When was tito puente born

Born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr., on April 20, in New York City's Harlem Hospital, Puente was one of three children of Puerto Rican immigrants Ernest and Ercilla Puente. His siblings both suffered untimely deaths while still children—brother Robert Anthony at the age of four from a fall from a fire escape and sister Anna in her teens.

Ernesto tito puente biography in spanish

Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. April 20, — May 31, , [ 1 ] commonly known as Tito Puente , was a Puerto Rico musician, songwriter , bandleader, timbalero , and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. As a child, he was described as hyperactive, and after neighbors complained of hearing seven-year-old Puente beating on pots and window frames, his mother sent him to cent piano lessons. He heard lots of mambo music then now salsa and he was influenced by its Afro-Cuban roots.

Raised in the Hispanic section of Manhattan known as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, Puente gained the nickname Ernestito—Little Ernesto—because of his short stature. He soon became known simply as Tito. While his father worked as a foreman in a razor-blade factory, his mother stayed home to raise Puente. It was she that first noticed his musical leanings and enrolled him in piano classes at the New York School of Music when he was just seven.

By ten, she had switched him to twenty-five cents-an-hour percussion lessons. "I was always banging on boxes, on the window sill," he recalled in with the New York Post. Though he originally wanted to be a dancer and even took lessons, a bicycle accident injured his ankle sidelining his dancing days.

Tito puente biography mambo Born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr. His siblings both suffered untimely deaths while still children—brother Robert Anthony at the age of four from a fall from a fire escape and sister Anna in her teens. He soon became known simply as Tito. While his father worked as a foreman in a razor-blade factory, his mother stayed home to raise Puente. It was she that first noticed his musical leanings and enrolled him in piano classes at the New York School of Music when he was just seven.

Though he later confidently declared to Americas, " I pride myself as being one of the few bandleaders who really knows how to dance."

By the time he reached his teens, Puente was already something of a local celebrity having played as a child with local Latin bands at festivals and functions.

By 16 he dropped out of Manhattan's Central Commercial High School to pursue music and was mentored by some of the most important names in Latin music at that time, flutist Anselmo Sacasas, pianist Noro Morales and band leader Frank "Machito" Grillo. In El Barrio traditional Latin music—boleros and rumbas—poured from open windows and street level clubs.

But just blocks away in the swanky jazz clubs of Manhattan, big band, swing, and improvisational jazz were the norm. Puente, whose name means bridge in Spanish, was influenced by these two elements and he would spend his career building a bridge between them.

Ernesto tito puente biography Education: Studied conducting, orchestration, and musical theory at the Juilliard School of Music, Navy, Tito Puente is widely considered to be the godfather of Latin jazz and salsa, devoting more than six decades of his life to performing Latin music and earning a reputation as a masterful percussionist. Noted for merging Latin American rhythms with contemporary jazz and big band music, Puente's prolific output encompasses over albums recorded between and By the time Puente was ten years old, he played with local Latin bands at neighborhood gatherings, society parties, and New York City hotels.

"I was always trying to find a marriage between Latin music and jazz … trying to play jazz but not lose the Latin-American authenticity," he would later tell Down Beat.

The next few years were instrumental in helping Puente to form that bridge. He began to develop his trademark showmanship when in he was called upon to fill in for the regular drummer of the Machito's famous Latin orchestra, the Afro-Cubans.

Machito allowed the young prodigy to perform at the front of the stage. "For perhaps the first time in Latin music, the timbales were brought to the front of the bandstand, and Puente played the drums standing, not seated, as had been the custom. That simple change of routine liberated the rhythm section and opened the door for his extroverted style of performing," an article in Americas noted.

Puente later was quoted in the Miami Herald as saying, "Once, I was strictly a musician with a long face and back to the audience. Now I'm a showman, selling what I'm doing, giving the people good vibes." A few years later Puente was drafted to serve in World War II. He found himself in the U.S. Navy stationed on the USS Santee along with a composer from a noted big band.

Ernesto tito puente biography for kids Tito Puente, donned the "King of Latin Jazz," was a pioneering force in Latin music, known for fusing styles and putting a big-band spin on traditional Latin music. In , Puente formed a band that would become known as the Tito Puente Orchestra. A decade later, he released his best-selling album, Dance Mania He learned to play a number of instruments as a child, beginning with the piano and then moving to percussion, saxophone, vibraphone and timbales paired high-pitched drums. After an apprenticeship in the historic Machito Orchestra, Puente was drafted into the U.

The composer taught Puente the basics of big band composition. Despite participating in nine battles—for which he earned a presidential commendation—Puente also found time to teach himself saxophone. Finally, in Puente returned to New York and used his G.I. Bill money to study conducting, orchestration, and theory at the prestigious Julliard School of Music.