ALBUM TITLE: Dance Mania
ARTIST NAME: Tito Puente
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1958
Favourite Song:
Holly: Saca Tu Mujer
Kelly: Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti
ALBUM HISTORY:
Dance Mania remains to this day the Latin dance album that holds the record for sales is Dance Mania. It was recorded in late 1957 and released in 1958 and it was the first “serious” recording of Cuban dance music that didn’t rely on commercial tropes or gimmicks. It was also the first popular mambo album with vocals sung in Spanish.
Jazz historians cannot emphasize enough the importance of this album. Virtually all Latin music has its roots in this album. When the album was first released, listeners were attracted to its non-campy authenticity, its Spanish language content, and its songs that were popular in the dance clubs of the time. Puente also played songs longer than 3 minutes, which was considered suicide for an album since long songs don’t get radio play.
ARTIST HISTORY:
Ernesto Antonio Puente Jr was born in Harlem to Puerto Rican parents. He spent much of his childhood in Spanish Harlem, and his parents reported that they had lots of noise complaints from neighbours who were tired of all of the young Tito’s beating on pots and pans and window frames. To try to calm the young boy, they sent him to piano lessons, and then he switched to percussion by age 10. A few years later when the drummer in Machito’s band was drafted to the army, Puente took his place.
Puente himself was drafted into the Navy in 1942 and spent 3 years in World War II. He was discharged with a Presidential Unit Citation. Tito Puente went on to use his GI Bill to study music at Julliard, where he studied conducting, orchestration and theory. Puente was at the height of his popularity during the 1950s where he helped bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds to mainstream audiences. In fact, Puente was so adept at Afro-Cuban rhythms that he was often mistakenly identified as Cuban.
One of Puente’s most famous compositions was Oye como va, which was later popularized further by Carlos Santana.
After a show in Puerto Rico in May, 2000, Puente suffered a massive heart attack and was flown to New York City for surgery. However, complications developed and Puente died on June 1, 2000.
FACTOID CORNER:
Puente’s oldest son Ron Puente is from a first marriage to Mirta Sanchez. Richard “Richie” Puente was the percussionist in the 1970s funk band Foxy. Puente’s youngest son, Tito Puente Jr., has continued his father’s legacy by presenting many of the same songs in his performances and recordings. His daughter Audrey Puente is a television meteorologist for WNYW and WWOR-TV in New York City.
Holly’s review:
I’m super excited to get to review some Tito Puente! This should be a blast!
The first song in this album is El Cayuco which is a relaxed, uplifting tune that includes tons of piano, percussion, and some great saxophone interjections. I love the interplay between the different sections in this one and the dry articulations in the brass and saxos. It really makes the vocals sound super smooth throughout it.
The next song brings the tempo and volume up a bit more. Complicacion features a female vocalist with a really warm and sturdy sounding voice often answered by the trumpets in some big brassy chords. I really like the feel of this song and the way the piano and bassline work together.
Following the trend of the first two tunes, Three D Mambo is even a bit faster. The coolest thing on this track is the trumpet soli at the beginning. Then we have a thin sounding, poorly mic’ed bari sax solo that might as well not even be there. This song was overall, meh.
Hm. Llego Mijan. Slower, but quite similar to the previous tunes. Traditionally this is where I would start craving a change in soundscape. And this album is no different. I’d love to hear something where the trumpets play softly, or a totally revamped percussion section or something. A different time signature, something dark? This song kind of feels like filler at this point in the album.
Cuando Te Vea is a darker, more slick kind of song and I really like it. I like that we’re more solidly entrenched in a minor sound, and I like the smooth saxophone lines against the more accented, percussive trumpets. This woman’s voice is so easy to listen to. She makes every line sound smooth and conversational and I really enjoy it.
Hong Kong Mambo is up next and is anyone else getting tired of all the yelling trumpets? That’s the first thing I feel about this one as soon as the trumpets come screaming in. This song actually features a pitched percussion instrument – marimba with really hard mallets perhaps? I like that. It’s such a refreshing sound on this album, and the solo is very melodic with little bits of virtuosic lines tossed off as if they’re nothing. I could do without the trumpets at this point, though!
Mambo Gozon is just a straight ahead fun tune for dancing! It’s the first time I can detect bari sax in the background, and the percussionists are just so active and high energy in this one. The trumpets are used as part of the texture and not always screaming, which is great.
Up next: Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembé. This one feels like a medium for this album. Medium fast, medium loud, medium feel. Other than the ending which feels unexpected in a kind of a cool way, there’s not much to say about this one.
Varsity Drag at this point feels a bit like getting hit over the head by major chords and arpeggios. I do like the feel behind this one and the saxophones sound great, but I wish the chord changes were a little more interesting. The piano solo, though weirdly mic’ed is great as well.
Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti is an actual, real life slow tune, and boy is it a great addition. Again, the vocals are spot on in feel and smoothness, and the vibraphone is a new sound at this point in the album. There’s tons of just letting those notes ring and it adds so much to this song. A lot of hand percussion as well which is fun. The saxophones, on the other hand, are kind of poorly mic’ed and that’s a bit of a drag. Overall, I like this tune though.
Agua Limpia Todo jumps us pretty abruptly back to a fast and intense number. I like the little melody being sung, and that we have another minor key tune here. Something about the minor keys and the trumpets sounding less abrasive. I don’t know what that’s about. At this point, we’ve almost forgotten about the piano, but it’s back and sounds like it’s having fun doing these cool chromatic background licks. I like the saxophone lines in this song as well.
What a fun way to end an album – Saca Tu Mujer is a fun, danceable tune with a great piano solo that meanders through tons of sounds and feels. This is such a great farewell at the end of the album to leave you with this tuneful earwig of key changes!
This album is overall a lot of fun and I imagine it sounded incredibly trail blazing when it came out. No tropes, no cheesiness, no singing in English. I think a lot of the Afro-cuban, Latin, jazz music to come after this album have Tito Puente to thank for pushing this album out into the public view. Though there are some moments where my interest dips, overall I think this album is great, and I’ll be putting it on my “to buy” list.
Kelly’s review:
Ok so full disclosure – my first introduction to Tito Puente was when he made an animated guest appearance on the Who Shot Mr. Burns? episode of the Simpsons where he was his jovial self and perform a song about his hatred of the aforementioned Mr. Burns. Since then I haven’t really explored his music, so this was a treat!
We kick off with the song El Cayuco and right away my thoughts are wow, the band is TIGHT – rhythmically and tonally! The balance is also really nice and although the congas are prominent, they don’t take over. Well done whoever did the mix!
Next is Complicación, which is a bit faster than the previous track, a nice upbeat number. We have some singers here as well, a female voice and one or two men (?) that seem to be harmonising background singers. I like the background singers a lot, I think they really suit the style, but I’m not super sold on the main lady’s voice. Definitely a voice of the times!
Our third track is 3-D Mambo, another upbeat number. I can absolutely imagine people dancing up a storm to these songs! There’s a really great trumpet soli and solo in this song, and they stay together pretty well.
Song 4 is Llego Mijan. This one is a bit of a slower tempo but still super danceable! You can really hear the auxiliary percussion in this song, especially the guiro (not me looking it up to try and figure out what that thing is called!). I really like the melody that the men sing in this song, but I still haven’t really warmed up to the female lead singer’s voice.
Next is Cuando Te Vea and it feels like we’ve taken a little side step to seductive, suave mambo! Once again we have some excellent trumpet solos and I feel like they really turned down the horn section as a whole for this song. It’s filled out more with some of the percussion instruments. At this point the songs are starting to blend together a little bit for me, but when reading my notes all of the songs so far say “makes me want to dance!” and this one is no different.
Next is Hong Kong Mambo and right away it caught my attention with some mellow xylophone, which was a refreshing change of pace! It really softens things up a bit (mind you, we’re still getting pointy trumpet shots in there sometimes), but this song has a more relaxed, mellow feel than the previous ones, with it still being super danceable.
We’re back to fast tempo with Mambo Gozon and this song has more of a frantic energy with the horn lines and driving percussion. My favourite backup singer duo and that woman are back as well. I heard some bari sax for the first time on the album, and it was such a pleasant surprise! He’s been blended into the mix so much I didn’t even know if he was there.
Track 8 is called Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembé and it again reminds me how crisp everything about this album is. Everything is so tight. This one seems like a mid tempo mambo ballad, if that makes any sense? To me it doesn’t exude the joie de vivre that the previous songs had. Like the band all took some melatonin and laid this track down – until about 2 minutes in and we get double time! That definitely caught my attention.
Varsity Drag is the next song and it’s completely instrumental. This song is definitely more sax-forward, which is a nice palate cleanser of singing and screaming trumpets (I mean the trumpets are still screaming, but not as much). There’s a great little piano solo in the middle too and that, coupled with the woodwinds gives my ear such a needed break.
Then we have Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti, which is an ACTUAL slow song! A beautiful languid latin number, and I actually enjoy the singer here, because everything sounds like smooth syrup. Like if the golden hour were a song, this would be it thanks to the slower tempo, sultry singing and warm vibraphone. Yes, the trumpets are still here, but instead of playing screaming shots, they’re playing long, accompanying lines and are a little more stirred into the mix. I really enjoyed this song. To me, it evokes sitting on a rooftop in NYC, watching the golden late summer sun set, sipping a cocktail in a lounge chair.
Our penultimate song is Agua Limpia Todo, and we’ve brought the tempo up a little more again. I’m not going to lie, my favourite part of this song are the “la la la” that the backup singers sing at the beginning. This song isn’t unpleasant by any means, but I’m getting a “been there done that” feeling.
Finally we have Saca Tu Mujer, which is more fun! Lots of piano in the mix, as well as a piano solo in the middle, which is nice to hear, and the brass section, although still there aren’t piercing my ear drums as much as before. I do enjoy the “sacala sacala” refrain that the singers sing. There’s even some dynamics in this song! It’s a great way to tie up the album!
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this record. I went into thinking it might be 1950s novelty kitsch where white people discovered salsa and mambo dancing and demanded the spice level be turned down, but I feel like Tito kept things as authentic as possible, and the result is a fun, upbeat, crisp, although minimally diverse album. I’m not sure that it’s something that I would sit down and actively listen to, but it would definitely be something I would put on while I’m baking or cleaning to keep my energy up. At the end of the day though, well done, Tito!
Average grade out of 10:
Holly: 8.5/10
Kelly: 8/10
Average: 8.25/10
Link to the album on Spotify:
Holly & Kelly Music Review 