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Tito Puente - The Essential Tito Puente
The Essential Tito Puente
Tito Puente (RCA/Legacy)
With his big band rocking behind him, Tito Puente, the flamboyant Latin jazz king, loved to clown around, making comic grimaces, improvising slick dance steps or wildly tossing his drumsticks in the air, then catching them without dropping a stick or a beat.
Between tunes, he fired off funny patter that made him a charismatic entertainer. So charismatic, in fact, that some listeners, mesmerized by his showbiz skills, tuned out El Rey's crowning achievements as a consummate percussionist, composer, arranger and band leader.
The Essential Tito Puente, a two-CD set, gets to the heart of the matter, which is the terrific music the Latin maestro made through his brilliant fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with swinging big-band jazz.
Puente power pulsates throughout these 40 tracks, including some of his best, brightest and most famous recordings, ranging from Abaniquito (his first big hit) to Hong Kong Mambo.
His band plays with precision and hard-swinging drive, whether it's grooving on a pounding mambo, a swiveling cha-cha or uncorking a nitroglycerine hybrid of bebop and rocking Latin rhythms, the hallmark of Puente music.
Naturally, there's a rendition of Puente's most famous catchy song, Oye Como Va, which became a huge hit when Santana covered it on Abraxas.
There are several other Puente originals that sound just as good as Oye Como Va, a sign of his profoundly serious yet celebratory artistry.
- Owen McNally,
Hartford (Conn.) Courant
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