7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7Tito Puente
(b. April 20, 1923, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 31, 2000,
New York, N.Y.)
A
merican bandleader, composer, and musician Tito
Puente (born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr.) was one
of the leading fi gures in Latin jazz. His bravura show-
manship and string of mambo dance hits in the 1950s
earned him the nickname “King of Mambo.”
The son of Puerto Rican immigrants, Puente grew up
in New York City’s Spanish Harlem and became a profes-
sional musician at age 13. He later studied at the Juilliard
School and eventually learned to play a number of instru-
ments, including the piano, saxophone, vibraphone, and
timbales (paired high-
pitched drums). After an
apprenticeship in the his-
toric Machito Orchestra
(a New York-based Latin
jazz group established in
1939), he served in the
navy during World War II.
In 1947 Puente
formed his own 10-piece
band, which he expanded
two years later to include
four trumpets, three
trombones, and four sax-
ophones, as well as a
number of percussionists
and vocalists. With other
Latin musicians such as
Tito Rodríguez and Pérez
Prado, he helped give rise
in the 1950s to the golden
Legendary drummer Tito Puente
performing in Nice, France, July of- Getty Images/AFP