Tito Puente

Puente was born on April 20, 1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in the New York borough of Manhattan, the son of Ernest and Felicia Puente, Puerto Ricans living in New York City's Spanish Harlem.[2][3] His family moved frequently, but he spent the majority of his childhood in Spanish Harlem.[2] Puente's father was the foreman at a razorblade factory.[4] His family called him Ernestito, Spanish for Little Ernest, and this became shortened to "Tito".[5]

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 25-cent piano lessons.[4] He switched to percussion by the age of 10, drawing influence from jazz drummer Gene Krupa.[4] He later created a song-and-dance duo with his sister Anna in the 1930s and intended to become a dancer, but an ankle tendon injury prevented him from pursuing dance as a career.[3][4] When the drummer in Machito's band was drafted to the army, Puente subsequently took his place.[4]

Puente at the Village Gate, in the 1980s

Puente served in the Navy for three years during World War II after being drafted in 1942.[6] He was discharged with a Presidential Unit Citation for serving in nine battles on the escort air craft carrier USS Santee (CVE-29) where his duties included playing alto saxophone and clarinet in the ship's big band as well as occasionally drum set, piano during mess hall, ship's bugler, and machine gunner during battles. The GI Bill allowed him to study music at Juilliard School of Music, where he completed his formal education in conducting, orchestration, and theory after three years.

During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity and helped to bring Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo, son, and cha-cha-chá, to mainstream audiences. His album Dance Mania was released in 1958.

Among his compositions is the cha-cha "Oye como va" (1963),[8] popularized by Latin rock musician Carlos Santana and later interpreted, among others, by Julio Iglesias, Irakere and Celia Cruz. In 1969, he received the key to the City of New York from former Mayor John Lindsay. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Congressional Record, and in 1993 he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian.[9]

Puente's timbales in the Tito Puente exhibit in the Artist Gallery of the Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix

Puente is one of the subjects of a television production called La Epoca,[10] a film about the Palladium era in New York, Cuban music and rhythms, mambo and salsa as dances and music and much more. The film discusses many of Puente's, as well as Arsenio Rodríguez's, contributions and features interviews with some of the musicians Puente recorded with.

Puente's oldest son Ron Puente is from a first marriage to Mirta Sanchez. Richard "Richie" Puente was the percussionist in the 1970s funk band Foxy. Puente's youngest son, Tito Puente Jr., has performed and recorded many of Puente's songs. His daughter Audrey Puente is a television meteorologist for WNYW and WWOR-TV in New York City.

After a show in Puerto Rico on May 31, 2000, Puente suffered a massive heart attack and was flown to New York City for surgery to repair a heart valve, but complications developed, and he died on June 1, 2000.[11] He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

Timbales on display at the Smithsonian

National Medal of Arts

• In 1995, Puente received the Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award.[12]
• On September 10, 2007, a United States Post Office in Spanish Harlem was named after him at a ceremony presided over by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel and Rep. José Serrano.
• An amphitheater was named after him at Luis Muñoz Marín Park, next to the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• In 1995, Puente was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.[13]
• Puente performed at the closing ceremonies at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The timbales he used are displayed at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
• In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.[14]
• In 1990, he received a Star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.[15]
• In 1984, he received an honorary Decree from the Los Angeles City Council.
• On June 5, 2005, Puente was honored by Union City, New Jersey with a star on the Walk of Fame at Union City's Celia Cruz Park.[16]
• In 1999, he was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.[17]
• On May 19, 1999, he received an honorary Mus.D degree from Columbia University.[18][19]
• On August 20, 2000, East 110th Street in Spanish Harlem was named 'Tito Puente Way'.
• In 2011, the US Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp in his likeness as part of their Latin Legends series. [20]
• On October 11, 2022, Puente was honored with a Google Doodle in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.[21]

• Steven Loza (1999) Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music, University of Illinois Press
• Josephine Powell (2007) "Tito Puente: When The Drums Are Dreaming", (Authorhouse 2007)

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• Tito Puente at NPR Music
• Tito Puente discography at Discogs
• Tito Puente at IMDb
• Tito Puente at Find a Grave
• Tito Puente Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection (1997)