Demo · Machito
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Machito
Singer / Bandleader / Maracas / Clave / 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 Up
- Tickets: Mambo Inn (opens in a new tab)
Mambo Inn
Lincoln Center, Damrosch Park, New York
Thursday 22 OCT 2026
Tanga
SOB’s, New York
Thursday 5 NOV 2026
- Tickets: Sopa de Pichón (opens in a new tab)
Sopa de Pichón
Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn
Monday 23 NOV 2026
- Tickets: Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite (opens in a new tab)
Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite
Apollo Theater, Harlem
Friday 18 DEC 2026
On Film
Liner Notes
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
- The Afro-CubansTrumpets and saxophones, piano and bass, and a rhythm section of conga, bongó and timbales, with Mario Bauzá writing the arrangements and leading the band.(opens in a new tab)
- The PalladiumThe 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.(opens in a new tab)
- La HabanaHe learned the son in Havana in the 1920s, from the soneros and the septetos, with the clave under everything they played.(opens in a new tab)
- CubopAt the end of the 1940s the orchestra recorded with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and bebop was played over the clave.(opens in a new tab)
Photographs
Elsewhere
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.