If his father, the great mambo musician Tito Puente, was the Rey del Timbale, then surely we have the prince in our midst.
Rather than shy away from his father’s profound impact on Latin music, the son embraces the legacy and works to keep it alive. The heartfelt mission is fueled by passion.
“He was just too vibrant, too exciting,” Tito says. “There was magic in the music my father made. It made people happy all over the world.”
His reverent and energetic 2004 album In My Father’s Shoes, is a loving tribute to the songs his father played around the world.
Even as he keeps the flame burning for his father’s music, Tito Jr. is coming into his own with originality. With a nod to the past and an embrace of the new, he’s making his own waves on the Latin/Tropical scene with his newest record, Got Mambo?
And what, you might ask, is mambo? Mambo was born in Cuba and in America, the dance craze hit its apex in the late 1940s and early 1950s, propelled by the likes of Perez Prado, Tito Rodriquez and yes, Tito Puente, the elder. As Antonio Arcaño describes it, “Mambo is a type of syncopated montuno that possesses the rhythmic charm, informality and eloquence of the Cuban people. The pianist attacks the mambo, the flute picks it up and improvises, the violin executes rhythmic chords in double stops, the double bass inserts a tumbao, the timbalero plays the cowbell, the güiro scrapes and plays the maracas rhythm, the indispensable tumba (conga drum) reaffirms the bass tumbao and strengthens the timbal.”
Let’s dance!
