Tito Puente Festival
at LatinJazzClub Magazine
Remembering Tito Puente
Mark Holston
Contributor to JAZZIZ,
AMERICAS, HISPANIC and THE JAZZ REPORT magazines.
Because I live in the Northwest,
far from the city lights, the first time I saw Tito in person
was in the mid 1980s on my first ever trip to New York. He was
performing at the Broadway Club, and then as whenever I encountered
him in subsequent years, he was amazingly friendly and accommodating.
His talents as a composer, instrumentalist and arranger were
monumental, but it was his unfaltering passion for his art that
truly impressed me -- his ceaseless enthusiasm to communicate
his love for the music he created. He may have played "Oye,
Como Va" thousands of times, but everytime, it was fresh
-- he special gift to adoring audiences who were hearing it in
person for the first time.
I was fortunate to have seen
him in performance numerous times since then, and was honored
to be selected to write liner notes for five of his releases
(Tito's Idea on Tropijazz, 50 Years of Swing on RMM, and Royal
T, Special Delivery and The Best of the Concord Years on Concord
Picante). I've always considered him to be one of the giants
of 20th Century music -- in the same company as Duke Ellington,
Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and a small handful of other one-of-a-kind
artists. I think his record of accomplishment proves the point,
but I've always been frustrated that the jazz mainstream didn't
give him the credit I believe he richly deserved. That his albums
in recent years didn't sell better is truly confounding.
My last encounter with Tito
was in Seattle at Jazz Alley, where he performed with his all-star
group just nine months before he died. I introduced him, and
later watched him perform two exhausting sets. The next morning
at the hotel, he gave me his personal copy of the book by Steven
Loza, Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music (University of
Illinois Press). It had a rubber band in place to mark the page
to where he'd read. And he jotted the inscription, "To Mark
-- Thank you for the support of our music. Sincerely, Tito Puente
'99." Needless to say, I was humbled. The book is one of
my most prized possessions. And, I'll never grow tired of listening
to Tito's albums -- I always find something new to relish.
READ MORE:
Noted musicians, Jazz Journalists,
radio hosts reflect on the life and times of the "King of
Latin Music" Tito Puente: Larry
Harlow, Sonny Bravo, Jose Madera, John Santos, Arturo O'Farrill, Howard
Mandel, Victor Mendoza, JC Johnny Conga, Ruben
Rodriguez, Rudy Mangual, Ralph Irizarry, Mark Levine, Erik
Chico Manqueros, Vicki Sola', Cuban
Pete & Barbara Craddock, Chembo Corniel, Luis Moreno, Bob
DeSena, Ramiro Burr, Dr. Jazz, Kevin Espinosa, Nina
Olson, Andrea Brachfeld,
Mark
Weinstein, Richie Gajate, Michael Bongard, Jesse
"Chuy" Varela,
Memo
Acevedo, Norberto Rivera,
Richard
John Cadena, Trevor Salloum,
Rae Arroyo, Mark
Holston, Thomas
Peña, Yosvany
Terry Cabrera, Tomas Algarin
BUY
TITO PUENTE MUSIC
This interview was edited
by
Bobby Ramirez
br@latinjazzclub.com
Photo by Jorge Garcia from
the album: Tito Puente Mambo Birdland
