Overview
Latin music (sometimes called 'tropical style') first achieved wide popularity (in North America) during the 1940's, with Xavier Cugat's band being probably the best known. Mainly, the music that we today call 'salsa', probably descended from Cuban rhythms. Musicologists trace the music back over a hundred years to the mountains of Eastern Cuba.

A few notes on Cuban Music.
In the history of U.S. music, an important factor was the slave trade. The slaves brought the earthy 'beats' and rhythms of their African culture. And in Cuba, it was the same. Even though the Spaniards forced the slaves to adopt Catholicism, on Saint's days they would secretly worship their own deities (orisha) who were endowed with human qualities. Widely known as Santeria, this cult of the saints was (in the main) derived from the Yoruban culture and religion of Nigeria.

From the earliest days of Latin-American music, the constant rhythm of the Drums is most notable. When the old slave masters outlawed the use of drums (a typical African instrument), the early slaves took to hitting the sides of salted codfish boxes with their bare hands. This eventually led to the development of such things as the Conga Drum and the Conga Rhythm, along with the Rhumba rhythm that is now so much a part of Cuban music.

It is interesting to note the differences between the Cuban songs and American Jazz forms. Caribbean and Cuban songs usually feature a vocalist and a 3- or 4-member chorus. While the Blues, -and Jazz which developed in New Orleans (another slave port) at much the same time, uses a call and response musical motif, which ifs usually between the vocalist and instrumentalist (or, in swing bands, between the instrumental soloist and the band).

Present day Latin-American music consists of many different rhythms, such as the Mambo, Cha-Cha-Cha, Conga, Rhumba, Merengue, - which are all 'lumped' under the marketing word of 'Salsa'. (The Argentine Tango stands alone and has no connection to Salsa.) The music, of Cuba, the Caribbean, and much of Latin America, is a mixture of the formerly suppressed African Culture; to a lesser extent Franch culture, and the music of Spain - in the use of stringed instruments as well as the language.

Afro-Cuban singer Celia Cruz, has defined the term "salsa" as ".....a marketing word, a myth. I don't think it exists. But, whatever it is, it is mostly based on Cuban rhythms." Today, most everyone agrees that 'Salsa' is a generic term, - an umbrella that covers all "Latin-American" music and sounds, - the Rhumba, the Cha-Cha-Cha, the Bomba, the Conga, and others. (The Rhumba, Conga, Mambo and Cha-Cha-Cha rhythmns were invented in Cuba.) The Argentine Tango, while definitely 'Latin' does have a different "feel" and occupies quite a different niche in Latin (and world) music.

As it expanded in popularity, Latin music formed in two distinct channels; it enlarged into a big band sound and also contracted into a small combo style that was most adaptable for jazz presentation (most notably by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie). A hard driving percussive dance rhythm is the music's common denominator.

In the history of Latin-American music, a crucial moment occurred on Aug. 8, 1928, when a Cuban troubadour Miguel Matamoro formed his own group called 'El Trio Matamoros'. (Click here for a photograph of Matamoros and Ernesto Lecuona. From L-R, Miguel Vincente Bonifacio Roig (then editor of Club and Radiales magazines), Ernesto Lecuona, Miguel Matamoros and Gonzalo Roig.) Among other early Latin/Salsa pioneers were trumpeter Lazaro Herrera, who founded a rumba-based group, the 'National Sextet of Ignacio Pineiro', that popularized the then new urban sound. Another early pioneer was Arsenio Rodriguez, who added piano and several trumpets to the band's instrumentation. Rodriguez has also been credited with bringing the Latin-sound to New York City.

The next important innovation, in 1937, was the introduction of the mambo rhythm. Originally played very fast, the tempo was slowed to accommodate the sinuous and quite sensual romantic movements of ballroom dancers. The bandleader most responsible for that introduction, Perez Prado, is still recognized as the 'Mambo king'.

Mario Bauza was another of the major Latin music innovators. With his brother-in-law, "Machito" (né: Frank Grillo), he founded his 'Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra' around 1940.

About 1950, Tito Puente, born in the East Harlem section of New York, put together his first mambo band for an engagement at 'La Casa del Mambo', then a popular club on Broadway at 53rd Street. However, in the late 1950s, Tito was very instrumental in bringing the flute and violin music of the Cuban Charanga to public attention, and that 'Cha Cha Cha' rhythm became an international favorite of dancers everywhere.

Two singular events caused the music to fall from public favor: the Communist revolution in Cuba, and the advent of Beatlemania. But with the large Latin community in the US, the music never died away and today is finding many new devotees. In common with other popular musical forms, salsa has hybridized into other styles and has also taken on new subject matter. In the 1960's. the 'Joe Cuba Sextet' developed a hybrid pop-salsa style called the 'boogaloo'. Band leader Willie Colon along with his vocalist Hector Lavoe (known as the "bad boys" of salsa) have brought a tough and streetwise sensibility to the music, while Ruben Blades has introduced a political component and social protest.

The political effects on Cuban music go back aways. Under the Batista government, American (and other) owned hotels refused to employ black musicians. The present day Castro government has a hostile attitude to jazz, because of the belief that it is imperialist, -a holdover from Stalinist days; While in Europe, German Nazis suppressed it because they considered the music 'non-white' and therefore decadent. But it seems to this writer, that after all the tyrants are gone, the music will still be here.

In common with so many other pop styles, 'salsa', or more accurately -Latin American music, has become increasingly protective of its roots as a populist Caribbean dance music. And, that self-protectiveness has maintained it as a thriving form. Currently (year 2000) playing in New York are The Ramon Argueso Orchestra and the Emilio Reyes Orchestras. The bands alternate on Sundays at the famed Roseland Ballroom. Tito Puente, in addition to his public gigs, also has his own nightclub in New York's Harlem district. (Tito died June 2, 2000, New York, NY.)
The beat goes on!

[ Candido ]
né: Candido Camero
Bongo, Conga drums, Guitar, and Bass.
b. April 22, 1921, (Regal) Havana, Cuba, d. May 19, 1999.
Overview
With no formal musical training, Candido is largely self taught. He originally started playing on Bass and Guitar, and later began playing bongos and conga drums. He was with Station CMQ Radio Havana for six years, after which, in 1947 to 1952. he worked with Armando Romue at the Tropicana Club in Havana, Cuba. In Oct. 1952, he emigrated to the USA, and after a six week engagement at the Clover Club in Miami (with the 'Night In Havana' show), he traveled to NYC.

There, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie took him to the Downbeat Club on New York's famed 52nd Street (Swing Street) where he sat in with pianist Billy Taylor's group, and worked for the next year with Taylor. The fall of 1954 found him touring with Stan Kenton's band. During 1956-57, he free-lanced in NYC, and was back playing with Dizzy Gillespie's combo in 1958.

Subsequently, Candido was often seen on TV and in nightclubs, both in the US and in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He has recorded with a great many big names in jazz, pop and Latin fields including Shearing, Kenton, Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Tito Puente, Machito. His was the 'Apple Tree' voice in Disney's 'Wizard of Oz', and was the voices in many other Disney films. In the 1935 film, Roberta, he sang a duet with Fred Astaire, -"Let's Begin". During the 1940s, he appeared regularly on the Jimmy Durante Radio Show.

[ Machito ]
né: Frank Grillo (Brother-in-Law of Mario Bauza)
b. Feb. 16, 1912 Tampa, FL.
Overview
Born in Tampa, Florida, and raised in Cuba, Machito, from about 1923, would frequently travel back and forth between the US and Cuba. From about 1950, he began to achieve a following among Jazz fans due to his ability to incorporate jazz ideas into the Afro-Cuban genre of music, even though he himself was not a jazzman. On many of his records, one can hear such featured soloists as Flip Phillips, Charlie Parker, and Howard McGhee. While still later, he featured Curtis Fuller, Johnny Griffin, as well as arrangements by Herbie Mann.
(For much more informaton, please see the main Machito entry.

[ Noro Morales ]
b. Jan. 4, 1911, San Juan, PR.
Piano, Composer, Leader.
Overview
Noro got his initial musical training as a child playing in his family's orchestra. (Subsequently, the orchestra became the official orchestra for the President of Venezuela.) Morales emigrated to the US in 1935 and, in 1939, formed an orchestra that played night clubs, theaters and on records. It was his 1942 Decca 78 recording "Serenata Rtmica" that gave Morales instant recognition. From time to time, Noro's Latin-American band has included some Jazz musicians.
Please see also our Morales entry, in the "Big Bands Database Plus.

[ Chico O'Farrill ]
b. Oct. 28, 1921, Havana, Cuba.
Along with Mario Bauza, O'Farrill is one of the formative figures in Latin Music. Curiously, Chico is not very well known to the general public. Yet, for a half-century, he's been one of the innovators who has fused the soul-wrenching Afro-Cuban rhythms with the American Jazz harmonies. O'Farrill was, and still is, a true master of Jazz compositions who is able to embrace his love of Latin rhythms with sweeping styles of such calssical composers as Debussy, and Stravinsky.

Born into a Irish-German-Cuban family, O'Farrill was expected to follow his father into the family law firm, after some training at a U.S.A. military school. However, once in the States, he started listening to radio programs playing all the great big bands of the era, -Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey,

Learning that his son wanted to follow a career in music, rather than the Law, his father arranged for Chico to study with Cuban composer Felix Guerrero. By 1945, the young trumpeter was already playing with the popular Cuban dance band 'Orquesta Bellemar'. Chico also played at the Tropicana Hotel in Havana as a member of Armando Romeu's Orchestra.

O'Farrill's mind was open to every type of music. He studied everything from Bela Bartok's "String Quartets" to Cuban sextets. He began collaborating with bandleader Machito, and Mario Bauza. He wrote "Carambola" for Dizzy Gillespie, and some charts for Stan Getz's "Cuban Episode." In 1948, he moved to New York, where he worked as a ghost writer for arranger Gil Fuller and wrote for his hero, Benny Goodman. For Goodman's 1948 "bop" band, he wrote "Undercurrent Blues", "Chico's Bop" and "Shishkapop". He composed the "Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite" for the Charlie Parker and Machito orchestras, as well as "The Cuban Suite" for Stan Kenton.

O'Farrill formed his own band in 1950. This band recorded a number of 10" LP's for the Clef and Norgran labels from 1950 to 1954. The band also toured the USA. In the mid -1950's and 1960's, he arranged for Stan Kenton , Count Basie (mid-1960's) and the combined Dizzy Gillespie-Machito band (1970's). (In 1954, he updated his "Manteca", into a four-movement suite. It was originally a big-band chart for Dizzy Gillespie's band. )

With the Big Band era virtually finished, O'Farrill moved to Mexico City, where he worked as a bandleader. He appeared on Mexican television shows, and also wrote the "Aztec Suite" for trumpeter Art Farmer. In 1965, he returned to the States where he continued to arrange for Gillespie, Basie, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and Gato Barbieri. He was also receiving commissions for the commercial market, where he turned out much TV background music and advertisement jingles. In 1995 O'Farrill made his first recording in thirty years. "PURE EMOTION" was released on the Milestone lable and was nominated for a Grammy award. In 1996, the Milestone label released an album of original compositions entitled "Pure Emotion". Also in 1996, his "Trumpet Fantasy", premiered at New York's Lincoln Center, with soloist Wynton Marsalis.

His "Heart of a Legend" album features some of the greatest names in Latin and Jazz, including Gato Barbieri, Paquito D'Rivera, Cachao Lopez, Freddy Cole, Arturo Sandoval, Patato Valdés, and many others. The album (and a documentary film) were produced by filmmaker Jorge Ulla, Todd Barkan, and Arturo O'Farrill (Chico's son and a talented pianist in his own right)

O'Farrill is a truly talented musician. His music has been heard and enjoyed by people all over the world. Wider recognition of his contributions is long overdue.

[ Tito Puente ]
né: Ernest Puente, Jr.
b. April 20, 1925, New York City, NY, USA, d. June 2, 2000, New York, NY, USA.
Overview
Piano; Vibes; Alto Sax; Timbales; and Leader.
Tito is widely popular with both Latin-American and Jazz audiences. As a young man, he studied composition and arranging with a well known musician, - Richard Brenda. Subsequently (1945-49), he went on to play with such orchestras as Noro Morales, Pupi Campo, and many other well known Latin bands. Since then has led his own bands, all of which have wide popularity both in Latin-American music and Jazz circles.
Further information on Tito Puente, can be found here.