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Chapter 9: The Perfect Hybrid: Latin Jazz
The Original Mambo Kings (Verve) album featuring Machito’s ensemble is one
of the hottest big band jazz recordings. Machito and his orchestra stir up a
storm behind sax players Flip Phillips and Charlie Parker, and trumpeters
Mario Bauza and Dizzy Gillespie. Infectious rhythms on this recording keep
the music grooving, and it’s fresh ’40s Cubop — a new blend never heard
before. Overall, the sound suggests a similarity to the ensemble work in bands
led by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman (see Chapter 6 for
more about these musicians). Songs on this CD include Bauza’s composition
“Tanga,” one of the first Afro-Cuban jazz compositions.
Machito and Bauza endured for decades, continuing to make music into the
1970s. Excellent later examples of the band’s percolating dance music can be
heard through several recordings:
� Machito Plays Mambos and Cha-Chas (Palladium)
� Machito Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival (Top Ten Hits) — an example
of Cubop’s jazzier side
� Kenya (Palladium Latin Jazz) by Machito
� The Tanga Suite (Messidor) by Bauza
� Messidor’s Finest Volume One, where Bauza, in the 1990s, finally leads his
own orchestra in a recording of some of his finest music
Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo
Obviously it takes two to tango, or in this case, Cubop. Dizzy Gillespie
(1917–1993) lead the driving force of Cubop from the jazz side of music. Much
of the credit for bringing Afro-Cuban influences to jazz goes to Chano Pozo
(1915–1948), a Cuban percussionist who came to New York City in 1947.
Gillespie focused on Afro-Cuban rhythms years before bebop. In 1939, he and
Mario Bauza (see the previous section) played together in bandleader Cab
Calloway’s trumpet section, and Gillespie also played a brief stint in flutist
Alberto Socarras’s somewhat commercial Afro-Cuban big band. Gillespie
carried the Afro-Cuban connection into bebop and Cubop. After he and
saxophonist Charlie Parker had made many recordings and performed
numerous times together, Gillespie struck out on his own.
As leader of a bebop big band, Gillespie continued to utilize Latin rhythms.
Modeled on Billy Eckstine’s big band, which brought together many key players
during the early days of bebop, Gillespie’s first band broke up in 1945,
without enough bookings to stay afloat. But Gillespie was hooked on the
format and organized another big band within a few years, with an emphasis
on Cuban rhythms.
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