Tito Puente Festival
at LatinJazzClub Magazine

Remembering Tito Puente

Howard Mandel (New York City)
writer for Down Beat Magazine, President of the Jazz Journalist Association

one of my favorite, latter memories of Tito Puente comes from attending a rehearsal he held with Eddie Palmieri toward a Carnegie Hall concert that I think they were preparing for the JVC Jazz Festival. The room was filled with top notch Latin jazz cats, including Hilton Ruiz, Ronnie Cuber, Giovanni Hidalgo, Andy Gonzalez. . . they were to perform an arrangement of Palmieri's of some Mozart, I believe, in Latin jazz form of course.

Tito was thoroughly masterful conducting the large ensemble in this project, while Eddie stayed sort of at the side, pleased with what he was hearing. I did a piece on this for NPR, and ran some of the tape I caught at the rehearsal of them doing the Mozart charanga-style. Unfortunately, when it came to the concert, Eddie walked on-stage with a sheaf of paper following along behind him, and he proceeded to take up way too much time talking about the history of Latin jazz and thanking his supporters in the audience.

Tito listened to EP patiently, then with mock impatience, but finally couldn't do anything about it, and the performance of the piece itself was cut regrettably short. But he was clearly equal to the very best music, as well as putting on a good show. Too bad RCA did such a lame job documenting his box set!

Victor Mendoza (Boston, MA)
Vibraphonist, Educator

Tito's life was more than a timbales solo. His imagination was endless until the end.

I was flattered that he knew who I was when I first met him. On one of his trips to Boston I called him to say hello and introduce myself. He said he knew who I was and asked if I could join him for coffee- we ended up spending the whole afternoon together just talking about music. He said he was familiar with my work and I felt very honored when he complemented me on a Down Beat magazine Blind fold test. To me that's a sign of a very secure artist.

Many musicians today have jumped on what I call the "Latin Band Wagon¨." Their sole purpose is to sell recordings with no value behind the music. Tito did both, he became a commercial success and maintained his integrity as a musician - not many have done that!

While it's easy to recreate, it's very hard to create. I try to play a little bit of Tito when I play, whether its a "lick" or a whole tune- but it's always there.

JC Johnny Conga (Seattle, WA)
Percussionist and Educator

What can you say about a man who recorded over 100 albums in a 50 year career. "EL REY" Master Drummer-Tito Puente inspired me as a young man through his records Top Percussion and Puente in Percussion. Where he was featured as well as Mongo, Willie Bobo and Patato. To see the man play was awesome. A blue collar worker with blue collar values as a leader of his own band for many years. Tito was the first Puerto Rican that I know of that graduated from the prestigious Julliard School of Music. Where he learned the craft of composing and arranging, and taking time to learn to play 12 different instruments.

A true musical genius in his own right and "Dance Musician" who provided many years of "dance music" which made him famous in the "battle of the bands" at the Palladium in New York City. I only got to perform with Tito once but it was a great experience and he was kind and generous to me. I still to this day try and emulate Tito when I play timbales, not that I can even come close to him but try and carry his musical and rhythmic ideas into my playing. There isn't a timbale player today or percussionist that wasn't influenced in some way by "EL REY" Tito Puente...as Puente said ...Oye Como Va!.......JC JOHNNY CONGA

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