Annotations for Sounds: Background--music--afro-cuban Jazz

Bauzá remembers his days at the Apollo Theater in Harlem where he helped to launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald. He recalls his days with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the time that he and his friends, Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something new: Afro-Cuban Jazz.

In the early 1940s, Bauzá formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Frank Grillo, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band and he composed some of the group's most memorable songs.

The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the '40s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

It's the scene of The Mambo Kings, you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or is not Mexican music. Mambo is New York music.

Enrique Fernández writes about Latin music for the Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York-based Más Magazine.

It was here that this kind of music became very hot…that it really galvanized a lot of people…that really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it, and that created those great, you know, those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and the jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners. For that, you need to recognize that New York has been, since then, probably before then, but certainly since then, one of the great centers of Latin music.

Merengue, merengue from Santo Domingo. Cumbia is cumbia from Colombia. Afro-Cuban is Cuban. That's why I got to keep [unintelligible] Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Afro-Cuban rhythm…Danzón es cubano…la Danza es cubano…Bolero es cubano…el Cha-cha-cha es cubano…el Mambo es cubano…el Guaguancó es cubano y la Columbia es cubana. So, I got to call it Afro-Cuban Jazz.

After seven decades in the music business, Mario Bauzá has come out of the shadows of the group Machito and his Afro-Cubans and is being recognized for his accomplishments as one of the creators of Afro-Cuban Jazz. This year, Bauzá plans to tour with his Afro-Cuban jazz orchestra featuring Graciela on vocals. The group also plans to release another album of Afro-Cuban jazz: Explosión 93. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

[Background--Music--Afro-Caribbean Jazz] And we're going into a whole other direction. We're going into the Afro-Caribbean Jazz per se. My first attempt by writing specifically in that form. See, I have recorded in that vein as far as composition that chocolate ice cream or 17.1 or VP Blues that I have done, and I've always looking in that direction, in that country. But this time I'm really writing specifically in that vein.

But I will not be here that long, but in the time that I'm here, I'm going to utilize it to the maximum and then achieve and have a wonderful time doing that and incorporating that into our music because it's something that certainly intrigue me and I must achieve that. It will. [Background--Music--Afro-Caribbean Jazz]

[Background--Music--Afro-Caribbean Jazz] Eddie Palmieri's new recording is scheduled for a fall release. From Newark, New Jersey for Latino USA, I'm Alfredo Cruz.

Latin jazz great Mario Bauzá died July 11 of cancer in his Manhattan home, just blocks from where I live. Mario Bauzá, an integral part of New York's Latin jazz scene, was 82 years old.

I remember this great musician sitting on a milk crate outside a bodega, surrounded by friends, drinking coffee, and enjoying the simple things of life. You would've never known it by seeing him that this small, tender, smiley man had totally revolutionized American music.

In the 1940s, he influenced popular music by innovating a new musical style which mixed popular Afro-Cuban rhythms with American jazz.

Emilio San Pedro prepared this remembrance of Latin jazz legend Mario Bauzá.

Mario Bauzá was first exposed to American jazz in 1926, when he visited New York. In 1930, anxious to become a part of that scene, Bauzá left his native Havana for New York, frustrated that in Cuba, Afro-Cuban music was considered merely the music of the streets, not the music of the sophisticated nightclubs, country clubs, and hotels of pre-revolutionary Havana.

Had to happen outside of Cuba before the Cuban people convinced themself what they had, themself over there. They didn't pay no attention to that. When I got big in United States, Cuba begin to move into that line of music.

In the 1930s, Bauzá performed with some of New York's best-known jazz musicians, like Chick Webb and Cab Calloway. In fact, in those days, Bauzá was responsible for introducing singer Ella Fitzgerald to Chick Webb, thus helping to launch her career. It was also Bauzá who gave Dizzy Gillespie his first break, with the Cab Calloway Orchestra.

During their time touring and working with Cab Calloway, Mario Bauzá and Dizzy Gillespie, along with the Afro-Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something entirely new: Afro-Cuban jazz.

In the early 1940s, Mario Bauzá formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Francisco Perez, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band, and he composed and arranged some of the group's most memorable songs.

The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the 1940s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

It's the scene of the Mambo kings you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or it's not Mexican music. Mambo is New York music.

Enrique Fernandez writes about Latin music for the Village Voice.

It was here that this kind of music became very hot, that it really galvanized a lot of people, that had really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it, and that created those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners, that brought all this stuff together that later on, generated salsa and it generated Latin jazz and a lot of other things.

Groups like Machito and his Afro-Cubans were responsible for sparking a Latin dance craze in the United States, from New York to Hollywood. Mario Bauzá's sister-in-law, Graciela Pérez, began singing with Bauzá's orchestra in 1943.

Mario Bauzá worked steadily until his death. He recently released a compact disc on the German record label Messidor called My Time is Now.

For "Latino USA," I'm Emilio San Pedro.

[Background-- Afro-Cuban Jazz] One of Palmeri's earliest and most important musical influences was his older brother Charlie, also a pianist who not only served as mentor, but helped Eddie get started in the business over 30 years ago.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] My brother Charlie used to play with Tito Puente. That was one of the most important conjuntos that we've ever had here. Wherever my brother would go and play, he would recommend me and that's how I got into an orchestra called Ray Almore Quintet. And first Johnnie Segui in '55, Vincentico Valdez, Pete Terrace in the interim, back to Vincentico Valdez for a summer in '58 in the Palladium, and then the '58 to '60 we took the holiday. After that, I went on my own.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] They were a sensation at dance halls like the now legendary Palladium were battle of the bands were common and Palmeri reigned supreme.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] This was done in 1968. That's when La Perfecta breaks up. The beginning of '68, we did a tour of Venezuela, and after that, that was the ending of La Perfecta, phase one, one curtain down. That was it. Boom.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] Over the last 25 years, many of Palmeri's recordings have become classics and his orchestras have provided a proving ground for promising young Latino and jazz musicians. Much like Art Blakey's Messengers was to jazz. But in spite of winning five Grammy awards, record companies have met his innovative musical experiments with skepticism. Recently, however, Palmeri finalized negotiations on a new contract with Electra Asylum records.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] And we're going into a whole other direction. We're going into the Afro-Caribbean jazz, per se. My first attempt by writing specifically in that form. See, I have recorded in that vein as far as composition like chocolate ice cream or 17.1 or VP Blues that I have done. And I'm always looking in that direction in that country. But this time I'm really writing specifically in that vein.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] As to what's in store for the future, whatever musical direction he might take, Palmeri says the core of his music will always remain in Latin rhythms.

[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] Those rhythmical patterns will always intrigue me. They've been here now for 40,000 years, so they'll be here for another 40,000 for sure. But I will not be here that long. But in the time that I'm here, I'm going to utilize it to the maximum and then achieve and have a wonderful time doing that and incorporating that into our music because it's something that has certainly intrigued me and I must achieve that and will.