Many music fans enjoy a time-machine fantasy where they are transported back to a famous dance club of the past. For some, it's Studio 54 or the Fillmore, but for me, the first choice would be New York's Palladium Ballroom in the 1950s.

The Palladium was the first incarnation of the modern dance club. A freeform space where different cultures and different ethnicities threw aside the social rules and united in motion, and the cascading rhythms of Latin music made it possible. By the mid-1950s, America was in the midst of a "mambo" craze which included not only the mambo itself, but also the cha-cha-cha, the rumba and more. It wasn't quite Beatlemania, but it was widespread, and the Palladium was the epicenter.

Tito Puente's Dance Mania.

There were three clear Kings of Mambo. Machito and His Afro-Cubans, the longest-running group, and the two Titos, bandleader and singer Tito Rodriguez and bandleader and timbale drum master Tito Puente, who knocked dancers out night after night with numbers like "3-D Mambo."

The soundtrack to the film The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love remains the best introduction to the Palladium scene, but Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez can boast of ideal introduction albums out at the same time. Puente's is an expanded version of his 1958 masterpiece, Dance Mania. What makes it a timeless party record? Well, there's not an off moment in the 12 cuts. But they're not relentless — the beats invite you out to the dance floor, they don't push, and the record slows down just when the dancers need to. And it simply feels like a continuous, one-take performance.

Tito Rodriguez's El Inolvidable.

The original Dance Mania LP was very short by today's standards, so it's a welcome idea that the reissue includes Dance Mania Volume Two as well as more than 20 worthwhile outtakes and tracks from other RCA sessions around the same period. There's no sequence as perfect as Dance Mania itself, but it all flies way, way up there, including a number with one of my all-time favorite titles, "Mambozooka."

If Puente's Dance Mania features particularly rich percussion language, Tito Rodriguez's collection, El Inolvidable, is a singer's paradise, from smoking mambos to creamy boleros. But Rodriguez fronted a consistently superb band, with some of the best chops in Latin music. Especially notable were the contributions from bassist Israel Lopez, better known as "Cachao," who not only helped invent the mambo, but also laid the foundations of Latin jazz with numbers like "Descarga Cachao."

This anthology of 1960s tracks has one lapse. It begins with a 12-minute number in which Rodriguez introduces all the members of his band. It's more musically interesting than dramatic, and just goes on too long. But every other track on the 30-cut double disc is a winner, finishing with a searing trio of live numbers that climax with the finest version of the unforgettable hit "Mama Guela."

Rodriguez died tragically young at 50 in 1973, and Puente passed on back in 2000, so the Mambo Kings are gone now. You can pit Tito against Tito right on your sound system. It's as close as you can come to a ticket to the Palladium. Best of all, the big winner, as they say, is you.

Related Links

• Tito Puente: 'El Rey'
• Give The Drummer Some: Conga/Timbal Duos

A dynamic percussionist, veteran bandleader, masterful arranger and an irrepressible showman, Tito Puente Sr. is forever remembered as El Rey — the King of Latin Music. In more than 50 years of fusing American jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms, Puente was central to the ongoing popularity of Latin music in the U.S.

Puente was born and raised in "El Barrio" of East Harlem, a Manhattan neighborhood infused with the rhythms of its Puerto Rican and Cuban population. Though influenced by the culture that surrounded him, his childhood musical aspirations were also informed by the big band swing of Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey on the radio. Though Puente studied piano, he was quickly drawn to percussion, much to the annoyance of his neighbors; their complaints eventually convinced Tito's mother to send him to drum lessons.

Just as Puente was attempting to integrate Afro-Cuban rhythms with the popular music of the era, the big bands of the early '40s were growing interested in the "Spanish tinge," incorporating congas, bongos and timbales into their ensembles. Fortunately for Puente, he grew up among members of Machito's orchestra, one of the first groups to successfully hybridize jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. When the drummer of the Machito Orchestra was drafted during World War II, Puente got his big break playing timbales. During his two-year stint with Machito, he developed his characteristically flamboyant style, convincing the bandleader to move the timbales to the front of the orchestra so Puente could play and dance at the same time.

After serving time in the U.S. Navy, Puente attended The Julliard School under the GI Bill. At the same time, the Mambo and the Cha-Cha-Cha were sweeping the dance clubs of New York City. This was especially true in a midtown venue called the Palladium Ballroom, where Tito Puente's first bands often headlined. Fortuituously, the Palladium was also located near important jazz venues like Birdland. Often, jazz musicians from nearby clubs sauntered over to check out the still-unfamiliar Latin rhythms, fostering an exchange of ideas between bebop practitioners and Latin musicians such as Puente.

With early hits as "Ran Kan Kan" and "Para Los Rumberos," Tito often stirred the Palladium to a frenzy. But even as early as the late '50s, Tito was more than just a dynamic performer. His groundbreaking series of percussion-only albums demonstrated his profound capacities as an arranger and his revolutionary talent as a musician. Puente continued to fulfill that promise throughout his career, continually expanding the boundaries of Afro-Caribbean music in a huge and diverse discography.

Puente continued to play with incomparable enthusiasm and vigor until 2000, when he died of complications following a heart attack. He was 77.

Click here to see the playlist.

Link to the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library:

Tito Puente: 'El Rey: Live 1984'

Tito Puente: 'The Complete RCA Recordings'

Latin Percussion Jazz Ensemble: 'Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1980'

Percussionist Tito Puente turned out 118 records, more than 2,000 musical arrangements and 10,000-plus live performances.

It was a career that began in "El Barrio," Spanish Harlem. Puente lived it up and played it loud during the big-band heyday of the 20th century. When rock 'n' roll seduced the American public, he formed smaller ensembles and continued to garner awards and fame. Late in life, he even played himself on The Simpsons.

Puente died in 2000 at the age of 77. Joining Scott Simon to talk about Puente's self-titled 1972 masterpiece is another award-winning Latin percussionist and bandleader, Bobby Sanabria.

"Tito Puente is one of the most important musicians in any genre in the 20th century," Sanabria says. "I would put him up there with Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Jimi Hendrix, etc., etc. Not only was he an incredible percussionist, but he was a fabulous composer and arranger. I don't think people realize the depth of this man's musicianship."

Laying Down The Law

The first cut on Tito Puente And His Concert Orchestra is called "El Rey del Timbal" — the king of the timbales — which is a strong statement from the timbalero. The song also includes the lyrics "yo soy la ley," or "I am the law." Sanabria says that if anybody could lay claim to all that, it was Puente.

"The drummer is usually in the back of a big band, but what Tito did with his orchestra is he put the percussion up front," Sanabria says. "The conga, the bongo and himself on the timbales in the front. Now, that served a dual purpose. He could cue the orchestra, and it also served as a symbol, too, that he was the leader of the band to the audience and he was the law, as it was concerned."

Puente was a professional musician even before he dropped out of high school. Sanabria says that Puente also studied piano for eight years and took lessons on the drum set with a Harlem show drummer.

After playing with early New York Afro-Cuban pioneers such as Machito, Puente joined the U.S. Navy, where he saw active duty in WWII. He was mostly a musician brought on board ships to boost morale — he played clarinet and alto saxophone in the Navy band and played piano during mess-hall hours — though he was present for the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal, and also served as a gunner's mate.

He was also his ship's bugler, Sanabria says.P>

"Very funny story: Once he was warming up and he didn't know the microphone was on," Sanabria says. "And he started playing 'General Quarters,' which means '[go to your] battle stations,' just to warm up. And all of a sudden he looks around and the whole ship is going into a frenzy. And the captain all of a sudden goes on the loudspeaker: 'Puente, get down here!'"

The Maestro

After the war, Puente studied at Juilliard School of Music in his native New York. When he started his own bands, he used his classical training in arranging and orchestrating.

One of the tunes on Tito Puente and His Concert Orchestra is called "Ritual Fire Dance" — an adaptation of Spanish composer Manuel de Falla's eponymous piece. Puente takes the melody and sets it over several different rhythms: a rock beat, a Cuban comparsa rhythm, a West African bembe rhythm, even a cha-cha-cha.

"I think Tito's Juilliard training comes out in all of the things that he did," Sanabria says. "This is a great example of his knowledge of Afro-Cuban rhythm, and his knowledge of the orchestra."

On another piece, called "Picadillo," he reworks an early composition from the late 1940s. Puente's first band was called The Piccadilly Boys, as Sanabria recounts.

"A promoter kind of gave him that name to sort of cross over into the so-called Anglo-American market," Sanabria says.

On Stage With Tito

But could Tito Puente bring that same level of composition to a live performance?

"Well, anyone that has seen him live can attest to the fact that he was the most exciting live performer on the planet," Sanabria says.

That's a good thing, considering the emphasis on dancing in Latin jazz.

"In Afro-Cuban music, we've inherited this concept of being possessed by the music on the dance floor," Sanabria says. "The same thing used to happen in jazz ... But we have this concept that goes way back further in terms of having a spiritual experience on the dance floor. And when you hear the power of this band coming at you like a tidal wave, and with those rhythms percolating, it excites the human organism to its utmost. It's like being in ecstasy.

"I'm not saying it's better than sex, but it's close to it."

Related Links

• Tito Puente: 'The Complete RCA Recordings'
• Tito Puente: 'El Rey: Live 1984'
• Tito Puente, In Memoriam
• Remembering Tito Puente

The musical compositions and arrangements of the late Tito Puente are classics in jazz, Latin music and rock. Writer Alfredo Alvarado has a review of the new recording of Puente's 1994 concert at the Hollywood Bowl titled Live at the Playboy Jazz Festival.

Note: The audio of the original 'Jazz Riffs' commentary is unavailable for this CD.

[MUSIC]

MURRAY HORWITZ, American Film Institute: Hello, I'm Murray Horwitz. You know, it's hard to believe that Tito Puente is no longer with us. When he passed away in April of 2000, he left quite an impressive recorded legacy. Thank goodness. During the over 50 years he played music professionally, he recorded over 100 albums, most of them with a big Latin dance orchestra.

But for today's entry in the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library, we turn to his work with a small ensemble. He's leading a group called The Latin Percussion Jazz Ensemble, on the record Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 1980. It presents a stripped-down Tito Puente playing with some stellar Latin jazz musicians.

[MUSIC]

HORWITZ: This record has an interesting history. In the mid-1970s, an instrument manufacturer named Martin Cohen asked Tito Puente, and a handful of other Latin percussionists to make some records to help him market congas, timbales, and bongos. The recordings eventually became must-have's for Latin music aficionados and this album has become the most treasured.

You'll find a terrific mixture of young and old. The conga master Carlos "Patato" Valdes was featured along with Tito Puente. The younger musicians were the electric violinist Alfredo de la Fe and the pianist Jorge Dalto. And the bassist Michael Vinas was the perfect choice to tie the two generations together.

[MUSIC]

The cover of Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1980

HORWITZ: The material is a mixture of the classic Cuban songbook, Latin jazz, and even a Rodgers & Hammerstein/John Coltrane reference.

[MUSIC]

HORWITZ: The album is Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1980 and it's by The Latin Percussion Jazz Ensemble. It's on the LP Music Group label. The NPR Basic Jazz Record Library is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, and NPR member stations. For NPR Jazz, I'm Murray Horwitz.

[MUSIC]

MURRAY HORWITZ, American Film Institute: Hi, I'm Murray Horwitz, and that is the music of the young Tito Puente, a percussionist who swung hard from his birth to his death. It's from a set called Tito Puente, The Complete RCA Recordings, two volumes of eleven CDs that's this week's entry into the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library. A.B. Spellman, who could possibly not want this set of Tito Puente?

A.B. SPELLMAN, National Endowment for the Arts: Well, maybe Murray, dead people and Osama bin Laden might not want it. And, I'm not so sure about the dead people. It would do them a lot of good. Tito Puente was a percussionist who is said to have come out of his diapers swinging. He was an immensely popular and prolific musician who was capable of both great fun and great profundity. A gifted and versatile composer and arranger.

[MUSIC]

HORWITZ: You know, somebody said that Tito Puente had a conception of the whole orchestra as a percussion instrument, and that he composed from his feet up. But, that was some good, tight, section writing.

SPELLMAN: It was, Murray, and it's just one point on this set where you hear the influence of the great Chico O'Farrill on Tito's writing. Still, the Latin musician Jerry Gonzalez is quoted in the notes as saying that "while Machito's band was like Ellington's, Tito Puente's was more a riff band like Basie's." And, that's true mostly. Tito liked to make people dance.

[MUSIC]

HORWITZ: You know, some of the greatest Latin jazz musicians are included in this set. There are names here like Johnny Pacheco, Vincentico Valdes, Ray Barretto, Candido, and Mongo Santamaria.

[MUSIC]

SPELLMAN: Especially, the major percussionists came to work with the great timbalero and vibist. Even though Puente was not a Cuban, he had been initiated into the Santeria religion, as had many of the major Cuban percussionists. Here, in "Hot Timbales," Tito leads some powerful Santeria-inspired polyrhythmic jamming.

The cover of The Complete RCA Recordings

[MUSIC]

HORWITZ: Wow! This set is Tito Puente: The Complete RCA Recordings in two volumes.

SPELLMAN: It's a massively swinging addition to the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library. For information about this and other selections, swing on by our Web site.

HORWITZ: The Basic Jazz Record Library is funded by the Wallace Reader's Digest Funds, and by our member stations. For NPR Jazz, I'm Murray Horwitz.

SPELLMAN: And, I'm A.B. Spellman.

Related Links

• Tito Puente on the Web

[MUSIC]

A.B. SPELLMAN, National Endowment for the Arts: Something tells me that we're not in Kansas anymore, or Michigan or Georgia for that matter. Murray Horwitz, where are we, and why are we putting this into the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library?

MURRAY HORWITZ, American Film Institute: Well A.B., we're in the world of Latin Jazz, in the world of Tito Puente. The name of the CD is El Rey because he still reins in this world of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, even after his death as "El Rey de Timbales", the king of those tuned, punchy, exciting drums.

MUSIC

HORWITZ: This CD is a good introduction to Tito Puente's music for a number of reasons. First it was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco in 1984. In fact, our producer Felix Contreras was there, and it captures the fire and excitement of the band in front of an enthusiastic crowd. And it's a great band. It includes the congo drummer Francisco Aguabella, the bassist Bobby Rodriguez, and the legendary flutist and saxophonist Mario Rivera. And Tito Puente plays vibes as well as timbales. There are standards like "Autumn Leaves." There are John Coltrane tunes, and Tito Puente's own famous compositions, "Ran Kan Kan" and "Oye Como Va."

[MUSIC]

HORWITZ: This is highly organized music. The rhythms are so varied and so dense. You know, those of us not brought up on Latin Jazz might be prejudiced and think the rhythms would limit the musicians, but of course it's just the opposite. Tito Puente's arrangements allow him and soloists like Mario Rivera to thrive. They make melodies and develop ideas thoroughly plunged into this world of rhythm, and it's terribly exciting and beautiful.

[MUSIC]

A.B. SPELLMAN: Musical moments like that are the reason that we're recommending for your NPR Basic Jazz Record Library, El Rey, by Tito Puente and his Latin Ensemble. It's on the Concord/Picante label. For NPRJazz, I'm A.B. Spellman.

MURRAY HORWITZ: And, I'm Murray Horwitz.

Related Links

• Tito Puente on the Web

This week's installment of the NPR 100 features Oye Como Va , a song written by Latin jazz percussionist Tito Puente that reached its widest audience when it was released by a San Francisco rock and blues band called Santana. The 1970 album Abraxas spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard Album Chart and thirty weeks in the top ten. Oye Como Va got Top 40 airplay, helping solidify Santana's place in history as one of the fathers of Latin rock. NPR's David Welna reports.

Recollections of bandleader, composer and arranger Tito Puente by vibrophonist Dave Samuels. Samuels played many times with Puente and his band — remembers those times with Puente fondly. Tito Puente died Wednesday of complications after open heart surgery. He was 77. David Samuels is the founding member of the Caribbean Jazz Project.

The music of Tito Puente.

Celebrated bandleader Tito Puente died on Wednesday. The 77 year old percussionist was a major force behind the trend to incorporate latin rhythms in jazz and popular music, and when Tito Puente moved to the front of the orchestra, he took his percussion with him. He achieved wide popularity in America with the Mambo craze of the 1950s, and over the course of his career worked with musicians from Lionel Hampton to Carlos Santana. Join Juan Williams and guests for a look at the career and influence of Tito Puente.

Latin bandleader Tito Puente died today at the age of 77 in a hospital in New York. Puente was hospitalized recently for heart problems and canceled all his concerts in May. He recorded over 100 albums in his long music career. He won five Grammys — the most recent this year for best traditional tropical Latin performance for "Mambo Birdland."