Baia (Ma Baixa Do Sapateiro) - Tito Puente, Barroso, Ary
La Virgen de la Macarena - Tito Puente, Calero, Ortiz
Temptation - Tito Puente, Brown, Nacio Herb
Autumn Leaves - Tito Puente, Kosma, Joseph
Kiss of Fire - Tito Puente, Allen, Lester
The Continental - Tito Puente, Conrad, Con
For more than 50 years, Tito Puente, the great bandleader and master of the timbales, was among the most important figures in Latin dance and Latin jazz. By the time he died, on May 31, 2000, he'd made more than 130 record... more »ings, the greatest of them cut during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s for RCA. This set features the 108 tracks Puente cut for the label from 1949 to 1960, and it shows how he skillfully crossed the boundaries between Latin, jazz, and popular genres. All the founding fathers of Latin music are here: percussionists Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, and Willie Bobo, as well as composer-arranger Chico O'Farrill and Dominican flutist Johnny Pacheco. The heart of this affordable, six-CD collection is the mambo, the Afro-Cuban dance Puente spread throughout the world--from New York's famed Palladium to Paris--with classics such as "Ran Kan Kan," "Picadillo," and "Hong Kong Mambo" (the lattermost with Puente on marimba). Another Cuban dance rhythm, the cha-cha, was prominent in Puente's book. His rendition of bassist Cachao's catchy "Chanchullo" may have been the model for Puente's megahit, "Oye Como Va," taken subsequently to greater heights as a Latin rock classic by Carlos Santana. Puente grew up in Harlem, and his jazz chops are in full effect on his vintage, cornerstone Afro-Cubop takes on Billy Strayhorn's "Take the A Train," "Tuxedo Junction," and "That Old Devil Moon." --Eugene Holley Jr.« less
For more than 50 years, Tito Puente, the great bandleader and master of the timbales, was among the most important figures in Latin dance and Latin jazz. By the time he died, on May 31, 2000, he'd made more than 130 recordings, the greatest of them cut during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s for RCA. This set features the 108 tracks Puente cut for the label from 1949 to 1960, and it shows how he skillfully crossed the boundaries between Latin, jazz, and popular genres. All the founding fathers of Latin music are here: percussionists Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, and Willie Bobo, as well as composer-arranger Chico O'Farrill and Dominican flutist Johnny Pacheco. The heart of this affordable, six-CD collection is the mambo, the Afro-Cuban dance Puente spread throughout the world--from New York's famed Palladium to Paris--with classics such as "Ran Kan Kan," "Picadillo," and "Hong Kong Mambo" (the lattermost with Puente on marimba). Another Cuban dance rhythm, the cha-cha, was prominent in Puente's book. His rendition of bassist Cachao's catchy "Chanchullo" may have been the model for Puente's megahit, "Oye Como Va," taken subsequently to greater heights as a Latin rock classic by Carlos Santana. Puente grew up in Harlem, and his jazz chops are in full effect on his vintage, cornerstone Afro-Cubop takes on Billy Strayhorn's "Take the A Train," "Tuxedo Junction," and "That Old Devil Moon." --Eugene Holley Jr.
Peter Feng | Wilmington, DE United States | 09/22/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is not actually complete, but vol. 1.The music herein is great. This is perhaps Tito Puente's finest period (TP also recorded for Tico during this period), the band playing with a precision akin to Count Basie's in the same period (compare "The Jazz Theme" with Basie's recording of "Splanky" from the classic ATOMIC MR. BASIE album). This is a flawed release, however. The first clue is the oxymoron in the title: "complete" and "vol. 1." What's the rationale for the selection of these tracks for vol. 1? There is virtually no annotation on this tracks -- the song titles and dates of recording are identified, but no matrix numbers are given, not even the original LP where these tracks were released.Where's the personnel listing?Total time for these 6 discs: 324 minutes (in otherwords, this could easily fit on 5 discs). Each disc has 18 tracks on it -- I suspect that RCA decided it could fit the info for exactly 18 tracks on each slipcase and so they stopped there.To be fair, there does seem to be some thematic groupings across the discs, but it seems an inadvertent result of sequencing the tracks in strict chronological order. The first disk has the material from TP's first stint at RCA, 1949-51. The second picks up in 1955 with material drawn from CUBAN CARNIVAL and PUENTE GOES JAZZ. The third emphasizes "jazz" material -- swing rhythms with walking basslines, some solos -- drawn from NIGHT BEAT and closes with tracks drawn from the great TOP PERCUSSION album. The fourth disc features tracks from DANCE MANIA, while the fifth draws from LIVE AT GROSSINGER'S. The sixth disk mostly comes from DANCE MANIA 2.Sound quality: compared with the individual CD issues, this collection features louder levels (but not necessarily better quality sound). On at least one track, "Ti Mon Bo" (my favorite track from TOP PERCUSSION), this release is noticeably distorted.The music is first-rate, and much of it is not otherwise available on CD -- but a lot of it IS available, and in the original LP formats. To my ear, the tracks selected are not necessarily better than those left out. If you just want 5-1/2 hours of great music, this set will do you fine; but if you actually want to learn more about Tito Puente, this set won't help you much.Vol. 2 was released in Fall 2001 (I've posted a review). It does not complete TP's RCA output, and the packaging is no better."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
