The Tito Puente Centennial

Born 100 years ago, Ernest Anthony “Tito” Puente (1923-2000).

We’ve had occasion to mention the great Puerto Rican bandleader here a few times: He started out in Puerto Rican Vaudeville in a musical duo with his sister. One of his first professional jobs was playing in the big band of Pupi Campo. And Olga San Juan and Abbe Lane were among those who sang with Puente’s own band.

Born and raised in New York’s Spanish Harlem, he was known to friends and family as Ernestito (an affectionate diminutive on account of his height), which was shortened to Tito. While strongly identified with the timbales, he could also play piano, saxophone, clarinet, and several others. While serving on the USS Santee during World War Two, he was ship’s bugler, among other duties. His war service allowed him to attend Julliard on the G.I. bill. Naturally he specialized in Latin music in his career, but he was also interested in Asian sounds, which he had discovered while serving in the Pacific.

In 1948 his band started a residency at the Palladium Ballroom in New York City, a venue which became the platform from which he sprang to fame. Puente helped popularize the mambo, the cha-cha and other Latin styles during the 1950s, his peak period. His 1962 composition “Oye Como Va” became a #13 hit for Santana nearly a decade later. He found new audiences and something of a comeback after appearing in the films Armed and Dangerous (1986), Radio Days (1987), and The Mambo Kings (1992). Though he had appeared on The Arthur Murray Party and The Tonight Show with Steve Allen back in the day, the bulk of his tv variety credits dated to the last years of his life, post-comeback.

For more about show business historyconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.