Strolling through East Harlem, one can still find visual references to Latin jazz legends of the past. For example, just a couple of doors down from NYPL’s Aguilar Branch Library on 110^th St, there is a colorful mural of Tito Puente wielding his timbale sticks. The street’s alternative name (“Tito Puente Way”) further testifies to the late legendary percussionist’s link to the neighborhood. The intersection of 111^th and 3^rd (“Machito Square”) bears the namesake of another Spanish Harlem resident and singer integral to the development of the music. Unfortunately, other places of historical significance are not so clearly demarcated. For example, a traffic circle located at 5^th Avenue and 110^th St is the site of some important though largely obscured history. Renamed Duke Ellington Circle in 1995  and featuring a life-size statue of the maestro looming above a grand piano,  the location oddly bears no direct reference to Ellington’s life or career. On the other hand, the intersection does mark a space (now largely invisible) essential to the history of Latin jazz.

Machito, Mario Bauza, and the rise of Afro-Cuban Jazz

In the 1930s and '40s, a club known as the Park Palace Ballroom once stood at the northeast corner of Central Park. A magnet for young people from all over the tri-state area, the venue showcased many dance bands of the day. One night in December 1943, Machito’s backing band (under the direction of Mario Bauza) was rehearsing at the club for a concert when the rhythm section stumbled upon a sound that would soon flourish into a new musical style. Bauza, a Cuban émigré, was an already known musical force during the Harlem Renaissance, adding his trumpet to groups led by Cab Calloway and Chick Webb. Bauza was also instrumental in getting a young Dizzy Gillespie a seat in Webb’s band. Gillespie, in collaboration with percussionist Chano Pozo, would later propel the new Latin style forward with his own “Cubop” experiments. This sound would be exemplified in such tunes as “Manteca.”

An uptown/downtown exchange of musical ideas

Soon Machito moved from playing packed houses at the Park Palace Ballroom in East Harlem, to the midtown epicenter of the jazz world. Here the merging of African American and Afro-Cuban styles would begin to fully express itself as a modern synthesis. Machito’s band found a regular gig at The Palladium Ballroom on 53^rd St. and Broadway. At the nearby Royal Roost, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie nightly honed the bebop vocabulary that would soon explode onto the world stage. The interchange of ideas between these two musical styles would often occur organically on the bandstand. The merging of worlds is evident on a live recording called Cubop City, featuring trumpeter Howard McGhee improvising along with Machito’s band.   

Jazz Boricuas of the Harlem Renaissance

Aside from these fateful collaborations during the 1940s, there are other points of contact that complicate a clear linear development of Latin jazz. In fact, hints of this musical marriage harken back to the early 20^th century, resulting from migration and commerce between Cuba and New Orleans. Evidence of this early influence can be found in what Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the “Spanish tinge” and can be heard in his own compositions such as “The Crave” with its tango-like left-hand bass lines, suggesting the Latin flavor of jazz has been a presence since the very beginnings of jazz music.

As suggested by the experience of Bauza, Latinos made critical contributions in shaping the repertoire of mainstream jazz all along. In perhaps the most obvious example, Puerto Rican, Juan Tizol co-wrote some songs with Duke Ellington that have become part of the standard repertoire, including “Caravan” and “Perdido.” Pianist, Roger “Ram” Ramirez, not only substituted for Ellington on a gig when he was just 21 years old, but composed the standard “Lover Man”—a song that would come to be virtually synonymous with Billie Holiday. But there are many lesser known Puerto Rican musicians that played a part in the evolution of jazz, often as anonymous sidemen in the big bands of the day. For example, Gregorio Felix Delgado, a clarinetist with the Royal Flush Orchestra, played the night the famous Savoy Ballroom opened in Harlem.  Many of these musicians were not only an integral part of the new swing style typical of the day, but were residents of El Barrio.

Honoring the Jazz Artists of El Barrio

In 2020,  artists were given the green light  to install a public memorial for Tito Puente at Duke Ellington Circle. This is appropriate, since it was here—near the sites of past venues such as the Park Palace Ballroom and the Park Plaza—that Puente’s first band was born.  Puente was also a member of Machito’s seminal group,  so by extension, the acknowledgement restores necessary recognition to a specific area that sparked a musical revolution. Of course, while memorials and statues are very important for what they say about the social and cultural memory of a neighborhood and its people, this need not blind one to the fact that Latin jazz is a living (and indeed, global) musical phenomenon; not strictly a museum piece. To that end, I have included below a very  short ( by no means comprehensive!) list of contemporary artists  who present the cutting edge of the art form. Note: this blog article has not addressed the genres of music from Brazil, some of which are also included under the rubric: Latin jazz.

Serrano, Basilio. “Puerto Rican Musicians of the Harlem Renaissance.” CENTRO Journal. vol.19. no. 2. 2007 pp.95-118.

García, David F. "'We both speak African': Gillespie, Pozo, and the making of Afro-Cuban jazz", Institute for Studies in American Music newsletter  vol. 37, no. 1. Brooklyn College, pp. 1-2, 13-14.

Waxer, Lise. "Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love: Dance Music in Havana and New York from the 1930s to the 1950s." Latin American Music Review/Revista de Musica Latinoamericana. vol.15. no.2  1994. pp. 139-176.

Siegal, Nina. "The New York Legacy of Tito Puente." New York Times , 6 Jun. 2000, p. B4.

Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy . Directed by Carlos Ortiz, performances by Machito (Frank Grillo), Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Ray Barreto, Tito Puente. Nubia Music Society, 1987.

Arturo O'Farrell

Pedrito Martinez

Danilo Perez

Bobby Sanabria

Jerry Gonzalez

Paquito D' Rivera