In A Mellow Tone
Wednesday April 29th, 2020 with Bernard Stepien
Latin Jazz Legend Tito Puente

Tito Puente, a New York Latino has fused Latin music and Jazz since the mid 40'. Initially he started his professional career at age 15 in the famous Latin musician's Machito big band. however, even back then, Tito Puente, an alto saxophonist at that time, was hanging out with Be Bop Jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon and Miles Davis among others. more important maybe is the fact that he was also hanging out with Duke Ellington and Count Basie. this has led Puente to maintain a big band format and arrangement style throughout his career. His band never was under 9 musicians. in this program, we will study Puente's evolution from an early big band format but still playing Latin music in its purest form to a total Jazz format with an overlay of Latin rhythms and melodic patterns including the Montuno, and especially his very percussive playing of Timbales, his main instrument besides vibraphone.