HOT SALSA : Tito Puente

Everyone knows
that percussions
take up the central place in salsa.
Even before it exists,
when one spoke
only vaguely
about Latin music,
it's Tito Puente
who put them in front
of the orchestra.

TITO PUENTE
USA

Tito Puente

Sample from
El Rey del timbal
in
Viva salsa
(Charly records)

CD selection :

Tito Puente,
Benny Moré et
Tito Rodriguez - Grands orchestres de la musique
afro-cubaine vol.1
(RCA/BMG)

Mucho Puente (BMG/RCA)

Mucho Puente
(BMG)

The Best of sixties
(Tico/Charly)

Hommage à
Benny Moré
(3 vol.)
(RCA/BMG)

Dancemania 80's
The Mambo king
conmemorando
el numero 100
(RMM)

To order

And still today, Ernest Anthony " Tito " Puente, Master of timbales and vibraphone, pushes his orchestra with his flexible pulsation, and it strides along with swing.

It should be said that the artist is an old stager. Born in Harlem (New York, USA) in 1923 from Puertorican origin, Tito Puente studies piano, organ, vibraphone, drums, timbales, congas... and as of thirteen years of age wrangles as a professional in various local groups.

A passage in the orchestra of Noro Morales, an other with Machito, and World War II picks him for the Navy. He meets there Charles Spivak, conductor and ex-trumpet player for Glen Miller, and takes advantage of the opportunity to familiarize himself with arrangements and composition techniques.

Three years of studies at the Julliard School of New York from 1945 to 1948 polish the whole : Tito is ready, and he creates his own orchestra in 1948, with which he will trust himself as the king of the budding mambo.

Since then, combining modernity and tradition, this exceptional musician and gifted composer (Ran Kan Kan, Oye como va,...), entertainer and stage performer, meddled luckily with most Latin styles, marking them with his touch.

He sits today on a pile of more than an hundred records, of which many with the greatests; He is respected by all, in proportion to his talent. Well, it's Tito...