Cuban Musicians Honored at the Smithsonian Institute

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 1999 by Max Salazar

On Saturday, February 27, 1999, four conga drummers, a trumpeter, and the musical director of a legendary orchestra were honored at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., for their contributions to the evolution of the Mambo and Afro-Cuban jazz.

This event began on November 12, 1998, when Hector Corporan of the Smithsonian Associates mailed this writer, Machito's son Mario Grillo, trumpeter Chocolate Armenteros, music historians Dr. Cristobal Diaz-Ayala and UCLA professor Dr. Raul Fernández, and percussionists Carlos "Patato" Valdés, Armando Peraza, Francisco Aguabella and Candido Cameró invitations to participate in a panel discussion regarding THE MAMBO AND ITS AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ COUSIN.

Scheduled to perform during a 3-hour evening concert was the Machito Orchestra under the direction of timbalero Mario Grillo with vocalist Herman Olivera, pianist Gil Colón, Jr., trumpeters John Carlson, Piro Rodríguez, Larry Moses and Chocolate Armenteros, saxophonists Pete Miranda, Mark Friedman, Ed Kovi and Enrique Fernández, bassist General Madera, bongocero Francisco Valdés and Patato Valdés on conga.

On the morning of February 27th, an audience of 300 at the Hirshom Museum's Ring Auditorium heard Dr. Diaz-Ayala elaborate on the history of the mambo and its creator Pérez Prado, and heard, via cassette, early '40s recordings which included Prado's mambo arrangements. I covered the history of Afro-Cuban jazz. As I spoke about specific musicians, their giant size photos flashed on a white wall. The original recordings of the tunes Tanga, Manteca, Killer Joe, Cubop City, Con Poco Coco and Intermission Riff were heard throughout the auditorium. Dr. Fernández covered areas of the Mambo and Latin jazz not discussed by me or Dr. Díaz-Ayala. The following is my speech, a brief history of Afro-Cuban jazz which the audience heard.

"In Erena Hernández's book, 'La Música Cubana En Persona,' published in Havana, Cuba, in 1986, the author lists Cuba's historical musical events beginning in the 17th century. There is no mention of Afro-Cuban jazz, Cubop or Latin jazz, since Latin jazz was created in New York City on May 29, 1943. For more than 50 years jazz music historians have thought that W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway may have created Latin jazz. In Handy's case, the "Latin Tinge" in his composition St. Louis Woman is cited. A few historians credited Duke Ellington because of his recordings of Caravan in 1937 and Perdido in 1942, two tunes composed by Ellington's Puerto Rican trombonist Juan Tizol. Other historians are adamant that Cab Calloway is the creator because of his recordings of Conga Brava, Conga Con Chilli and the Afro Lament recording of Estoy Cansado in 1940.

"Afro-Cuban jazz, or Latin jazz, could only have been created by a musician who had performed Latin and jazz rhythms. This necessary requirement eliminates Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Juan Tizol. Regarding Tizol's compositions of Caravan and Perdido, they are straight ahead jazz tunes and the only Latin elements about them is their composer, Juan Tizol.

"In 1940, there existed four musicians, three Cuban and one Puerto Rican who performed with jazz and Latin music orchestras. They were Alberto Soccarras, Alberto Iznaga, Augusto Coen and Mario Bauzá. In 1939, while a member of the Cab Calloway orchestra, Mario Bauzá met Dizzy Gillespie and expressed his idea about integrating Cuban music with jazz. At this time, Bauzá had spent ten years performing as a jazz trumpeter with the Santo Domingo Serenaders, Hi Clark's Missourians and Chick Webb. In 1939, right after Miguelito Valdés' recording of Babalúwas heard throughout Latin America, Bauzá wrote the bass lines for Estoy Cansado, an Afro Lament similar to Babalú. Estoy Cansado is the closest thing to Latin jazz except it lacked Latin percussion and clave.

"In early 1941, Mario Bauzá left the Calloway Orchestra to join the already existing Machito Orchestra. Bauzá utilized jazz music arrangers John Bartee and Edgar Sampson to develop and orchestrate a Machito big band sound. On Sunday, May 28, 1943, the Machito orchestra finished playing a tune at La Conga Club located on Broadway between 52nd & 53rd Streets. While the musicians were taking a breather and searching for the chart of the next tune, pianist Luis Varona began playing the introduction of Gilberto Valdés' tune El Bottellero (The Bottlemaker). Varona was joined by bass player Julio Andino. Bauzá looked up at Varona and listened. What he heard was the key to a formula of an idea on how to merge the Cuban and jazz rhythms. The following day, a Monday, the Machito orchestra spent its only day off rehearsing new tunes at the Park Palace Ballroom near the corner of 110th Street & 5th Avenue. Bauzá instructed Varona and Andino to play the introduction of El Bottellero. Bauzá then instructed the trumpeters and saxophonists to play the sounds he sang out which sounded like broken chords. A few hours later, he completed the composition and had the orchestra play it. He titled the tune Tanga, which was going to replace the tune Nague as its opening and closing theme song. The following week, Bauzá had Tanga copyrighted by the Robbins music publishing company. Tanga's lead sheet was given to Domenico Savino, a Robbins Music orchestrator who wrote the original arrangement.