MACHITO - MACHO

Coro – Adalberto Santiago, Chivirico Davila
Coro, Leader, Percussion – Frank "Machito" Grillo
Liner Notes – Harvey Averne
Maracas, Coro – Ismael Quintana
Producer – Harvey Averne
Tenor Saxophone – Jose Madera*, Mario Rivera (2)
Timbales – Nicky Marrero
Trombone – Barry Rogers, Leo Pineda*
Vocals – Lalo Rodriguez
70s work from Machito – still very much in the mode of his classics from earlier years, but with an undeniable punch on a few numbers, thanks to the smoking salsa groove of the Coco Records label. Our main man Harvey Averne produced the entire session, with a nice undercurrent of Latin soul – and the album also features Charlie Palmieri on both organ and piano.

Machito, whose real name was Frank Grillo, was born in Havana in 1908 and was nicknamed Macho because he was his parent's first son after three daughters. He worked in Cuba as a backup singer and maracas player, and in 1937 came to the United States. He arrived in New York and moved in with Mr. Bauza, his brother-in-law, who at the time was the musical director for Chick Webb's big band. Mr. Bauza's apartment was two blocks away from the Savoy Ballroom, where major big bands played, and in the late 1930's Machito soaked up the sounds of swing. In the 1940's, Machito's band, the Afro-Cubans, brought together advanced jazz harmony and improvisation with Latin rhythms, a combination that had an immediate effect on modern jazz and continues to shape the Latin dance music now known as salsa.

With arrangements by the trumpeter Mario Bauza, Machito and his Afro- Cubans performed at both Latin dance halls and jazz clubs, working with such jazz pioneers as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Machito worked for a short time as a singer with Xavier Cugat. He adopted the name Machito, a familiar version of Macho, when he decided to start his own big band, playing more authentic Cuban rumbas, cha-chas and mambos.

Machito spent six months in the the United States Army in 1943, and during that time Mr. Bauza made a breakthrough; he wrote arrangements that topped Cuban rhythms with big-band horns and harmonies. Upon his return, Machito made the most of Mr. Bauza's innovations. Machito's band included both black and Latin musicians, and its combination of progressive material and precise execution quickly made the Afro-Cubans a leading dance orchestra. Machito and Mr. Bauza are also credited with being the first to add a conga drum to the dance band.

After World War II, the jazz musicians who were creating the be-bop style were drawn to Machito's music. Machito and the Afro-Cubans would perform at such jazz clubs as Bop City and the Royal Roost, alternating Cuban dance music with sets in which they would accompany the alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and other leading soloists. ''The Afro-Cuban Suite,'' recorded by Machito's band in the mid-1940's, featured Mr. Parker and the tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips.

In 1947, the bandleader Stan Kenton used the Afro-Cubans' rhythm section on a tune called ''Machito.'' And through Mr. Bauza and Machito, the be-bop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie met the Cuban drummer Chano Pozo, who joined Mr. Gillespie and brought Afro- Cuban rhythms into small-group jazz.

As the 1940's ended, New York's Palladium ballroom became a center for dancing to Latin music, and Machito and his band were heard there frequently throughout the 1950's. The group served as a training ground for many notable Latin musicians, among them Tito Puente, the timbales drummer who became a major force in salsa during the 1950's. Through the succeeding decades, Machito and his band continued to work constantly, on a touring circuit that eventually stretched from the Catskills to Japan and Europe.