Demo · Machito
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Machito
New York, USA
Machito and his Afro-Cubans: from 1940, the orchestra that married Cuban rhythm to big-band jazz and brought New York to its feet.
The Story
Machito (Frank Grillo, 1909-1984) was a singer and maracas player who grew up in Havana, among the soneros of the 1920s, and came to New York in 1937.
In 1940 he founded Machito and his Afro-Cubans with his brother-in-law Mario Bauzá, a trumpeter from Chick Webb's band, as musical director. Bauzá wrote Tanga in 1943, and with it the orchestra laid Cuban rhythm, the clave, the congas and the bongó, under big-band jazz harmony: Afro-Cuban jazz. His sister Graciela joined as the band's singer.
They recorded with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, played Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite, and through the 1950s ruled the Palladium Ballroom on Broadway, the home of the mambo, alongside Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez. He won a Grammy in 1983 and was still on the road when he died in London, a year later.
Records
Coming Attractions
On Film
In the Papers
This was a new concept in interpreting Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. It made every other band that came after, followers.
Living and playing with Mario, I found out that despite the language differences, Afro-Americans and Cubans were not destined to be total strangers, musically.
The marriage of Cuban music with jazz was not a conventional union. It was a marriage of love.
Projects
Photographs
Elsewhere
Book the band
Book the band
Weddings, galas, festivals and dance nights, with the full big band or a septet. Tell us the date, the room and how many dancers, and we answer within two days.