Machito

He seemed to be able to take all of it in the commercial end, the real end, and realized that, um, his future lay in playing jazz and he was smart enough to become not just an important band leader but he is actually central in the discovery and I would say the success of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker as well.

I mean, that's as well as his own group, which is ultimately called Machito.

Machito's Afro-Cubans after his brother-in-law, who he brought over from Cuba to front the Afro-Cubans.

And let's go ahead and hear a little bit of music.

This is Cab Calloway featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Mario Baza in the band.

Like I say, Bowser brought over his, uh, uh, brother-in-law, he brought over his sister and his brother-in-law.

Um, sorry, it would have been his wife, wouldn't it? His wife and his brother-in-law.

And, um, yeah, Machito was a front man, a percussionist front man, who with him, they were able to put together their own orchestra that really is the first Afro-Cuban orchestra in the States, not just because of the name, but it just literally is the first.

I spoke about his love for rhythm a little bit earlier.

Mario Bausa, whom I played with when he was in Machito's band, and Dizzy were in Cab Calloway's band together.

Mario used to take Dizzy probably to Spanish Harlem to, what was it, Alberto Sacaraz, I think was the band leader.

And he

But the 1950s like being the most golden, the most resonant.

José Madera is the director of the band and his father was a founding member of Machito's Afro Cubans back in, I think it was the 30s or the 40s.

He played with Tito Puente for over 30 years.

Also on Bongo is a guy named Johnny Dandy Rodriguez, who just died a few years ago.

I want to play some old stuff so you can hear where they're coming from.

This is from 1951.

Machito's Orchestra playing Donde Estabas Tu.

Check out the way they run the horns.

At 4.30 Eastern Time, we will be speaking with José Madera and Chris V. Springer about the Mambo Legends Orchestra's newly released production, No Hay Que Hablar, Nuff Said.

And, of course, we'll be playing tracks for you from that new production, Right now, as we always do, we continue with Tito Puente, Machito, Tito Rodriguez, and Eddie Palmieri to round out my Mount Rushmore that started at the top with Ray Barreto.

Enjoy! Thank you.

Tela

And it's always an honor.

We want to also say hi to Ron and Joan's daughters, Julianne and Janine and Audrey and Tito Puente Jr.

We heard Machito, No Tiene Tenerangia, and that was live at the Crescendo.

After that, we listened to Tito Rodriguez and Rincón.

Thank you.

I hope you've enjoyed this rhythm cocktail that was Exuberante by Machito and Dizzy Gillespie.

Earlier you could hear Autumn Lives, a classic from the Bill Evans Trio, and you can really hear the chemistry between Bill Evans and Scott LaFara in there.

This is Corrientazo with Maria Clara on Voices Radio, and I still got a few more tunes for you in this hour.

From there we went and heard what Bird and Symphony Sid told them was just some bop in a commercial kind of groove, and Bird just said, it's just sweet music.

And that was Bird with Machito and his orchestra doing Okie Doke.

Then we went to the classic repetition from the Norman Grand's deluxe presentation, the jazz scene, where Neil Hefti put together a large orchestra recorded in Carnegie Hall as a studio.

And Bird wandered in and laid down a flight, a fancy, a wonderful Bird solo over Hill Hefty's repetition on the jazz scene.

And then there were certain things I thought, like, Yma Sumac should have done this, you know.

Yma Sumac should have done a version of Asia Minor by Machito.

And so we, we did that, and, uh, now, as a matter of fact, Mariel Candelario just takes a wild piano solo on that.

And, and I brought a, um, I brought, uh, this clarinet player called Ben Goldberg, who plays in a group called The New Klez- or used to play in a group called The New Klezmer Trio.

That mythologizing has real consequences for how we teach jazz history.

In many curricula, Manteca is presented as the first Latin jazz track, but that simplification glosses over the contributions of earlier Cuban bands like Machito and the Afro-Cuban ensemble led by Mario Bauza.

When you look at record labels catalogs from that era, there's a pattern.

The labels that released Manteca were also pushing other fusion projects.

So, uh, I was exposed to a bunch of different type of music since a very early age.

So for me, for many years, though, there was no difference between Mozart and Machito.

[laughs]

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