15. Tito Puente & His Orchestra — Dance Mania Vol 1 (1958)

1. The power went out in my office building today. Gotta love PG&E. More accurately: gotta hope San Francisco buys ’em. Anyhow. I got to bike home at 12:30pm listening to this record on a fine 75 degree day. 75 degrees in San Francisco is like 95 in New York; unseasonably warm. It was perfect for some mambo. And Papa loves mambo.

2. After the manic energy of Sabu and Machito, it’s refreshing to hear some laid back — well, relatively laid back — latin jazz here. The syncopation is on point, the horns burst with energy, the vocals are smooth. This is a lovely record.

3. Something I didn’t know: Tito Puente studied at Julliard. It’s easy to think back on the 1940’s or 50’s and just assume you had to be white to go to a place like that. For the most part that probably was true; it’s hard to find stats now. Nonetheless, credit them for identifying genius and cheers to the GI Bill for doing its thing over the last 70+ years.

4. 1001 Albums to Hear… references hipsters in their blurb about Tito:

“Hipsters had long known of the Puerto Rican-American’s danceable synthesis of Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz principles, and the musical traditions of his ancestry. Now the rest of the world was beginning to catch on.”

I had no idea hipsters had been around so long.

5. Tito Puente permeated popular culture for decades in a way few artists on this list have, from Santana’s cover of “Oye Como Va” to Sesame Street. But given I’m unsure whether he’ll pop up again on this project, I’d be remiss not to mention one of my favorite moments — his guest appearance on the crucial Simpsons episode “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”

Classic.

One Essential Song:

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