mikeweil

I do not have full copies of the two RCA box set booklets and thus have no idea about the mastering engineer. The Quatro Box was re-mastered by Mike Fuller at Fuller sound. I am in the process of comparing the sound of the single CD reissues with the copy of the first box that I have, but it will take some time. I will mention the mastering engineer when presenting all the single CD reissues. Not all were made by Baxter.

I will compare tomorrow and post here.

Box sets of Puente's RCA recordings 1949-1960 In the year 2000 BMG issued the first of two box sets covering Puente's "complete" recordings from the time span we are talking about. https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-The-Complete-RCA-Recordings-Vol1/release/14085264 In 2001 Vol. 2 followed: https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-The-Complete-RCA-Recordings-Vol-2/release/3566174 The big problem about those two boxes is that they split all the material in half - you only get about half of the tracks from each album on either box. I only have a copy of the first volume and a track list a friend gave me, which indicates recording dates for each track. IIRC there were no personnel listings, only recordings dates. (Please correct me in case I'm in error here.) I was hesitating to buy the box as I was mad at the label to do it in such a way, and still are. Plus, I have most of the music on single CDs, some with bonus material. It would take a lot of time to compare track lists to see if all added tracks are in those boxes. Plus, they were rather limited and used copies are hard to get at a decent price. Tito would have deserved a better treatment with each album complete in one of the boxes, IMHO. SONY BMG topped it all in 2012 when they released a limited (5000 copies) 5 LP/CD box titled Quatro - The Definitive Collection. It included four albums plus one disc with alternates and outtakes, obviously designed for the LP edition, as there were no bonus tracks added to the albums, not even on the CD version. The latter is nicely done in 8" size, but Joe Conzo's new liner notes do not add much to what the Puente fan already knows, discographical information is listed, but the choice of albums is strange: Three undisputed classics, Cuban Carnival - Night Beat - Dance Mania - are coupled with the Revolving Bandstand LP, which AFAIK saw the light of day only in 1963 and is not considered an indispensable Puente album. It had already been reissued on CD with two alternates which are found on the bonus disc. The Puente completist will want it for the fifth disc. https://www.discogs.com/Tito-Puente-Quatro-The-Definitive-Collection/release/10797081 Neither of these deserves the description "definitive" box set, IMO. I'd rather recommend single album reissues, which are next, one by one. p.s. Just saw there was a second issue of the first box in the same design as the second:

R.I.P. I really like his collaborations with Eddie Jefferson. He was not an innovator, but a good soloist with the right spirit for the music. He played very well on Don Patterson's Muse LP, Movin' Up: And there's a fine Gillespie tribute he recorded. Will give that a spin tomorrow.

Did a long listening sessions with headphones this afternoon, all excellent music, fine performances. Expecially the first two Corrette discs are superb, beautiful music, perfectly played.

So sad .......... R.I.P.

Dance Mania seems to be his biggest hit for RCA, judging from the number of reissues. It was the only of his RCA albums that was reissued in a luxury double CD Legacy Edition. The scene for Latin music was rapidly changing in those years. When Puente started in the late Forties it was the mambo craze, but it was soon overhauled by Cha Cha Cha as the mambo steps were too difficult for most dancers. Then came the Revolution, Cuba became the enemy and everything Cuban was no longer politically correct. They had to change the music, not only the names. R & B, Rock 'n' Roll, later the British pop music all made if difficult for Latin bands to reach a general dancing audience. Then came Salsa (a term Puente hated) and Santana who kinda pirated some of his music. Puente really stayed a mambero at heart 'til the end. p.s. Puente is quoted in Powell's book stating Dance Mania was his biggest seller.

I've never seen Higgins dancing, but sitting behind his drumset he looked more like he had drumsticks inside all his limbs - didn't look nearly as flexible as his playing sounded. I mean, the way somebody looks while playing does no way give a hint at what he sounds like. At least that's my experience. Walton and Higgins, btw, laid down some serious grooves for Eddie Harris on his first Atlantic LPs. Ron Carter on bass.

My standards are high, as I use BRIAN - considering all the different issues on Tico or RCA, it would take more years than I still have the brains and patience to do so. I have several others in the can or already completed but have to establish a web platform to get them published.

There are some CDs out with 1890's recordings besides Allen Lowe's anthology. Archeophone reissued some of it - very interesting music. I have a handful of very early classical recordings from that time, too. But the earliest stuff I have are recordings for mechanical organs from the 18th cenrury! Some other early stuff I have:

Still one of my favourite recordings of the pieces, in excellent sound, on a Skowroneck harpsichord after the Berlin Mietke. BWV 968 has never been done better on CD, IMHO. I was inspired to listen to this CD again after Ketil Haugsand linked a new recording he made for the Netherlands Bach society on his facebook pages.

RCA Victor 1956-60 Next comes the four years during which Puente recorded numerous albums for RCA Victor. I will start with a list in chronological order of release; I'll state recordings dates and release year whenever known to me. Please excuse any missing releases. Mambo On Broadway - LPM 3164 (rec. 1949-51, 1954 10" LP reissue of 8 tracks originally on 78 rpm discs) Cuban Carnival - LP 1251 (rec. 4/1956, rel. 7/1956) Puente Goes Jazz - LP 1312 (rec. 6/1956, rel. 1956) Mambo On Broadway - LP 1354 (rec. 1949-51, 1956 reissue of LPM 3164 with four additional tracks; the last two rec. 11/1955) Cubarama. Let's Cha Cha - LP 1392 rec. 8/1956, rel. 1/1957) Night Beat - LP 1447 (rec. 3-4/1957, rel. 1957) Charlene Bartley - The Weekend of a Private Secretary - LP 1478 (rec. & rel. 1957) four tracks with Tito Puente & Orchestra Mucho Puente - LP 1479 (rec. 4-5/1957, rel. 6/1958) Be Mine Tonight / Abbe Lane with Tito Puente & his Orchestra LP 1554 (rec. & rel. 1957) Top Percussion - LP 1617 (rec. 7/1957, rel. 1958) Dance Mania - LP 1692 (rec. 11-12/1957, re. 1958) Dancing Under Latin Skies - LP 1874 (rec. 9/1958, rel. 1959) Mucho Cha-Cha - LP 2113 (rec. 6/1959, rel. 12/1959) Cha Cha with Puente at Grossinger's - LP 2187 (rec. 12/1959, rel. 1960) Tambó - LP 2257 (rec. 4/1960, rel. 1/1961) Dance Mania Vol. 2 - LP 3241 (rec. 8/1960, rel. 1961) Revolving Bandstand - Tito Puente & Buddy Morrow & their Orchestras (rec. 1960, rel. 1963) Some of these albums were issued with differing contents in mono and stereo issues - I still have to figure out some details. To make things still more complicated, some tracks obviously were released only on singles or not at all - this explains several tracks in the "Complete RCA" box sets that cannot be found on the LP issues or their CD counterparts. One more album was recorded for the Everest label and released in numerous versions and with varying release numbers: Herman's Heat & Puente's Beat - Woody Herman & Tito Puente (rec. & rel. 1958) Covers, recommendable reissues etc. will follow one by one. The next post will be about major reissue compilations.

Puente In Percussion Puente's last effort for Tico was the only session conceived for LP release - recorded most likely in 1955 and issued on 12" LP in 1956. There were many reissues with at least three cover designs, as this is a classic of Afro-Cuban percussion, a textbook of improvisations for timbales, bongos, and congas, accompanied only by a string bass. All the participating musicians spoke only with praise about this. Tito Puente (timbales), Mongo Santamaria (congas, bongos, timbales), Carlos "Patato" Valdez (congas), Willie Bobo (guiro, bongos, timbales) - the bassist was not identified, but with all probability it was Roberto "Bobby" Rodriguez. Josephine Powell mentions him when she writes about the session, and also lists Candido, but I do not know of any other source saying that he was on the session, and the solos sound like Mongo and Patato, but not like Candido.

Another result of the special clause in Puente's contract with Tico allowing him to record for other labels was a session for Seeco in 1953. Eight tracks were released on a 10" LP: There was an expanded eleven track version on 12" LP, which was reissued on CD and LP on Palladium: No personnel credits on any issue, just the featured singer, Vicentico Valdes. This album sounds much like a cross section of all the styles Puente recorded for Tico, instrumentals, two tracks with vibes, a Hollywood type girl vocalist (unidentified), mambos, boleros, and cha cha chas.

Discographically, the situation is much better for the 1949-51 RCA Victor sides. Judging from latter day CD reissues, documentation sheets for the sessions have survived, the original tapes are existant and have excellent sound quality. Eight of the 27 tracks were reissued on a 10" LP titled Mambo On Broadway. It was expanded to 10 tracks for a 12" LP with 12 tracks (RCA LSP 1354), which was reissued on CD by BMG in Spain . RCA in the US issued a new compilation they titled Cuando Suenan Los Tambores, with 15 tracks and personnel credits, as well as recording dates: The real deal for these tracks, however, was a Japanese CD reissue of Mambo On Broadway expanding the 10" LP to 27(!) tracks. Liner notes were in Japanese, but there were two tables in the booklet with complete credits, recording dates and the distribution on various LP and CD reissues. This CD was very limited and is not even listed on discogs (BMG Japan BVCP40035 - make sure you get the 27 track version. There are other Japanese issues listed on amazon, but without tracklists. I have uploaded the two tables for you: https://pichost.net/img/puente-rca-japan-01.tROsW and https://pichost.net/img/puente-rca-japan-02.tRDMC - they give complete discographical information for those tracks. The second table shows why nobody so far attempted a Puente discography - the contents of all the LP and CD reissues are puzzling. The version of Ran Kan Kan heard here is the first, more famous one with Tito on timbales. Two tracks on the 12" LP and CD reissue are not among these 27 - "Por Tu Amor" and "Vibe Cha Cha Cha". They are not regarded in the tables I uploaded. My assumption that they are from a later session proved to be true: According to the sparse credits in the "Complete RCA Recordings Vol. 1" box set they were recorded November 28, 1955 - immediately after Puente had terminated his recordings for Tico. More about this session below.

No there is not, I'm sorry. See my second post. The situation is as follows: The Tico label, with whom Puente was under contract between 1949 and 1955, changed ownership several times (a rough outline is on Wikipedia). In the process, any documentation about the sessions, their dates, and the personnel involved, was obviously lost. When Joe Conzo was asked to compile a reissue of the complete 156 tracks that Tico had released on 78 rpm records, he couldn' even find proper tape material of the original sessions or the master tapes of the consecutive 10" or 12" LP issues. Everything was remastered from his own private collection of all 78's, which were is widely varying condition. All we know about personnel is the singers that were credited on the discs' labels, and what we can conclude from the band members mentioned in Josephine Powell's book. But studio sessions often used additional or altogether different musicians, depending on the music. There were pieces recorded that probably never were part of the band's book, or the arrangements changed to fit the three minute time limitation of the record. You can find the track lists on discogs or amazon. Four double CDs were issued in 2008 and 2009, with the tracks in chronological release order of the 78 rpm records. The sound quality was criticized a lot when these were issued. There had been better sounding reissues before. Craft Music made them available as downloads. I have a cheapo CD compilation reissue with 23 Tico tracks that sounds excellent, it can be found for little money on discogs. The Palladium LP reissues and later Tumbao CD reissues also sound better, they probably used good condition Tico LPs as sources. Most of the tracks from the Mamborama LP are all on the two Tumbao CDs shown below it. The Camey CD has all the Mamborama tracks plus three more. But the four double CDs above are the first and only time the complete Tico 78's were reissued, many of them never made it to LP and so were not available to our friends in Barcelona. Tico was ultimately bought by Fania, which now belongs to the Concord Music group. The Universal imprint is already found on the back cover of those double discs. I'd rather not speculate on what source material is still in the Universal vaults. The Fania archives always were a mess, I have read. The version of Ran Kan Kan Hot Ptah used in his Blindfold Test was the second recording of that piece - the first was for RCA with Puente featured on timbales (more to that later). (Puente reserved his vibes features, some only with piano, bass, and rhythm, for Tico until he signed with RCA in 1955, there is a total of twenty.) The original issue was Tico T-10-228, it was reissued as a 45 rpm single Tico 45-228 in August 1954. The two tracks could be early 1954 recordings, or 1953 (the Tumbao reissue says 1949-1951 which is improbable. Personnel is Tito Puente (vibes), with probably Charlie Palmieri (piano), Mongo Santamaria (congas), Willie Bobo (timbales). That is all I can say.