Latin Giants of Jazz

Yoshi's at Jack London Square, in Oakland presents the Latin Giants of Jazz featuring former starts of the Tito Puente Orchestra from Thursdya, April 3rd through Sunay, April 6th. Tito Puente was one of the principal creative forces and standard-bearers of Latin jazz. Though he died in 2000, his music lives on through the Latin Giants of Jazz, a group formed by a number of his key musicians, several of whom had been with him for 20 or even 30 years. With Puente’s longtime percussionist Jose Madera serving as musical director, the Latin Giants draw their repertoire from the music of Puente, Machito, and Tito Rodriguez as well as new Latin musical conceptions. Johnny Rodriguez and Eddie Montalvo are percussionists with the band; Frankie Vazquez is the fiery vocalist; Sonny Bravo the pianist; and Sam Burtis, Jimmy Bosch, and John Walsh among the stars of the full-bodied horn section. Viva Tito!

Born Ernesto Antonio Puente Jr., 20 April 1923, New York City, New York. Died 31 May 2000, New York City, New York. more than earned first place among modern Latin jazz musicians, working continuously from 1937 to 2000, recording over 100 albums.

Puente’s fame skyrocketed when promoter Max Hyman bought the Palladium dance hall and opened it as a nightclub just as the craze for dancing the mambo and cha-cha hit in the early 1950s. Puente rode the wave on Tico, then switched to RCA for what are considered his best albums, including Top Percussion, Dance Mania, his top-seller, and Mucho Puente. In the early 1960s, he moved from cha-chas and mambos to the new Pechanga style and rejoined Tico to record Pechanga Con Puente. His 1962 descarga (Latin jam) album, El Rey Bravo debuted Puente’s composition, “Oye Como Va,” which later became a huge pop hit for Carlos Santana.

In 1997 Puente recorded 50 Years of Swing, a compilation of hits that celebrate his fifty years in the Latin music industry, and in 1999, he won his fifth Grammy for Best Latin Performance for his CD, Mambo Birdland. In the late 1990s, he was designated as a “Legend” by the Hispanic Hall of Fame, inducted to the Jazz Hall of Fame, received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, and received a Smithsonian Lifetime Achievement award. He suffered a heart attack soon after his last public appearance, in April 2000, with the Puerto Rico Symphonic Orchestra at the “Centro de Bellas Artes” in Puerto Rico.


Latin Giants of Jazz at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA
Apr 3, 2008 - Apr 6, 2008
Thurs 8pm $22 & 10pm $18
Fri 8pm $26 $ 10pm $22
Sat both shows $26
Sun 7pm $26 & 9pm $18

For more information visit www.latingiants.com and yoshis.com.