Demo · Machito
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New York, USA
Record · 1943
About
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
Tanga, 1943
Mucho Macho Machito, 1949
Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite, 1950
Kenya, 1957
Dates
Mambo Inn
Lincoln Center, Damrosch Park, New York
Tanga
SOB’s, New York
Sopa de Pichón
Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn
Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite
Apollo Theater, Harlem
Film
Press
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.
Works
The Afro-Cubans
Trumpets and saxophones, piano and bass, and a rhythm section of conga, bongó and timbales, with Mario Bauzá writing the arrangements and leading the band.
en.wikipedia.org
The Palladium
The ballroom at Broadway and 53rd, where in the 1950s dancers came from every part of the city to hear the three big bands of the mambo.
en.wikipedia.org
La Habana
He learned the son in Havana in the 1920s, from the soneros and the septetos, with the clave under everything they played.
en.wikipedia.org
Cubop
At the end of the 1940s the orchestra recorded with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and bebop was played over the clave.
en.wikipedia.org
Photographs
Machito and Graciela at the microphone, Glen Island Casino, New York, 1947. William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress
Graciela, José Mangual on bongó and the band around Machito, Glen Island Casino, 1947. William P. Gottlieb
The rhythm section on bongó, maracas and conga, 1947. William P. Gottlieb
Machito on maracas, Graciela on claves, 1947. William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress
José Mangual on bongó, Glen Island Casino, 1947. William P. Gottlieb
Havana, the Avenida del Puerto, on a postcard of the 1940s
Elsewhere
Contact
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.