mikeweil

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.

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.