Just because we heard him in all his magnificence on Clare Teal's show on Jazz FM earlier, here's someone who's always perfect for what we call "Sunday Music" - the simply marvellous Señor Tito Puente! Even a Grouch can't resist...
Love it.
Showing posts with label Tito Puente. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tito Puente. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 January 2024
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
El Rey de los Timbales
Sharing the occasion with another random clutch of "names" such as the gorgeous Ryan O'Neal (who is 80 today!), Jessica Lange, Leslie Phillips (still with us, aged 97!), Nicholas Lyndhurst ["Rodney" in Only Fools and Horses] (60 today), Lionel Hampton, Edie Sedgwick, Luther Vandross, Andy Serkis, Paul Poiret, Elspeth Ballantyne ["Meg Jackson" in Prisoner Cell Block H], Louise Jameson ["Leela" in Doctor Who] (70 today), George Takei, Paul Usher ["Barry Grant" in Brookside] (also 60 today), Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Harold Lloyd, Joan Miró, Johnny Tillotson and - ahem - Adolf Hitler, it's the birthday today of the sadly-missed Tito Puente!
Any excuse really (especially in this continuing sunshine), to play some gorgeous music from the repertoire of "The King of the Timbales"...
Ernesto Antonio "Tito" Puente, Jr. (20th April 1923 – 1st June 2000)
Saturday, 20 April 2013
El Rey
El Rey - the King of Latin Music, Tito Puente would have been 90 years old today.
Surprisingly, given his eternal association with the music of Latin America, Señor Puente was not born in Cuba, nor Puerto Rico, but was raised in the El Barrio area of East Harlem in Manhattan. He was brought up with not only the traditional Latin sounds of his family and neighbourhood, but also the emergent big band swing of Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey. Famously, his mother, frustrated by the young Tito's aversion to learning piano and his preference for banging out rhythms on pots and pans around the house, eventually sent him to learn drums instead - and a legend was born.
In his career of more than 50 years, he was recognised as one of the greatest proponents of the fusion between jazz and swing with mambo, salsa and ton, winning five Grammys. Over the decades his collaborators included such diverse legends as bandleader Machito, George Shearing, Woody Herman, La Lupe, Lionel Hampton, Celia Cruz, Cal Tjader, La India, Hector Lavoe, Della Reese and Sheila E. He had a direct influence on later successful Latin artists such as Santana, Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin, and among his many accolades he received the National Medal of Arts and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Here are just two examples of his genius:
It seems like only yesterday that I posted a tribute to the great man on the occasion of his 85th anniversary.
A great loss to music.
Ernesto Antonio "Tito" Puente (20th April 1923 – 1st June 2000)
Sunday, 20 April 2008
The King of Mambo
On this day 85 years ago, the greatest of all Latin American musicians Tito Puente was born.
It is impossible to sum up just how influential this man was in the world of mambo, salsa and big band Latin jazz. In his lifetime, Puente recorded 120 albums, composed over 450 songs, won five Grammy awards, was credited with more than 2,000 arrangements, and worked with such fantastic and world-renowned artists such as Celia Cruz and Carlos Santana.
Puerto Rico's finest son, we salute you!
Ernesto Antonio "Tito" Puente (20th April 1923 – 31st May 2000)
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