musical elements and how they were recreated into Latin jazz by Puente and others.

Loza, Steven. Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Impressively researched biography with a large number of musical examples and interviews with Puente. This volume provides excellent explanations of the musical examples for non-musicians.

Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003. This history includes excellent explanations of the roots of modern Latin music (including salsa, rock, and hip-hop) from the styles of Puente and others.

Payne, Jim. Tito Puente: King of Latin Music. New York: Hudson Music, 2006. Accompanying a DVD by the same title, this book is a wonderful introduction to the artist for a younger audience. It includes a number of photographs and interviews with Puente, as well as a discography.

Salazar, Max. Mambo Kingdom: Latin Music in New York. New York: Schirmer, 2002. This book focuses on the development of Latin music in New York City beginning in the 1920’s. It provides information on the important Latin musicians of the day.