TITO PUENTE (Rest in Peace)

[Boricua-in-US]

Bandleader Tito Puente, who rode to fame on the heels of the 1950s mambo craze and for the next five decades helped define Latin jazz, died today. He was believed to be around 77.

Puente died at NYU Medical Center in New York, said his agent, Eddie Rodriguez.

Puente recorded more than 100 albums in his more than 60 years in the business. He won his fifth Grammy in February for best traditional tropical Latin performance for "Mambo Birdland" and has been nominated for the music award 10 times.

Puente joked that he has profited off the talent of Santana, whose early hits include Puente's "Oye Como Va."

"Every time he plays 'Oye Como Va,' I get a nice royalty check," Puente said.

"The excitement of the rhythms and the beat make people happy," he said in a 1997 Associated Press interview. "We try to get our feelings to the people, so they enjoy it.

"It is not music for a funeral parlor."

That year, RMM Records released a three-CD, 50-song compilation from Puente's recorded output through 50 years. It's titled "50 Years of Swing." The first cut, "Que No, Que No," is from his "El Rey del Mambo" ("The King of the Mambo") recording of 1946.

The eldest son of Puerto Rican parents, Puente was born Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. in New York City on April 20, 1923. (Some references give other years.)

His father, Ernest Anthony Puente Sr., was a foreman in a razor-blade factory, and his mother was Ercilia Puente, who called her son Ernestito, Little Ernest, then shortened the name to Tito.

It was his mother who first discerned his musical talent and enrolled him in a piano class when he was 7. Puente studied drums for years before switching to timbales. He studied conducting, orchestration and theory at the Juilliard School from 1945 to '47 on the GI Bill.

Puente had been released from a San Juan, Puerto Rico, hospital May 2 after two days of treatment for an irregular heartbeat. Puente canceled all his events in May, including three concerts, planned with the Symphonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico.


May he rest in peace!

Raul Rosas

[Lja]

Well Said Boriqua-in-US,
Tito Puente, or El Rey I should say will live forever for those of us who had the good fortune to hear his music. I saw him only a few months ago in Atlanta and he was as vibrant and brilliant as ever. El Rey, Chano Pozo, Machito, Mario Bauza, and Dizzy Gillespie blended the sounds of African American Jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms creating what we now call Latin Jazz. This music has many offspring, i.e. Soul, R & B,
Salsa, you name it. We all owe El Rey for his tremendous contribution of beauty to the world, along with his exuberant sense of humor and incomparable stage presence. We should all love this music, but the more perfect tribute to Tito Puente would be that our children and our children's children continue to perform and immerse themselves in this music from now until eternity. I will miss him and love him always.
Lja, the Afroamericana from Atlanta

[evelyntorres]

Iam so glad that there are so many tributes and responses in dedication to Tito. He will be greatly missed. His spirit will live on as well as his music. Evelyn Torres