The maternal grandfather of Cuban-born singer, bandleader, actor and TV executive Desi Arnaz (Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, 1917-1986) was one of the founders of Bacardi Rum, but the family lost everything in the revolution of 1933. Desi went to the USA in 1934 and cleaned birdcages in Florida, sang rumbas in Miami clubs and is credited with helping to make the conga a national fad. His big break was touring with Xavier Cugat at the age of 19. He met songwriters Rodgers & Hart, who cast him in the 1939 Broadway musical Too Many Girls, in which he did the conga, and also played in the 1940 film version co-starring Lucille Ball (1911-1989; they married in 1940 and divorced in 1960). Minor roles in other films followed. Like Cugat, Arnaz was a populariser of Cuban dance music. He had minor hits with an inferior version of Margarita Lecuona’s "Babalú" (1946) and "Cuban Pete" (from the 1946 low-budget film of same name). Others recordings included "Green Eyes" (with Cuban pianist René Touzet), "Rumba Matumba", "La Conga en Nueva York", etc. He was also musical director of the Bob Hope radio show after World War II. Between 1951 and ‘59 he played Ball’s TV husband Ricky Ricardo in the massively successful series I Love Lucy. They formed the TV production company Desilu. He will be remembered more for introducing the TV sit-com three-camera production technique than for his music. His autobiography A Book was published in 1976. – John Child
Havana-born trumpeter, reedman, pianist, composer, musical director Mario Bauzá (1911-1993) is credited as the creator of Latin jazz (a term he loathed). He was adopted and raised by his godparents and tutored by his godfather. He attended Havana’s Municipal Academy from the age of seven; debuted on clarinet with the Havana Philharmonic at the age of nine and became a regular member from 12. He played clarinet at Havana nightspots and met Machito (1908-1984) around 1923/4. He made a brief trip to New York City in 1926 with the orchestra of pianist and composer Antonio María Romeu (1876-1955) to play clarinet on danzón recordings for RCA. He experienced jazz first hand in Harlem, having heard it on Cuban radio, and was inspired to learn alto sax by seeing Paul Whiteman’s band. He graduated from the Havana Municipal Conservatory in 1927 and played together with Machito in the teenage orchestra Los Jovenes Rendención in 1928.
He relocated to NYC in 1930, travelling on the same ship as Don Azpiazú’s Havana Casino Orchestra with singer Antonio Machín (1900-1977), who are widely credited for introducing Cuban music to the USA in 1931 with their crossover hit "El Manisero" (The Peanut Vendor). Bauzá learned trumpet in two to three weeks to record with Machín’s group Cuarteto Machín. He worked with numerous orchestras over the next decade, including Cuban trumpeter Vicente Sigler (regarded as probably the first big Latin dance band to perform in NYC during the ’20s), Noble Sissle ‘31-2, and Hi Clark and His Missourians at the Savoy Ballroom. Chick Webb spotted Bauzá while performing with the latter in 1933 and hired him as his lead trumpeter. Webb promoted him to musical director the following year, but he was fired from the band in 1937 or ‘38 after an argument with a club owner or because of the jealously of certain band members (accounts vary). Bauzá helped launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald by introducing her to Webb. In 1936 he married Machito’s sister Estella (c. 1912-1983). During 1937-9 he worked briefly with Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson, then replaced Doc Cheatham in Cab Calloway’s band in 1939. He became a close friend and influence on Dizzy Gillespie (they met in Webb’s band); and gave Gillespie a major break by faking illness to enable Gillespie to substitute for him and be heard by Calloway, who then recruited him. He also introduced Gillespie to Chano Pozo in 1947, helping to change the course of jazz.
In 1941 he joined Machito’s Afro-Cubans, reorganising and expanding the band. While Machito was absent for military service in 1943, Bauzá is said to have been responsible for the genesis of the jazz/Latin fusion called at various times: Afro-Cuban jazz, Cubop and Latin jazz, when he created "Tanga" (meaning: marijuana) during a rehearsal. "Mario, through his efforts married these musics to incorporate as much richness in rhythm and harmony as possible; all bands, therefore that came after the Afro-Cubans were just followers," stated Chico O’Farrill (1921-2001). With Bauzá as musical director, the Machito orchestra redefined the Latin sound as hot Cuban music, as opposed to bands like that of Cugat, which played a polite style for white hotels. Machito described him as the architect of his orchestra. Bauzá may have been the inventor of Afro-Cuban jazz, but many consider that the band’s popular trademark sound was provided by the consistently jazz-inflected arrangements of René Hernández (died: 1977), Machito’s arranger and pianist from 1945 to ‘66. Hernández went on to work with the Tito Rodríguez orchestra and wrote arrangements for many bands on the NYC Latin scene including Eddie Palmieri.
In 1974 Bauzá produced the LP Esa Soy Yo, Yo Soy Asi on Mericana for Graciela (1915-2010; Machito’s sister, and singer with his band from 1943) and co-produced the Grammy-nominated Dizzy Gillespie y Machito: Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods on Pablo in 1975, both with O’Farrill, but split acrimoniously with Machito after 35 years in late ‘75 when he objected to Machito’s son Mario Grillo being moved from bongo to timbales (to replace José Madera): the upshot was that Mario Grillo replaced Bauzá. Bauzá organised a band with Graciela to make the LP La Botanica (Lamp / Coco, 1977), which sold poorly. He continued guesting on LPs such as Rafael Cortijo’s Caballo de Hierro (Coco, 1978) and Típica 73’s Into The ’80’s (Fania, 1981). Bauzá and Graciela’s 1986 project Afro-Cuban Jazz With Graciela, Mario Bauzá And Friends for Caimán Records garnered a Grammy nomination. The twosome also featured on Rica Charanga (Caimán, 1986) by veteran vocalist Rudy Calzado (1929-1911).
He commissioned O’Farrill to develop "Tanga" into the four-movement "Tanga Suite", which his orchestra first performed at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church on October 21st, 1989. In 1990 he was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University, where he conducted the Harvard University Jazz Band. After seeing his Afro-Cuban Jazz Concert Orchestra (featuring Graciela and Calzado) performing with Gillespie for Bauzá’s 80th Birthday Tribute at NYC’s Symphony Space in April 1991, German Messidor label boss Götz A. Wörner signed him up. Bauzá’s 1992 Messidor debut Tanga, including "Tanga Suite" expanded to five parts, was voted album of the year in the downbeat critics’ poll. In 1992 he appeared with his orchestra in The Cosby Show along with Willie Colón’s band and performed on The Mambo Kings soundtrack album. He toured USA and Europe with his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. His Messidor follow-up My Time Is Now was released in June 1993, the following month he died of cancer in the apartment he had occupied for 50 years, the address of which provided the title of the posthumous release 944 Columbus (Messidor, 1994), recorded in May 1993. "This is the last thing I’m going to do for the new generation," he told Calzado. – John Child
Cuban-born pianist, organist, bandleader, arranger and composer Pérez Prado (Dámaso Pérez Prado, 1916-1989) popularised a diluted form of the mambo. He studied classical piano at the Principal School of Matanzas and played with local bands. He relocated to Havana in the late 1930s, where he initially performed with bands at the Pennsylvania and Kursaal nightclubs. In 1940 he briefly worked as an arranger and pianist with Orquesta Casino de la Playa (four sides he recorded with the band are collected on the 1991 CD Memories Of Cuba 1937-44 on Tumbao). He also worked with Orquesta Cubaney (led by trumpeter Pilderó), Paulina Álvarez’s orchestra and the CMQ radio band. He formed his own band in 1946, and made his first overseas tour and recordings the following year. Sides he recorded in Cuba between 1947 and ‘49 are compiled on Kuba-Mambo (Tumbao, 1991).
Prado gave inconsistent accounts of how and when he started writing mambos. It is posited that he utilised the term already popularised by danzón-mambos performed by the flute and strings orchestra Arcaño y sus Maravillas, to develop a formula for his brass-and-sax jazz-type line-up. He made little impact in Cuba, so went to Mexico in 1948 and worked with various bands before organising another band. He hired the Blanquita de Cuba theatre where he performed the successful show Al Son del Mambo (To The Sound of the Mambo). He teamed-up with the Cuban sonero Benny Moré for highly successful Mexican tours, a notable appearance at Panama carnival and numerous recordings: "El Barbaro Del Ritmo" Mambos by Beny Moré (Tumbao, 1991) collects sides recorded on RCA Victor with Moré between 1948 and ‘50, arguably some of his finest and most authentic recordings.
He made his US debut in May 1951 for a one-nighter with a pick-up band (including Mongo Santamaría) at the Ashland Auditorium for Chicago’s Mexican Youth Center. He took up residence in USA after being kicked out of Mexico in bizarre circumstances. There he recorded for Seeco, United Artists, Epic and other labels, but mostly for RCA. His best-known mambos were numbered: "Mambo No. 5" (1949, said to have been the first major crossover mambo hit), "Mambo No. 8" (both included on Go Go Mambo! ‘92 on Tumbao, a collection of recordings he made in Mexico between 1949 and ‘50 and New York City in ‘51). The mambo gradually became a craze in various Latin countries and a national fad in the USA in 1954. In the USA Latin community the three mambo kings were Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez; although the last two also recorded for RCA, Prado became the best known of them all because he had the biggest crossover hit: "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White" in 1955. "Cerisier Rose et Pommer Blanc" was published in Paris in 1950, recorded by Prado as "Cerazo Rosa" in 1951 (included in Go Go Mambo!) and again in 1955 for use in the film Underwater with Jane Russell; the arrangement had a slower tempo than Prado’s other mambos and a spectacular trumpet solo by Billy Regis. It was no. 1 in the USA for ten weeks and for two weeks in the UK. He had a second no. 1 in 1958 with "Patricia", a bouncy organ-led jazzish cha cha chá.
Prado left the US in 1970 (it was rumoured that he had fallen foul of Internal Revenue Service), continued to tour the world, and returned to Mexico. Mongo Santamaría, Doc Cheatham, René Bloch (reedman and later bandleader), Johnny Pacheco (on percussion) and Ray Barretto were among those who passed through Prado’s band. Other compilations include Al Compás del Mambo 1950-52 (Tumbao, 1993), Mambo Mania / Havana 3 A.M. (including most of the hits) and Voodoo Suite / Exotic Suite (the former included Shorty Rogers on trumpet) on Bear Family. The lesser 1958 hit "Guaglione" was a UK top ten hit in 1995 through its use in a Guinness stout TV ad; and it became chic to use Prado or Prado sound-alike mambos in other ads and as TV themes and incidental music. In 1999, Lou Bega’s cover of "Mambo No. 5" became a worldwide hit; it reached no. 3 in the Billboard Hot 100; remained no. 1 in Australia for eight weeks; topped almost every European chart, including Bega’s home country, Germany, and set a record by staying at no. 1 in France for 20 weeks. – John Child
The phenomenal trumpet-led string, percussion and voices institution La Sonora Matancera was established on January 12th, 1924 in Cuba’s Matanzas province (hence the name) in the home of tres guitarist Valentín Cané. Originally called Tuna Liberal, their line-up included bassist Pablo Vázquez "Bubú" (died: 1969), timbalero Manuel Sánchez "Jimagua", Ismael Goberna on cornet and three guitarists. Two key individuals entered the group in 1926: maracas player and third vocalist Caíto (Carlos Manuel Díaz Alonso, 1905-1990) whose falsetto voz de vieja (meaning: "old woman’s voice") chorus singing style became a trademark, and guitarist and singer Rogelio Martínez (1898-2001), later the group’s leader. The group also underwent one of its several name changes that year by becoming EstudiantinaSonora Matancera. In January 1927 the group moved to Havana. Their trailblazing use of uniforms was initially mocked, but swiftly became the norm; with rapid acceptance came gigs at numerous celebrated Havana venues, including the La Tropical and Marte y Belona nightclubs, Havana Sports Club, Alhambra Theatre, Galician Centre and on the radio. They made their first recording on Victor in mid-1928. They repeatedly performed for the Cuban leader General Gerardo Machado Morales between 1929 and 1932.
In 1930 the group settled for the name La Sonora Matancera (The Matanzas Group). In 1932 José Rosario Chávez "Manteca" replaced Jimagua on timbales. Former Septeto Nacional trumpeter / composer Calixto Leicea replaced the ailing Ismael Goberna (who subsequently died) as first trumpeter in 1935. The same year, Valentín switched to conga and his son Humberto Cané was hired to play tres. Bienvenido Granda (1915-1983) sang lead vocals from the early ’40s to the mid-’50s; he left due to differences with Martínez. Peerless pianist, composer, arranger Lino Frías (died: April 1983) played piano from 1944 to 1976 (he retired due to arthritis), followed by notable New York-based salsa pianist, bandleader, arranger, composer and producer Javier Vázquez (Bubú’s son). Second trumpeter Pedro Knight was added on January 6th, 1944 in order to rival other bands with three trumpets. After marrying Celia Cruz (lead singer ‘50-65) on July 14th, 1962 in Mexico City, he retired from the band on April 30th, 1967. Raimundo Elpidio Vázquez replaced his father Bubú on bass in 1954. Valentín departed in 1947 and Martínez was appointed leader. Manteca left in 1955. Papaíto joined as timbalero in 1960 and trumpeter Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros joined Leicea from 1976 to 1980.
Besides Granda and Cruz, over 60 singers performed with La Sonora, including Daniel Santos, Myrta Silva, Miguelito Valdés, Bobby Capó, Vicentico Valdés, Nelson Pinedo, Laíto (Estanislao Sureda), Alberto Beltrán, Carlos Argentino, Leo Marini, Celio González, Willy "El Baby" Rodríguez, Justo Betancourt, Elliot Romero, Yayo el Indio, Roberto Torres, Wuelfo Gutiérrez, Jorge Maldonado, Cali Alemán, Ismael Miranda, Fernando Lavoy and Frankie Vázquez.
Embracing both Cuban and other Latin rhythms, they are said to have recorded approximately 4000 songs for assorted labels, including Victor, Panart, Stinton, Seeco / Tropical, Ansonia, Orfeón, Bárbaro (a Fania sister label) and Fania. Their fame peaked across Latin American and the Caribbean during the ’50s. They left Cuba for good on June 15th, 1960, ostensibly to work in Mexico for four weeks; they stayed two years and then relocated to New York City in 1962. Their 65th anniversary was celebrated by a three concert series in June 1989, reuniting them with 13 former lead singers. The June 1st, 1989 concert was released as Live! From Carnegie Hall: 65th Anniversary Celebration (Team, 1989). One of Cuba’s earliest co-operative bands, this buttressed their enduring solidarity; they also never felt the necessity for written contracts. Recommended albums include Se Formó La Rumbantela ‘94 on Tumbao (an anthology of Victor recordings ‘48-50); Algo Especial and the hits compilation 50 Años, which collects 24 tracks ‘49-59, both on Seeco; the Betancourt reunion Sonora Matancera con Justo Betancourt ‘81 and the Celia Cruz reunion Feliz Encuentro ‘82, both on Bárbaro; 65 Aniversario ‘89 on Seeco, which collects hits ‘51-58; and Sonora Matancera Live on the radio 1952-1958 ‘96 on Harlequin. – John Child
One of Latin music’s heroes, the great Colombian salsa singer Joe Arroyo, died today at a hospital in Barranquilla, apparently of multiple organ failure.
Born in 1955 in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, Arroyo signed with the legendary record label Discos Fuentes in the early ’70s, and fronted now legendary bands like Fruko y Sus Teso and The Latin Brothers. Arroyo was known to incorporate many pan Caribbean and African styles in addition to the native Colombian rhythms. He even claimed to invent his own style called “Joe-son,” a cumbia-salsa hybrid.
One of his most well known songs is “Rebelión,” about an African couple brought by Spanish slave traders to Latin America, is included in many Arroyo compilations such as Grandes Exitos pictured further down below.
Un matrimonio africano, esclavos de
un espanol, el les daba muy mal trato
y a su negra le pego
Y fue alli, se revelo el negro guapo, tomo
venganza por su amor y aun se escucha
en la verja, no le pegue a mi negra
No le pegue a la negra
No le pegue a la negra
It was posthumously announced that Arroyo would be one of the recipients of the Latin Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s no secret that Joe Arroyo was one of my personal heroes, and songs like La Noche will always find a place on my ultimate playlist. We’ll miss you Joe.
Bandleader, drummer and vocalist Edmundo Ros, born Edmundo William Ros in Trinidad in 1910 to a black Venezuelan mother and a Scottish father named Ross, popularised a diluted form of Latin music in the UK and Europe. His family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, when he was a child and he grew up listening to Cuban son, guajira and guaracha rhythms. He went to the UK in June 1937 to study classical music at London’s Royal Academy of Music, but dropped out with a passion for popular music. He gigged as a jazz drummer at the Nest nightclub, recorded with Fats Waller in London in August 1938 and played percussion with Ciro Rimac’s Rumbaland Muchachos in Paris. He worked with Afro-Cuban pianist and vocalist Don Marino Barreto’s Cuban Orchestra at London’s Embassy Club and made six sides with them for Decca in April 1939. Barreto’s band was so successful that Ros was invited to organise his own group, and debuted with a six-piece Rumba Band at the Cosmo Club in London’s Wardour Street in August 1940, and became a huge success. He initially strove to emulate the authentic Cuban sound; "Los Hijos de Buda" from his first Parlophone date in April ‘41 became the best-selling record in England in June. He had wartime residencies at London’s Coconut Grove in Regent Street, then at the elite Bagatelle Restaurant, where he networked with international High Society (the future Queen Elizabeth danced for the first time in public to Ros’s music there).
Parlophone dropped him in 1942 because they wanted to use scarce shellac for Victor Silvester records. Ros credited Silvester with advice to tone down the percussion and concentrate on popular melodies: "a formula which brought him long-lasting success, at the cost of persuading the musically minded of two generations that Latin music was contentless and bland," wrote John Storm Roberts in 1979. He quickly embraced the samba rhythm made popular by Carmen Miranda, covering her hit "Tico-Tico" during his first session with Decca in September 1944 (Ros remained with the label until his 1975 retirement). The mid-’40s departure of his pianist Roberto Inglez (Scottish-born Robert Inglis, 1913-1978) was a blow to Ros; he responded by becoming a hard-nosed businessman, eventually founding The Edmundo Ros Holding Company (which embraced a publishing company, dance school, club, artist agency, etc). Ros expanded his Rumba Band to a 16-piece Orchestra including five saxes (two tenors, two altos and baritone, with doubling on flutes and clarinets), four trumpets and a seven-piece rhythm section. His 78rpm "The Wedding Samba" (1949) sold three million copies worldwide. When the mambo fad hit the UK in the early ’50s, he recruited percussionists Ginger Johnson (from Sierra Leone) and Nat Akimbo (from Ghana). In 1951 he acquired the Coconut Grove; when he eventually named it Edmundo Ros’ Dinner and Supper Club, it soon attracted an exclusive clientele including members of British and European royalty. Live BBC radio shows were broadcast overseas from the Club between 1958 and ‘61. He closed the Club in 1965 after the legalisation of gambling caused a decline in business.
He released a string of albums on Decca including the million-seller Rhythms of the South (1957), one of the earliest stereo LPs. He made numerous TV shows including the ATV series Broadway Goes Latin (1962) featuring guests such as Tito Puente and Johnny Pacheco. He dramatically disbanded in 1975 after his seventh sell-out tour of Japan because he felt his leadership had been undermined by trade union organisation in the band. He retired to his home "El Escondite de Eros" ("Hideaway of Love") in Javéa, Spain, but came out to conduct and sing with BBC Big Band at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 8 January 1994 (broadcast by BBC Radio 2), and made a CD for the Japanese market in April 1995. The collections Edmundo Ros And His Rumba Band 1939-1941 ‘92 and Tropical Magic Vol. 2 / 1942-1944 ‘95 on Harlequin compile his recordings with Barreto and his own band’s Parlophone and Decca sides ‘41-4; also Cuban Love Song Vol. 3 / 1945 ‘96 on Harlequin. Ros turned 100 on Tuesday December 7th, 2010. – John Child
Dubbed "Mr. Bongo" by the eminent jazz critic Leonard Feather, Chicago-born percussionist, composer and leader Jack Costanzo is credited with introducing the bongos into American popular music when he joined Stan Kenton’s band in 1947. From a Sicilian family, Costanzo began as a dancer and during his teens he taught in a local dance studio where he first heard bongos played by a Puerto Rican band. He made his own pair of bongos from a couple of buttercups and taught myself. After serving in the navy during World War II, he settled in Los Angeles in 1945. His first professional gig as a bongo player was with the Mexican bandleader Bobby Ramos in January 1946. He went on to work with the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Desi Arnaz and René Touzet. He toured with Stan Kenton from 1947-48. From 1949 to 1953 he played with the Nat King Cole Trio, with whom he had the hit "Calypso Blues" and co-wrote the blazing "Go Bongo" with Cole. Jack is featured in the Nat King Cole Trio anthologies Go Bongo! (Blue Moon, 1995) and Nat King Cole Trio – The Complete Capitol Transcription Sessions (Blue Note / EMI, 2005), and Nat King Cole – The Forgotten 1949 Carnegie Hall Concert (HEP Records, 2010). From there he worked with a who’s who of American showbiz, including Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Pérez Prado, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Jane Powell, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Eddie Fisher. Many Hollywood stars studied bongos with him, including Curtis, Grable, Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno and Gary Cooper. He worked extensively in the Hollywood film industry as an actor and musician, including motion pictures with Danny Kaye (Man From the Diners’ Club, 1953), Jerry Lewis (The Delicate Delinquent, 1956, and Visit to a Small Planet, 1960), Red Skelton (Public Pigeon Number 1, 1957), Pat Boone (Bernadine, 1957) and The Satin Bug (1965). His last picture was Harem Scarum (1965) staring Elvis Presley.
Costanzo formed his own band in the 1950s that recorded and toured internationally. The first six tunes he recorded as a leader in December 1954 are compiled on Jack Costanzo Plays Jazz, Afro & Latin (Fresh Sound Records, 2005); the remainder of the anthology comprises 12 largely jazz-infected tracks made in the summer of 1956 featuring the incredible pianist Eddie Cano (1927-1988) and trumpeter Paul López (who clocked-up seven albums with Mr. Bongo) that were originally released under the title Mr. Bongo Has Brass by Zephyr Records. For his first album for Gene Norman’s GNP Crescendo label, Mr. Bongo Jack Costanzo And His Afro Cuban Band (1956) Jack deliberately emulated the trumpet conjunto format of Cuba’s La Sonora Matancera to achieve the album’s fat sound and tipped his hat to the group by covering their hit "Melao de Caña". Personnel included Cano and López, who wrote most of the arrangements. Cuban-born Kaskara (Manuel Ochoa) and Jack’s wife at the time, Ohio-born Marda Saxon, provided lead vocals. Jack went on to make second album for GNP in 1971, Viva Tirado, which he admitted, "was a turkey." Also with GNP, he sessioned on the René Touzet sets The Cha Cha and the Mambo (1955, a.k.a. The Charm of the Cha Cha Cha) and From Broadway to Havana (mid-’50s) and co-headlined with Cano and vibes player, singer and composer Tony Martínez on Dancing on the Sunset Strip (circa 1960) recorded live at Hollywood’s Crescendo club.
In 1957 Jack Costanzo and his Latin Orchestra issued the excellent Mr. Bongo Plays in Hi-Fi Cha Cha Cha on the Tops label (reissued as Mr. Bongo Plays Cha Cha Cha on Palladium in 1993), again featuring Kaskara and Marda Saxon on vocals. Between 1958 and 1961 he made a short series of albums for Liberty Records: Latin Fever, Bongo Fever, Afro Can-Can, Learn To Play Bongos and Naked City. Although the producer of the Latin Fever is credited as Ray Stanley, one of the A & R men at Liberty, Jack later revealed that it was the label’s founder Simon Waronker (1915-2005) who devised the concept for the album. Waronker instructed Jack to make an album entirely without arrangements with all the tracks jammed on the spot. Consequently Jack opted for an instrumental album giving pride of place to solos from his impressive array of sidemen, including Costanzo stalwarts Cano and López. Standout cuts include the title track, capturing Mr. Bongo’s trademark skin scorching action, and the magnificent "Malaguena", virtually an eight-minute solo by Cano. "Every time we were going to stop (recording ‘Malaguena’), in the booth was Simon Waronker moving his hand, ‘Keep playing! Keep playing!’," said Costanzo. "So you hear the record, and there are about four times when you can tell that maybe we were going to stop! And then we keep going!"
Costanzo’s session work during the 1950s included dates with the Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars in 1953 (collected on Mexican Passport ‘96 on Contemporary Records), Sonny Burke & His Orchestra in 1954 (compiled on The Mambo Jambo Man ‘05 on Jasmine Records), Marty Paich in 1955 (collected on Paich-ence ‘06 on Jazzcity) and with Art Pepper, Conte Candoli and others in 1958 on Mucho Calor – A Presentation in Latin Jazz on the Andex label. In 1962, Jack made the groundbreaking Latin Jazz set Costanzo Plus Tubbs: Equation in Rhythm in the UK for the Fontana label. Though the production is co-credited to Tubby Hayes (1935-1973), the revered multi-instrumentalist and bandleader only featured on two tracks. Notable sidemen included trumpeter Shake Keane, drummer Phil Seaman and flautist Harold McNair.
In 1968 Jack was signed to make the one-off album Latin Percussion With Soul w/Gerrie Woo for Tico Records after the label’s A & R man Pancho Cristal saw him perform with a seven-piece group at the El San Juan Hotel in Puerto Rico. Cristal hired the talented New York-based pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader and producer Héctor Rivera (1933-2006) to arrange the songs he and Jack selected for the project. However, when Héctor arrived in Los Angeles to conduct the recording date by Jack’s approximately 14-piece ensemble, he had only arranged his own compositions and none of the agreed selections. An enormous row ensued, but the session went ahead under Héctor’s direction and Jack later acknowledged that he was "a marvellous arranger". Personnel included Costanzo regulars Cano and López together with former La Sonora Matancera bass player Humberto Cané. It is more than likely that Tico were hoping to emulate Joe Cuba’s 1966 pop and R&B chart success with Latin Percussion With Soul, but it didn’t happen. Jack’s wife at the time, the former Playboy bunny Gerrie Woo, sang on the most dispensable of the dated crossover tracks. There are only three, or possibly four of these, the rest of the material comprises of swinging mambos and fusion a la Mongo replete with solos and a guajira; the highlights being the Héctor Rivera compositions "Recuerdos", "Mambo Jack", "Mantequilla" and "Que Vengo Acabando", Booker T’s "Green Onions" and the Nat Adderly standard "Jive Samba".
Inclusion of his 1950s and early 1960s work in lounge and Latin jazz compilations during the 1990s helped introduce Costanzo to a new generation of fans in the US and Europe. To capitalise on this renewed interest, Jack emerged from a long period retirement in 1998 to organise a band and played a few gigs. Then he went into the studio to record the mini-album Chicken and Rice for GNP, released in 2000. A deal with the CuBop label resulted in two CDs for which he remade "Mantequilla" and "Jive Samba" for his 2001 debut Back from Havana and "Green Onions" for the 2002 follow-up Scorching The Skins. The latter also featured a new version of "Calypso Blues" from his days with the Nat King Cole Trio. – John Child
Of near mythical stature, Havana-born conga drummer, dancer, singer and composer Chano Pozo (Luciano Pozo y González, 1915-1948) was steeped in West African rhythms from childhood and belonged to an Afro-Cuban religious cult. He spent his teens in a reform school; developed a tough guy reputation, and was frequently involved in street fights. He spent days drumming, chanting and composing. Though he drank heavily, he "worked-out" daily to stay in condition. He performed with groups of street dancers in various parts of Havana and became a renowned choreographer of hotel revues and a composer of prize-winning carnival songs in the late 1930s. His lover Caridad "Cacha" Martínez persuaded him to switch his longstanding allegiance from Pueblo Nuevo district carnival group to Belén district; and many attribute composition of the popular carnival tune "Conga de Los Dandys" to him. Orquesta Casino de la Playa, Cuarteto Caney, Machito and his Afro-Cubans, Xavier Cugat, Miguelito Valdés and others recorded his songs. He performed in the spectacle Congo Pantera at the Tropicana cabaret featuring famed singer Rita Montaner (1900-1958). She helped him get the job of doorman and bodyguard for Amado Trinidad, owner of RHC Cadena Azul radio station. Appearances on the station further advanced his career. By the mid-1940s he was leading the all-star Conjunto Azul, which included his half-brother Félix Chappottín (1909-1982) on trumpet and recorded ten sides for Seeco Records. In 1945 he was shot twice in stomach in a fight with a publisher’s bodyguard over non-payment of royalties. He recovered in an expensive Havana hospital courtesy of Trinidad, though he continued to experience pain because surgery was unable to remove a bullet lodged at the base of his spine.
In 1945 Pozo met Mario Bauzá in Havana (Bauzá was on a trip there with his brother-in-law Machito), who offered his and Miguelito Valdés’ help to promote his career in New York. He relocated there with Cacha in January 1947. Valdés persuaded Coda label boss Gabriel Oller to record Pozo. Three sessions ensued in February 1947, including Machito’s orchestra, Tito Rodríguez, Arsenio Rodríguez and others; some of this material was collected on Legendary Sessions (Tumbao, 1992). Bauzá introduced Pozo to Dizzy Gillespie and the history of jazz was altered. Gillespie was seeking the addition of a "tom tom player" to his band: "I didn’t know it was called a conga drum. When Chano joined my band, that is when the Latin innovation in jazz began," Gillespie later said. He performed in Gillespie’s Carnegie Hall concert of September 1947. In December 1947 he played on eight Gillespie studio tracks for RCA Victor including "Cubana Be", "Cubana Bop" and "Manteca", which was a major hit in 1948 and became a much-covered Latin jazz standard. This material was anthologised in 1995 on Dizzy Gillespie: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings on RCA / BMG. In early 1948 he toured Europe with Dizzy, playing on a recording made at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris in Feburary ‘48 (reissued on French Vogue in 1993 and BMG in ‘95), featuring the eight minute co-penned "Afro-Cuban Suite"; a Pasadena Civic Auditorium concert in July ‘48 was reissued in 1993 as Dizzy Gillespie And His Big Band – Featuring Chano Pozo on GNP / Crescendo. He recorded four tracks with James Moody in late 1948 (on Blue Note, including Pozo’s vocal on "Tin Tin Deo", co-written with Gil Fuller).
He began a tour of Southern USA with Gillespie, but quit mid-way because of the theft of his conga in Raleigh, North Carolina, in late November 1948. He returned to NYC to purchase two congas with the intention of rejoining the tour. However, after acquiring new drums, he decided to stay in NYC until Gillespie returned, as he found the discrimination he experienced in the South intolerable. Pozo was shot to death in El Rio Bar & Grill by the Cuban ex-US Army Corporal Eusebio "Cabito" Muñoz (a decorated WWII veteran), who, unable to get a regular job, worked as a numbers runner and marijuana dealer. The most likely motive was Cabito’s machismo-driven revenge for the later confessed public humiliation he experienced when Pozo physically assaulted him for having been sold weak dope. Cabito was convicted and imprisoned for five years: a mild sentence due to his distinguished war record and character witnesses. Valdés arranged for Pozo’s body to be returned to Cuba for burial. While his body was at the NYC funeral home, many Latin music and jazz luminaries visited to pay their respects.
A tradition of tribute songs and albums exists, including the albums Tribute To Chano Pozo (True Ventures, 1977) and Tribute To Chano Pozo Vol. II (MC, 1995) by percussionist, singer, composer, bandleader, producer José Mangual Jr. (first son of José Mangual, Machito’s esteemed percussionist from 1942 to ‘59) and David Amram’s Havana / New York (Flying Fish, 1978) including the extended "En Memoria de Chano Pozo" recorded live in Havana, May 18th, 1977, featuring Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D’Rivera. In 2001 Tumbao issued the 3-CD box set El Tambor De Cuba, a comprehensive collection of Pozo’s compositions and performances, including some of his unheard recordings, spoken anecdotes and a 143-page biography. – John Child
Described as "one of the best flautists of this music of all time" by famed pianist Alfredo Rodríguez, José Antonio Fajardo (1919-2001) organised his first charanga band in September 1949. After initially struggling, his career really took-off with advent of cha cha chá craze in Cuba in 1953. Relocating to the USA in 1961, he went on to play a prominent role in the early ’60s charanga / pachanga craze and ’70s charanga revival. During the latter, he recorded four albums for Harvey Averne’s ill-fated Coco label. Then after playing on one track of Ray Barretto’s landmark Fania album Rican / Struction in 1979, he switched to Fania for four albums between 1980 and 1984. He was to record only one more solo album, La Flauta De Cuba (Tania, mid-1980s), but sessioned on various productions by the likes of Alfredo Valdés Jr., Israel López "Cachao", Fania All Stars, Graciela and Mario Bauzá, Louie Ramírez, Charanga Ranchera, Africando, Estrellas Caimánand Los Originales, among others, between 1982 and 2001. – John Child
Notorious for her frenzied stage performances and admired by some as the epitome of camp, Cuban-born La Lupe (Lupe Victoria Yoli Raymond, 1939-1992) peaked in popularity in the second half of the 1960s.
From a poor background, she played truant from school to enter a radio singing contest and won first prize. She completed teacher training at her father’s insistence and worked as a schoolteacher in Havana. Meanwhile she performed with the Trio Los Tropicales at the El Roco nightclub, but was expelled from the group for wild behaviour. Her solo debut at Havana’s La Red nightclub in 1959 was a great success and she recorded several hit albums in the early ’60s, including Con El Diablo En El Cuerpo and La Lupe Is Back on Discuba, and Es Lupe on Kristal. However, her tempestuous stage act mixed with rock ‘n’ roll sung in Spanish so outraged the Castro government, that she was constrained to quit Cuba in early 1962.
Failing to achieve acceptance in Mexico, she relocated to New York where Mongo Santamaría helped her waning career with the 1963 collaboration Mongo Introduces La Lupe on Fantasy (reissued as Mongo y La Lupe in 1973), denoting her switch to typical Latin music. The same year she featured on Mongo’s top 10 hit "Watermelon Man" on Battle. She signed with Tico Records and was paired with Tito Puente and his big band for Tito Puente Swings, The Exciting Lupe Sings in 1965. She shot to stardom and the album went gold. The Latin press in New York named her singer of the year in 1965 and 1966. La Lupe made three more collaborations with Puente in the mid-’60s (Tú y Yo / You ‘N’ Me ‘65, Homenaje A Rafael Hernández c. ‘66 and The King and I / El Rey y Yo ‘67) and recorded with prominent Latin names such as producer Al Santiago and arranger / musical director Chico O’Farrill (They Call Me La Lupe / A Mí Me Llaman La Lupe ‘66), arranger / pianist Héctor Rivera (who arranged and conducted one side of La Lupe Es La Reina/ La Lupe The Queen ‘69) and composer Tite Curet Alonso (Un Encuentro Con La Lupe ‘74).
Scandals returned to dog her career, including being banned from Puerto Rican TV for tearing off her clothing during a live broadcast. Her already rocky career is regarded to have sustained a crucial set back in the mid-’70s when Jerry Masucci (whose Fania empire had absorbed Tico) gave preference to progressing the career of another Tico signee: Celia Cruz. Despite issuing three LPs between 1977 and 1980, including La Pareja ‘78 with Puente, her career continued to dwindle until her retirement from performing in the early ’80s. She sank into poverty due to huge contributions to the Santería religion and enormous bills for her husband’s mental health treatment. She became paralysed following a domestic accident and was healed by an evangelical preacher. She converted to Evangelicalism and committed the rest of her life to religion until suffering a fatal heart attack in 1992. – John Child
