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Part II: Jazz Greats and Great Jazz: An Evolutionary Riff
originally came from Africa). Latin jazz incorporates a variety of elements —
mostly rhythmic — from several locales outside the United States and mostly
in the southern hemisphere.
� Salsa refers to spicy Afro-Cuban dance music (and Mexican hot sauce).
� Bossa nova and samba are Brazilian.
� Mambo is Cuban.
All through the creation of this new hybrid known as Latin jazz, American and
Latin musicians came together in a common love of improvisation and syncopated
rhythms. Although Jelly Roll Morton (see Chapter 5) was the first bigname
jazz musician to acknowledge Latin flavors in his music when he spoke
of “the Spanish tinge,” the first significant appearance of Latin musicians
and rhythms in jazz came when bebopper Dizzy Gillespie teamed with Cuban
bandleaders Machito and Mario Bauza as well as percussionist Chano Pozo in
the mid-1940s (see “Meet the Cuboppers: Latin Jazz in the 1940s,” later in this
chapter, for details on these folks). Although the Cubans became famous with
jazz fans, they had already been stars in their native country.
Hard bop pianist Horace Silver experimented with Latin jazz, as did arranger
Gil Evans with trumpeter Miles Davis (see Chapters 7 and 8), and Duke
Ellington (see Chapter 6). Saxophonist Stan Getz recorded popular Brazilianflavored
albums in the ’60s, and Cuban saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera made
several excellent Latin jazz albums beginning in the ’80s.
Latin jazz also encompasses Airto Moreira’s Brazilian-flavored jazz; percussionist
Tito Puente (covered later in this chapter) — known to pop audiences
as composer of the Santana hit “Oye Como Va;” vibraphonist Cal Tjader’s
adventurous Latin jazz from the ’50s and ’60s; percussionist Carlos “Patato”
Valdez; and percussionist and composer Mongo Santamaria, who recorded
the 1963 hit song “Watermelon Man.”
Making Their Mark: Early
Latin Influences on Jazz
Jelly Roll Morton, the pianist and bandleader who helped create New Orleans
jazz (see Chapter 5), utilized Caribbean rhythms. In his music from the ’20s,
you sometimes hear his left hand play a Latin pattern known as a habanera.
To get a feel for habanera, tap your foot 1-2 . . . 1-2, and over each set of two
foot beats, tap out four beats: 1 . . . 2, 3, 4. The hesitation between 1 and 2 is
what gives habanera its Latin flavor.