mikeweil

I have seen Walton and Higgins live twice in different editions of Eastern Rebellion. Higgins always had big ears and reacted/commented on most everything his bandmates played. Being a conversational player myself, I really loved and appreciated this. You have to know what you're doing to open up and listen while playing. Many seem to be totally occupied with their own improvisational process. Some admitted this to me.

Tito Puente as a sideman in the 1940's Puente had his first important gig with Anselmo Sacasas in 1940, when he was only seventeen. The band's drummer got sick and he was called and felt lucky that he had all their records and memorized them. To get an impression of what that band sounded, I recommend this compilation reissue (Puente did not record with them): Puente was still learning; his first recording was another sub gig with Machito & his Afro-Cubans: The band's drummer, Cohito, couldn't read which was requires for some shows. Puente had studied drums and was hanging out with Cuban timbaleros in Harlem to get the real feel (sabor). When the band was contracted by Decca to record, Puente played on four tracks (Nague, Sopa de Pichón, La Rumbantela, and Paella). Due to a recording ban half of the numbers were recorded only in 1942 when Puente was in the Navy. These tracks were first released on 78's and compiled later for LPs; other recordings with famous singer Miguelito Valdes were treated with priority by the label. The twelve tracks without Valdes including the four with Puente are best heard on this Palladium CD reissue (Decca themselves neglected reissuing the Machito recordings on CD): I do not have a complete personnel listing for these; Machito (Raul Frank Grillo) sang and played maracas, Mario Bauza did the arrangements and played clarinet (!). After his Navy service Puente recorded with both the bands he played in, José Curbelo and Pupi Campo; tracks can be heard on these CDs: It was in Curbelo's band that met trumpet player Vincent "Jimmy" Frisaura, an Italian-American from the Bronx who spoke Spanish, love Harry James and had playing experience in Latin dance bands. When both joined Pupi Campo's orchestra, Al Escobar was the pianist; when he left Puente called his childhood friend José Estevez, better known as Joe Loco. He took Frisaura with him when he founded his own band in the summer of 1948. Both Puente and Loco wrote arrangements for Campo.

Maybe he had temporarily moved to Europe. He played with Pierre Courbois' band in 1973. Joachim Berendt, who was a big fan of Steig (he used a Steig/Mainieri track as theme song of his radio show at the time) and produced the Courbois live LP with Steig, had a hand in organizing that Munich festival, IIRC - Berendt might have suggested Steig.

Acosta's book focusses on the jazz side of things, which is okay, but underemphasizes the Afro-Cuban cultural and musical side of things - Sublette first, I'd say, as a basis for Acosta. I have yet to read Fernández' book. My experience is that you understand things better when you start from the (Afro-)Cuban side of things, to which jazz was added, even though a few musicians had a career in jazz before they played what we now view as Cuban Jazz or Latin Jazz (e.g. Mario Bauza). It all stems from Cuban music, dance, or not, and dance bands Cuban style was where it started. Puente and others then started adding jazz and classical elements, but as Puente himself says in Powell's book, the Cuban rhythms always was at the center of things. I wish I had I had read Sublette's book before the others. It is natural for a jazz fan to want to approach things from the jazz side, but in this case it is horse backwards. All forms of African-Americans started independently of each other and then were influenced by whatever they heard from other countries. Jazz was one of the strongest influences, but it also watered down some of the rhythmic features. Sublette gives deep insights into how early Jazz in New Orleans probably sounded before it became "jazz".

... which accientally featured drummer Marvin Paitillo who also was in Poindexter's quartet. So that was their next gig after Pony took a ride to Europe. She also played on George Braith's "Musart" LP on Prestige. The Lord disco now also lists several sessions made in California from 1995 to 2017, even one CD of her own leadership, but all for private musician-run labels, it seems.

Must have been a little tour. The same Messengers with Tony and Jeremy Steig as guests played on the 1972 Munich Jazz Now Festival at the occasion of the Olympic games. There even was a TV broadcast. July 28, 1972: Woody Shaw-t; Manny Boyd-f; Ramon Morris-ts; George Cables-p; Stanley Clarke-b; Ray Mantilla-cga Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (July 28, 1972) Child’s Dance (Prestige 10047) Jazz Now Festival, Munich, Germany (between August 17-20, 1972) [Coda 8/72 p.39] [lineup unknown] August 20, 1972: Jeremy Steig-f; George Cables-p; Stanley Clarke-b; Tony Williams-d; Buck Clarke, Ray Mantilla-cga Chateauvallon Jazz Festival, France (August 20, 1972) (private recording) [-HS] from https://jazzmf.com/art-blakey-chronology-and-the-jazz-messengers/ - the Munich gig belongs to the August entry.

Jane Getz - she played in Pony Poindexter's quartet immediately before he left for Europe. In his memoirs, he said "she played her ass off". But besides a Mingus LP there is nothing, it seems.

This afternoon:

Here's another one I really like - but I think the YouTube version is playing a tad too fast.

The original version with the musical saw!

Discographical sources A general problem is that practically all issues in the 1940's and 1950's listed only the featured singers besides the bandleader (or the band's name with his included), and most discographical sources depend on these. Thus you hardly find sidemen listed. Attempting a complete Puente discography is a dauting task, anyway, with 100+ albums as a leader and many guest appearances. The listings in the Tom Lord Discography are further weakened by the compiler's general avoidance of anything he does not consider as "jazz". Josephine Powell's book has no discography, just mentions sessions in passing, but often with the mention of sidemen or band members not listed on album covers. This must be taken with care, as the band often was expanded with guest for studio sessions, or made with an altogether different personnel for special projects - this especially was the case with many RCA Victor album projects in the second half of the 1950's. There is an online Cuban music discography including Puente recordings, but it is far from complete and relies on the musician credits on the issues listed. That Puente is listed at all (as a Puerto Rican) is a sign of his reputation in Cuban music. But for early Cuban music recordings, Cristóbal Díaz-Ayala's doscography is indispensable and an admirable work: http://latinpop.fiu.edu/discography.html CD reissues vary widely as far as the depth of discographical details are concerned, depending on sources available. Puente's early recording career can roughly be divided into these phases: - Early sideman dates as a member of Machito and his Afro-Cubans (1941, four tracks on their first Decca album), and, after his army service, with José Curbelo (1947-47) and Pupi Campo (1948). - with his own orchestra for Tico 1949-56, resulting in a total of 156 tracks released on 78 rpm records, which were compiled on various 10-inch and 12-inch LPs, and only one session specifically conceived for LP release. Puente was offered a contract by Tico Records (a new label founded in 1948) after the rapid success of his first band, but was skeptical and insisted on a clause allowing him to record for other labels. This resulted in: - 27 tracks recorded for 78 rpm release on RCA Victor 1949-1951 which were later compiled on LP - 1 session recorded for Seeco (1953) first released on 10" LP and, later, in an expanded 12" edition Puente signed with RCA Victor in 1956 and recorded a series of LPs for the label until 1960.

R.I.P. I only knew him from Don Patterson's Muse LP, "Why Not?" - he sure played some fine solos on it.

Just saw there was a CD reissue, on Joe Haider's label: https://www.discogs.com/Slide-Hampton-Joe-Haider-Orchestra-Give-Me-A-Double/release/9905461

Ernesto Anthony "Tito" Puente was born in New York on April 20, 1923 into a family of Puerto Rican immigrants. The details of his family and musical career can be found in a well reasearched biography by Josephine Powell, "When Drums Are Dreaming", first published in 2007. The title is in reverence to the title of one of the timbale feature numbers of his early recording career, "Quando Sueñan Los Tambores". The book sets his life into perspective of the political and social situation of the times, which is particularly important as Puente was making a career in Cuban music - Cubans looked down on the Purto Ricans whose culture and music they thought to be inferior to their own. There is a lot of information about the state of Cuban music in Cuba and the USA from the beginning of the 20th century until his death in 2000. Besides that it is an important source of information on a few discographical details (more on the subject later) as it portraits important musical colleagues and band members. I consider it an indispensable book for anyone seriously interested in Puente's music: It is still easily obtainable as bound and paperback editions as well as e-book. For the history of Cuban music before that time, whenever Powell's book leaves open questions, I recommend: And for the time before that, to understand the European influence on Cuban music: Most Cuban bandleaders (except the percussionists) were classically trained and still are, especially the pianists; many undertook further study in the USA. Puente received excellent training but still had a hard time establishing himself as a Puerto Rican in the world of the Cuban musical elite. Powell's book is an important source as it chronicles the development and personnel of Puente's musical aggregations and their personnel as well as the recording sessions held, and places into a wider historical perspective, musically and socially. The same goes for Sublette's book, which is basic reading for anyone interested in the connections and influences between Cuban and other Carribean and South American music and jazz. But Powell's books is marred by a number of typos, mostly regarding name spellings, and she sometimes quotes sources without counter-checking: she says Puente's "Oye Como Va" was covered by Santana in 1972, quoting John Stom Roberts, which is wrong - it was released in 1970; and a few pages later she states the correct year. As most biographers, she is not really discographically interested nor accurate, she obviously knows only what was stated in the album credits.

Excellent observation!

Happy Birthday! Any of his European big band albums is worth hearing, I think they are somewhat underrated. This here is a personal favourite (not for the cover, which looks like asuperficial attempt to draw sales) with great players to the last seat - among others, Dexter Gordon (playing Ben Webster's sax!): https://www.discogs.com/Slide-Hampton-Joe-Haider-Orchestra-Give-Me-A-Double/release/2566860

Happy Birthday, and my best wishes! May you reach 100! I used some of his solos for my students to memorize, because they were so clearly structured and executed, and his rolls impeccable.

Same here, but also his own band in a local venue.

Thanks, Allen - but I don't want you to be underpaid! Do not hesitate to contact me. I will e-mail my adress once again.

So you need a financial upgrade from those that already ordered and paid?

Nice that they added the "lost" alternate. But what we think about is a reissue of Prestige LP 7004 with the Konitz/Miles session added. The Japanese always stick to the Prestige 12" LPs which is nonsense as these reissued the tracks originally released on 78's in a rather scattered pattern, combining the Konitz/Miles session with Getz, Miles and/or Mulligan tracks on Prestige 7002 and 7013. Discographically speaking, these LPs were a mess.

My copy is in much better condition!