Ernest AnthonyPuente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000),[1] commonly known as TitoPuente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions from his 50-year career. His most famous song is "Oye Como Va".[2]
Tito Puente was born on April 20, 1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in the New Yorkborough of Manhattan, the son of Ernest and Felicia Puente, Puerto Ricans living in New York City's Spanish Harlem.[3][4] His family moved frequently, but he spent the majority of his childhood in Spanish Harlem.[3] Puente's father was the foreman at a razorblade factory.[5]
As a child, he was described as hyperactive, and after neighbors complained of hearing seven-year-old Puente beating on pots and window frames, his mother sent him to 25-cent piano lessons.[5] He switched to percussion by the age of 10, drawing influence from jazz drummer Gene Krupa.[5] He later created a song-and-dance duo with his sister Anna in the 1930s and intended to become a dancer, but an ankle tendon injury prevented him from pursuing dance as a career.[4][5] When the drummer in Machito's band was drafted to the army, Puente subsequently took his place.[5]
We play jazz with the Latin touch, that's all, you know.[7]
During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity and helped to bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo, son, and cha-cha-chá, to mainstream audiences. Puente played popular Afro-Cuban rhythms so successfully that many people mistakenly identified him as Cuban. Dance Mania, possibly Puente's most well-known album, was released in 1958.
Among his most famous compositions is the cha-cha "Oye como va" (1963),[2] popularized by Latin rock musician Carlos Santana and later interpreted, among others, by Julio Iglesias, Irakere and Celia Cruz. In 1969, he received the key to the City of New York from former Mayor John Lindsay. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Congressional Record, and in 1993 he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian.[8]
Puente's timbales in the Tito Puente exhibit in the Artist Gallery of the Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix
In early 2000, Puente appeared in the music documentary Calle 54.[9]
Tito Puente's name is often mentioned in a television production called La Epoca,[10] a film about the Palladium era in New York, Afro-Cuban music and rhythms, mambo and salsa as dances and music and much more. The film discusses many of Puente's, as well as Arsenio Rodríguez's, contributions and features interviews with some of the musicians Puente recorded with Alfonso "El Panameno" Joseph.
Personal life and death
Puente's son Richard "Richie" Puente was the percussionist in the 1970s funk band Foxy. Puente's youngest son, Tito Puente Jr., has continued his father's legacy by presenting many of the same songs in his performances and recordings. His daughter Audrey Puente is a television meteorologist for WNYW and WWOR-TV in New York City.
After a show in Puerto Rico on May 31, 2000, he suffered a massive heart attack and was flown to New York City for surgery to repair a heart valve, but complications developed, and he died on June 1, 2000, at 2:27 am.[11] He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
During the presidency of Sen. Roberto Rexach Benítez, Tito Puente received the unique honor of having both a special session of the Senate of Puerto Rico dedicated to him and being allowed to perform in his unique style on the floor of the Senate while it was in session.
Puente performed at the closing ceremonies at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The timbales he used are displayed at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Tito Puente – Live in Montreal (Montreal Jazz Festival) (1983) (2003)
The Simpsons
Puente appeared in the two-part whodunit drama "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" in the sixth season finale and seventh season premiere of American comedy cartoon show The Simpsons in 1995. In the shows, Puente joins Springfield Elementary School as a music teacher after the school discovers it is located over an oil well. However, Mr. Burns manages to pump the oil first, which makes him the legal owner of the well. This causes the school to fall into debt with budget cuts to the music and maintenance departments, causing Puente to lose his job. When Burns is later shot, Puente becomes one of the prime suspects but manages to clear himself by performing one of his songs for Chief Wiggum. Seven alternative endings were filmed of various characters shooting Burns; Puente is one of the alternates. Although all endings were animated, the ending of Maggie Simpson shooting Burns was the ending chosen to air.