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 Basic Test by Bobby Sanabria, 1990
Postscript by Bobby Sanabria, June 2000
PART 3:THE PALLADIUM YEARS
Tito Puente at the Palladium Dance HallIn 1949 Max Hyman purchased the Alma Dance Studios from Tommy Martin. The large crowds that flocked to the club when Latin music was featured had excited Hyman. He immediately erected a brightly-lit sign displaying the club's new name, The Palladium.
The Palladium provided New York City's ultra-hip dance crowd with continuous performance by Latin music's most progressive orchestras. "The Palladium was a phenomenon," states Tito, whose band became a fixture at the club. "On Wednesday nights "Killer Joe" Piro would teach the current mambo steps to the crowd. The place was a BIG melting pot," continued Tito, "Jews, Italians, Irish, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Cubans -- you name it. Everyone was equal under the roof of the Palladium, because everyone was there to dig the music and to dance." The Palladium attracted the elite of New York's art and literary community along with a host of Hollywood stars. On any given night Sammy Davis Jr., Jackson Pollack, or Marlon Brando might be found sitting in on bongos with the Machito Orchestra.
Tito's popularity as a bandleader had skyrocketed, fueled by the release of his 78-rpm recording, "Abaniquito" (the name for the traditional rim shot phrase played on the timbale). The track featured the exciting trumpet work of Mario Bauza with Vincentico Valdez on lead vocals and Graciela, Machito's sister, on background vocals. Tito used a conjunto setting (an ensemble featuring trumpets) in these early recordings but he would soon begin to expand the size of the band. Within a year it would include four trumpets, baritone, alto, and tenor saxes, and trombones. "I always wanted to be progressive in my writing for Latin music," states Tito. "I was inspired by my work with Machito under Mario Bauza's musical direction and by others who worked with the band like the great pianist-arranger Rene Hernandez. The Machito Orchestra was way ahead of its time by combining Jazz and Latin. I wanted to keep that going." By 1950, Tito was churning out 78s for Tico, RCA, SMC, and Mambo Boys. Mambo was the rage. It had developed two distinct factions: the more commercially palatable sounds represented by the Xavier Cugat Orchestra and Perez Prado, and the hybrid Afro-Cuban, jazz sound of the Machito Orchestra, Tito Puente, and the later Tito Rodriquez.
Anti-establishment beboppers like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Max Roach were making their way up the block from Birdland to the Palladium to listen to mambo. Gillespie began incorporating what he heard into his music and the exciting fusion that jazz writers came to call Cu-bop, Jazz Mambo or Cubano Jazz came into being.
Drawing on his early musical experience, Tito structured his band to be versatile enough to play a wide variety of music, ranging from straight-ahead jazz and society music to pop standards and typical Latin music, thereby increasing the number of venues it could play and widening its audience. Even as music writers proclaimed the passing of the big band, Tito and his contemporaries in the Latin scene were keeping the genre alive and vital.
From 1951 through 1955 Tito recorded for the Tico label. At Tico, Puente was given free rein to explore diverse musical ideas, a relationship that culminated in the highly innovative recording, "Puente in Percussion, " recorded in 1955. On the date Tito used no pianos or horns, featuring only percussionists Willie
Bobo, Mongo
Santamaria, and Patato Valdez, along with bassist Bobby Rodriquez.
"George Goldner, an executive at Tico, was resistant to the project at first", remembers Tito. "He couldn't see my making an album without piano and horns. I explained to him the significance of the drum in Africa, its used in religious dance rituals and communication, and how the tradition was handed down to us in Latin America. He finally gave me the go-ahead on the condition that we use the studio late at night to keep the cost down. We recorded everything in one or two takes," continued Tito, "and the album was very successful both from the standpoint of sales and quality drumming."
In 1955, RCA released "Mambo on Broadway," a compilation of Tito's previously recorded 78's. That same year, Puente signed an exclusive recording contract with the company. Tito's years at RCA would be marked by prodigious artistic output and commercial success, achieved despite RCA's less than enthusiastic support of his efforts. "At the time," stated Tito, "RCA was pushing Perez Prado and Luis Avarado whom they felt appealed to a wider audience because of their toned-down approach to Latin music. Here I was ready to record with new arrangements and composition, and they called me 'little Caesar.'"
In 1956 Puente recorded the album "Cuban Carnival," his first hit with RCA. His next release, "Puente Goes Jazz," which showcased Tito's instrumental writing, was also a major commercial success. Despite RCA's lack of promotional support, Dorothy Kilgallen, writing in her daily column, "The Voice of Broadway" reported: "Tito Puente's new album, 'Puente Goes Jazz' is rocking the aficionados. They've snatched up 28,000 copies in two weeks." Tito stated, "RCA didn't know what to do with Latin music and they still don't. They treated me like some small-time local artist although I would consistently sell records."
The following year, through the efforts of Jack Louis, a sympathetic A&R man at RCA, Puente recorded "Top Percussion," his second album explored the wide melodic and rhythmic range of Afro-Cuban drumming. One side featured drummer Julito Collazo along with a chorus performing the cants and songs of Lucimi, a religion of Western African origin that took root in Cuba and then throughout Latin America where it became know as Santeria. Tito had become interested in Santeria and in later years would become an initiate of the Orisha Obatala. "Top Percussion" exposed a largely unknowing listening public to the inseparable nature of African religion and music and to its deep link to Latin music.
1957 also saw the release of "Night Beat," Tito's sequel to the popular "Puente Goes Jazz." The album featured a young trumpeter named Doc Severinsen.
 The same year, through the efforts of Mario Bauza, the Cuban government would include Puente in a ceremony honoring the greatest Cuban musicians of the past fifty years, earning Tito the distinction of being the only non-Cuban to be so recognized.
In 1958 Puente recorded "Dance Mania," an album featuring Santos Colon on vocals. This album, which includes such signature tunes as "Hong Kong Mambo" and "Cayuco," remains one of the highest-selling Latin albums of all time and is still a favorite of dance instructors.
Tito maintained a busy and varied recording schedule during the last decade, producing "Tambo," a further delving into Afro-Cuban themes. "More Dancemania," a straight dance album and big band recording with Count Basie, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett, and Abbe Lane. In 1960, Tito collaborated with trombonist Buddy Morrow on the recording "Revolving Bandstand." Tito's radical concept for the album placed two big bands, one with a Latin rhythm section, the other with a jazz rhythm section, together in the same studio. "First," Tito explained, "the jazz big band would play a tune like "Autumn Leaves" and give it their treatment, and then the Latin band would play the bridge of the tune in authentic style." The album, which wasn't released until the 1970's featured Tito's conducting and arranging skills, blending his thorough knowledge of both the Latin and jazz idioms. "Revolving Bandstand" would be Tito's last recording for RCA. Joe Conzo, producer and long-time Puente publicist states, "Tito recorded literally hundreds of unreleased tracks for RCA. They just never understood how great a talent they had with Tito."
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