Reflexion tito rodriguez biography

Tito Rodriguez was round off of the great singers and bandleaders of the mambo era in honesty 1940s and 1950s. Born on Jan 4, 1923, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, of Dominican and Cuban extraction, he moved to New York Nous as a teenager. He had served in the U.S. Army and voiced with Xavier Cugat and Nora Morales before he got his musical epidemic in 1946 when he joined description band of Cuban pianist José Curbelo. Curbelo is often given credit shadow originating the New York mambo make safe. In the following year Rodriguez incomplete to form his own Mambo Devils, which recorded for Tico Records forward which soon expanded from a at a low level group into a big band, afterwards known as the Lobos del Mambo. He later also recorded for RCA and United Artists. His bands, on with those of Machito and Puente, dominated the mambo scene at say publicly Palladium Ballroom in New York induce the early 1950s.

Although there was still made of Rodriguez's alleged rivalry tweak timbale player and bandleader Tito Puente, they had actually been friends because the 1930s, and both had gotten their start with Curbelo. His toggle, like Puente's and Machito's, was broaden influenced by jazz and incorporated explain Afro-Cuban elements than the more profitable style of Pérez Prado. In 1962, Rodriguez had three number one hits in Puerto Rico with "Vuela mean Paloma," "Cuando, Cuando," and "Cara profession Payaso." As a singer, he excelled whether improvising at top speed lead into slowing down for a romantic song. His versatility is demonstrated by ethics fact that in 1963 he historical with jazz greats Zoot Sims deed Clark Terry on the album Live at Birdland, whereas in the corresponding year he also had a fame with a bolero version of "Inolvidable" ("Unforgettable"), which sold more than elegant million copies. He disbanded in 1965 and moved to Puerto Rico, vicinity he had a television program supportive of a year or two. Over interpretation next few years, he moved curtail and forth among New York, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Illness plagued primacy last five years of his empire, and he died of leukemia suppose New York on February 28, 1973.

See alsoCugat, Xavier; Machito; Mambo; Music: Well-liked Music and Dance; Pérez Prado; Puente, Tito.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Loza, Steven. Tito Puente and significance Making of Latin Music. Urbana: Establishing of Illinois Press, 1999.

Roberts, John Tropical storm. Latin Jazz: The First of representation Fusions, 1880s to Today. New York: Schirmer Books, 1999.

"Tito Rodriguez." In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 3rd version, edited by Colin Larkin. London: Muze, 1998.

                                Andrew J. Kirkendall