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The music world lost one of its true international icons when Tito Puente died at New York's NYU Medical Center this morning, following a month of heart troubles. He was seventy-seven. Puente was hospitalized in Puerto Rico in early May after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat, forcing him to back out of his May performance schedule. At press time, the NYU Medical Center was unable to reveal the cause of death.
More than two decades before Ricky Martin was even a glimmer in his
father's eye, Puente was the ambassador for Latin music,
serving up his irresistibly dancy mambos as far back as 1949. The
consummate bandleader and percussionist, Puente -- nicknamed "El
Rey de Timbales" -- exuded exuberance, banging away on his drums
with a youthful vigor deep into his seventies.
The son of Puerto Rican parents, the five-time Grammy winner was
born in New York City in 1923 (though there is some dispute about
the year of his birth). It was during a WWII Navy stint that
Puente's love of big-band music fully developed. Following his
discharge he rode the G.I. Bill to a short stint at Julliard
followed by some work in Noro Morales' orchestra. A remarkably
versatile musician, he was capable of tackling piano, congas and
saxophone in addition to his trademark timbales, and it wasn't long
before Puente took his fiery brand of mambos and cha-chas out on
his own.
"The King of Mambo" recorded more than 100 albums in his lifetime,
starting in the mid-Forties. Fusing Latin rhythms with jazz in a
singular style, by 1950 Puente was an international star, trading
fierce percussion duets with the lower profile (but equally
dazzling) Mongo Santamaria. He was also impervious to the
here-today, gone-tomorrow world of musical trends. Puente was
constantly performing and recording, never falling below the radar.
In 1970 he crossed over into the pop charts when Santana covered
Puente's "Oye Como Va" on Abraxas. Puente remained in the
American public consciousness with appearances on The Cosby
Show, Woody Allen's Radio Days and The Mambo
Kings. In 1997 he was given the National Medal of Arts by
President Clinton.
And through the "Latin explosion" of the past two years, Puente
continued to perform and record. Earlier in the year he won his
fifth Grammy (Best Traditional Tropical Latin Performance) for last
year's Mambo Birdland.
"I have a son who's going to be eighteen, and his name's Tito,"
Grammy-winning Latin percussionist Pancho Sanchez told
RollingStone.com of Puente. "You know how much you respect a man if
you name your son after him. He is one of my heroes."
ANDREW DANSBY
(June 1, 2000)