Tito Puente - Payaso

Born Ernesto Antonio Puente, April 23, 1920, in New York, NY; married; three children. Education: Studied conducting, orchestration, and musical theory at the Juilliard School of Music, 1945-47.

As a child, performed as percussionist/pianist in Los Happy Boys band, New York City; as a teenager, performed with Noro Morales and the Machito Orchestra; performed with Fernando Alvarez and his Copaca-bana Group, Jose Curbelo, and Pupi Campo; formed Piccadilly Boys, 1948, then Tito Puente Orchestra; recorded first hit single, “Abaniquito,” Tico, 1949; signed with RCA, 1949; released fusion of mambo/big band/jazz LPs, 1950s-1960s; performed compositions at Metropolitan Opera, New York City, 1967; hosted television show The World of Tito Puente, 1968; performed for U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 1979; founded Tito Puente Scholarship Foundation; appeared in films Radio Days, Armed and Dangerous, and The Mambo Kings, 1991; released 100th recording, El Numero Cien, 1991; with Golden Latin-Jazz Allstars, released Master Timbalero, 1994; with Latin-Jazz All-stars, released In Session, 1994. Military service: U.S. Navy, 1942-45.

Tito Puente is widely considered to be the godfather of Latin jazz and salsa, devoting more than six decades of his life to performing Latin music and earning a reputation as a masterful percussionist. Noted for merging Latin American rhythms with contemporary jazz and big band music, Puente’s prolific output encompasses over 100 albums recorded between 1949 and 1994.

Puente was born in New York City’s Spanish Harlem in 1923, where the hybrid of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Puerto Rican music helped create salsa music (the Spanish word for “spice” and “sauce” is salsa). By the time Puente was ten years old, he played with local Latin bands at neighborhood gatherings, society parties, and New York City hotels. Puente first performed as a young boy with a local band called Los Happy Boys, at New York City’s Park Place Hotel, and by the age of 13, he was considered a child prodigy by his family, neighbors, and fellow bandmembers. As a teenager, he joined Noro Morales and the Machito Orchestra. Puente was drafted into the Navy in 1942—at the age of 19—to

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