Gustavo Puente Ojea

Tito Puente - Quatro: The Definitive Collection (2012) {5CD Box Set, Sony Music Latin 88725469882 rec 1956-1960}
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© 1956-60, 2012 Sony Music Latin | 8872 546988 2
Jazz / Latin / Cuban Traditions / Mambo / Afro-Cuban Jazz

Quatro: The Definitive Collection assembles four truly classic Tito Puente albums recorded between 1955 and 1960 for RCA, and adds a disc of outtakes, alternate takes, and rarities in a lavishly designed limited-edition box set. The box is 6" x 6" with each album housed individually in a thick cardboard sleeve with back and front facsimile cover art. These four albums were cut in chronological order: Cuban Carnival (1956), Night Beat (1957), Dance Mania (1958), and Revolving Bandstand (1960), the last recorded in collaboration with the Buddy Morrow Orchestra.

Tito Puente - Top Percussion / Dance Mania (1957) {RCA-Bear Family BCD 15687 rel 1993}
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© 1957, 1993 RCA Victor / Bear Family Records | BCD 15687
Jazz / International Jazz / Latin Jazz/ Cuban Traditions / Mambo / Afro-Cuban Jazz

The mambo has become fashionable again lately, but for Tito Puente it has never gone out of fashion. In 1957 he cut two stellar albums for RCA, but just how good they were didn't become obvious until the advent of the CD. The full, rich sound on these LPs is nothing short of astonishing. This is mambo at its most ecstatic: blasting brass, sensual saxes, and that irresistible Afro-Cuban rhythm section led by Tito, Ray Baretto and Mongo Santamaria. This set contains 23 titles, including 3-D Mambo, Mambo Gozon, Conga Alegre, Hot Timbales…. etc.. Ay! Ay! Ay!

They'd been calling him "El Rey" for years, but Tito Puente really proved it on this, one of his best original LPs on Tico. Yes, this is the one with "Oye Como Va," one of the brightest, most exuberant Latin performances of the century, but El Rey Bravo has plenty of other features for Puente's tight pachanga orchestra…

Tito Puente was never one for half measures, and even in death there's no modesty involved, as the label calls him King of Kings. It might be an exaggeration, but only a slight one, and it gets the attention. Still, as the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and there's a hearty meal here, albeit one missing one or two choice dishes, like Puente's original version of "Oye Como Va," a song that indirectly brought him a whole new audience. However, "Honk Kong Mambo" is here, "Dance Mania," and "Dance of the Headhunters," so it's hard to find too much fault with the disc's 21-track selection. While the man wasn't shy about having his timbales, or himself, front and center, he truly was a driving force in his music - and, as this CD shows, he knew how to write more than his share of good tunes, too…

This Concord CD was Tito Puente's 99th as a leader and the music is particularly strong. Four jazz standards alternate with a quartet of Puente's originals and Chucho Valdes' "Cha Cha Cha," all of which are potentially good vehicles for jazz improvisations (although "Ode" and "Lambada" are dominated by group vocals). There are plenty of fine solos throughout by the five horn players and the three or four-piece percussion section keeps the rhythms infectious. In the world of Latin-jazz, Tito Puente has had few peers.