One more...then you can search your own views. AY QUE MATE and YO SOY LA RUMBA and CHANGO TA BENI
SUCH A CONSISTENTLY BEAUTIFUL STYLE AND INCREDIBLE MUSICIANSHIP
SUCH A CONSISTENTLY BEAUTIFUL STYLE AND INCREDIBLE MUSICIANSHIP
Following closely behind Machito, Pozo, Gillespie and Kenton is master timbalero, bandleader and composer Tito Puente, also known as El Rey del Timbal and The Mambo King. Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, Puente was instrumental in taking jazz to a broader audience thanks to his big band orchestrations and his on stage flourish. And, of course, he wrote and recorded 'Oye Como Va' later popularized by Carlos Santana, which incorporated a coro section and used other eminently Latin elements, such as a charanga-style flute and, of course, the characteristic syncopated piano cha-cha riff.
Another pioneer who took Latin jazz to the mainstream was master conquero Ramon
'Mongo' Santamaria, beat known for his hit rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man' and for authoring jazz standard 'Afro Blue'. It was with Santamaria's band, that a then-young Chick Corea first received major exposure, while present-day conquer Poncho Sanchez cites Santamaria as his mentor and major influence."
(Well him and I have that in common)(Also, Cachao first wrote the basic tune 'Oye Como Va' and never took credit for it)
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.