Latin Jazz (from Jazz The Complete Story)

Excerpt from JAZZ - The Complete Story" Latin jazz is commonly defined as the fusion of American jazz melodies, improvisation and chords with Latin American rhythms, predominantly those of Afro-Cuba origin. How this marriage of styles occurred is also one of the most significant cultural, musical exchanges in history.

Mention the birth of Latin jazz to any aficionado of the art form and they will invariably reply with two names: Machito and Mario Bauza. The former was born Francisco Raul Gutierrez Grillo on 16 February 1912, in Cuba. The young vocalist/maraca man hit New York City in 1937, where he played stints with Xavier Cugat (another influence) and Noro Marales before forming his own band, Machito's Afro-Cubans. By 1940 Machito asked his brother-in-law, Mario Bauza, a trumpeter, pianist, arranger and composer who had already worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Webb, to be his band's musical arranger. It was this orchestra that two American musicians-one in Los Angeles, one in New York-would hear, and the musical world would never be the same again.

On 31 May 1943, the already legendary Gillespie went to the Park Place Ballroom in New York. There , he heard Machito and his orchestra perform 'Tanga'(meaning marijuana), a dazzling new Afro-Cuban composition written by Bauza during a rehearsal. The piece is widely recognized to be a breakthrough in the creation of a new style of music, which has been called Afro-Cuban jazz, Cubop and Latin jazz, a term Bauza reportedly hated. Still, Gillespie would often recall that night as one that changed his life. The trumpet virtuoso was so taken with the conga, bongos, and 'clave' rhythms that he immediately incorporated them into his own group. Harlem-born Puerto Rican Tito Puente's arrangements of the mambo and cha-cha earned him admiration across a wide cultural sphere. He recorded over a hundred albums and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.