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Sony Music Latin Releases Tito Puente: "Quatro" - 5CD/LP/Digital Box

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SONY MUSIC LATIN RELEASES LIMITED EDITION CELEBRATING 90th BIRTHDAY OF COMPOSER, BANDLEADER AND MUSICIAN

STATE-OF-THE-ART REMASTERING OF LANDMARK RECORDINGS + BONUS DISK OF RARITIES, WITH LINER NOTES & MEMORABILIA


Tito Puente would have celebrated his 90th birthday in 2013, as well as the 10th anniversary of his GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. To honor one of the 20th Century’s great musical figures, Sony Music Latin delivers something for the jazz master’s legions of fans to celebrate: the release of Tito Puente: Quatro, The Definitive Collection. This historic release is the first-ever archival box set collection from Sony Music Latin’s extensive music vaults, with four groundbreaking albums by Puente recorded between 1955 and 1960 for RCA Victor: Cuban Carnival (1956), Night Beat (1957), Dance Mania (1958) and Revolving Bandstand (1960). The set also includes a bonus disk of rarities highlighting outtakes, alternate takes and his biggest-selling single hit, “Ran Kan Kan.”

These early albums are landmark recordings by the famed composer, percussionist and bandleader, defining his style and his reach as well as setting the foundation for his later work. Quatro, the Definitive Collection is available in three formats: as a 5-CD set, 180- gram vinyl 5-LP set, or as a digital download collection, all remastered to the highest standards from the original RCA tapes. While these four early releases have been previously re-issued, Puente’s vision can at last be heard with the sonic brilliance it deserves, and with the textured layers of percussion that thrilled his live audiences. The digital set in itself is a first, allowing old and new fans to explore his genius on a laptop, tablet or smartphone.

The set’s curator and producer, Sony Music Latin A&R exec Anthony Gonzalez, explains: “The idea for Quatro began in 2001, the year after Tito passed, when I began to work with his RCA catalog.” But it was important for Sony Music Latin that this be something special. “From the very beginning we didn’t want it to be a ‘box set’ in any ordinary sense. We wanted something more compelling, something to appeal not just to fans but to collectors, a conversation piece you’d proudly put on your coffee table.”

The limited-edition collectable (only 5,000 CD and LP sets will be pressed) is packaged in a silver and black hardbound cover that contains detailed liner notes, unpublished photos and memorabilia, and previously unreleased album artwork from the period. Each album, printed with orginal RCA Victor label, is housed individually in a thick cardboard sleeve with back and front facsimiles of the orginal LP cover art. The liner notes also include tributes from famous fans including Tony Bennett, Emilio Estefan, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, and Celia Cruz. “I wanted to tell a story through the liner notes and graphics,” notes Gonzalez. “I wanted to make sure that every detail was covered with all the information that we had available. Replicating the original artwork was possible with great computer software, since the original negatives are not around anymore. We tracked down the original LPs in the best condition we could find, bought them, and then scanned them inch by inch, cleaning them up and making them look like they did when they were new.” The recordings themselves were meticulously reclaimed. “I located the original tapes in our vaults and also some tracks that had been digitally transferred, a measure our archivists were taking with tapes that were showing early signs of deterioration. Once we had it all collected, the tracks were sent to Fuller Sound in Miami for the full analog remastering process.” Vinyl audiophiles will also be impressed with the 180-gram LP version of Quatro, finally bringing this music back to the turntables it was originally intended for. “The reason behind the vinyl release was to offer old and new vinyl fans the full Tito Puente LP experience,” says Gonzalez. “These incredible recordings carry such great warmth when heard on a turntable.”

The discs in the Quatro: The Definitive Collection trace a major landmark in Puente’s ascension to becoming El Rey, the King of the Mambo. And they might have easily gone unnoticed on their release. While RCA Victor gave Puente the best tools available at the time to record his music, once they were delivered the label often locked horms with the demanding bandleader. While his labelmate Perez Prado got RCA’s full promotional push, Tito’s independence and resistance to commercial concerns earned him the nickname “Little Caesar.” Still, he fought for support from the label, and he largely prevailed.

Yet as the Latin jazz scene was overtaken by the pop music industry, Puente’s work was often undervalued. Notes Gonzalez: “If there was one misconception about Tito Puente, it was that he was just a percussionist and entertainer who got lucky when Santana scored a commercial hit with his song ‘Oye Como Va’. The truth is, Tito was a very accomplished musician, someone who studied at Juilliard. He was a complete percussionist. He wrote most of the songs he recorded and was a fierce bandleader, greatly respected by all the musicians that worked and played with him. He always aimed for perfection. Simply stated, Tito was a musical genius”.

Crucial to putting these albums in context are the liner notes by Quatro co-producer and Puente’s close friend Joe Conzo Sr., author of Mambo Diablo: My Journey with Tito Puente. He gives a synopsis of how these recordings elevated Tito’s career and impacted American popular music and jazz. This great musician and showman later came to be one of the most beloved Latino figures in American pop, nationally known from his TV appearances on The Cosby Show, Sesame Street, or playing himself in the film The Mambo King.

The musical vision of Ernesto “Tito” Puente, born in NYC’s barrio April 20, 1923, is a proud one that helped not only secure his own legacy as an artist but also established a new level of respect not only for Puerto Rican culture but also for all Latinos stigmatized by the segregation and racism of the 1950s and 1960s. He helped popularize Latin dance music and jazz in the United States with a career that spanned over six decades. The innovative composer and musician recorded over 100 albums and won five Grammy Awards. “The most important Latin musician of the last half century” is how the New York Times referred to him upon his death on June 1, 2000 at age 77.

“This project was truly done for the love of Tito,” says Gonzalez, “to honor the man, his musical legacy and his memory.”

“Quatro defines Tito Puente,” concludes Conzo, “who he was musically and creatively and who he went on to be. He has never really left us.”

“Tito was responsible for creating the Latin interpretation of jazz. In the annals of jazz history, he will never be forgotten.” —TONY BENNETT

“Tito was, and continues to be, a universal icon whose music and talent have made millions of people’s lives happier for over six decades. He always represented Latinos with pride around the world and his legacy lives on.” —RICKY MARTIN

“Tito was not only a great percussionist but a complete all-around musician, composer, arranger, innovator. I was very blessed to play with him....” —ARTURO SANDOVAL

“There are two periods in Latin music and jazz: before Puente and after Puente.” —BOBBY SANABRIA

TITO PUENTE: Quatro, The Definitive Collection

Cuban Carnival (1956) Ask any Mambo head about Cuban Carnival and their eyes will bulge out with excitement. The repertoire recorded in 1955 showcased Tito Puente, the composer, arranger and bandleader, at the top of his game. With a rhythm section that included famed drummers Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Carlos ‘Patato’ Valdes, and Candido Camero, Puente wrote most of this material during his tenure at The Palladium in Manhattan. Bandstand burners like “Pa Los Rumberos” and “Oye Mi Guaguanco” are a dancer’s delight. The album also debuts his cha cha cha, “Que Sera,” which is now a Latin standard. Deep Big Band Latin jazz is heard on “Yambeque,” and his adaptation of Ray Bryant’s, “Cuban Fantasy.” The LP instrumental in bringing Afro-Cuban music out of the barrio and into American living rooms.

Night Beat (1957) Tito lays down some straight ahead Jazz Latin on this album of instrumentals featuring longtime Tonight Show trumpeter Doc Severinson. Playing trap drums, timbales and vibraphone, Puente swings down-home jazz shuffles and swing and provides a percussion tour-de-force on “Night Ritual” with Mongo Santamaria laying down an off-the-hook solo. Sambas like “Carioca” and “Flying Down To Rio” are a departure for Puente but musically rewarding.

Dance Mania (1958) is considered one of the greatest albums in 20th Century Latin music history. It opens beautifully with the infectious cha cha cha, “El Cayuco,” a Puente original, and introduces us to the voice of Santos Colon, whose melodious contra-alto cruises above powerhouse arrangements. Dripping with Afro-Cuban guaguanco are two Francisco Aguabella compositions, “Complicacion” and “Agua Limpia Todo.” Ray Santos’ “3-D Mambo” is Bop Latin at its best. The exotic “Hong Kong Mambo” features Tito on marimba for some swinging Latin jazz. Driving the tumbao throughout “Dance Mania” is the young conga player Ray Barretto. Dedicated to the dancers at the Palladium, Puente set the pinnacle for a Latin album with this release, the best-selling of his career, and it would prove seminal to the emerging Latin Rock and Salsa booms of the 1970s.

Revolving Bandstand (1960). The collaboration between Tito Puente and trombonist Buddy Morrow produced this excellent instrumental big band excursion. Tito’s idea for the album placed two big bands in a studio together, one with a Latin rhythm section, the other with a jazz rhythm section. “First,” as Tito explained in Steve Loza’s book Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music, “the jazz big band would play a tune like ‘Autumn Leaves’ and give it their treatment, then the Latin band would play the bridge in an authentic style.” It fused two orchestras to create a giant sound with Tito arranging and conducting as well as playing. With a chance of management at RCA, the album was cut out almost immediately after its release. It would be his last album for the label.

Quatro: Bonus Edition (2012) Culled from the hundreds of unreleased Tito Puente tracks in the vaults of RCA Victor, this Bonus Edition focuses on rarities that give us insight into the artist at work. His biggest hit for the label, “Ran Kan Kan,” kicks it off with “Timbal y Bongo” featuring bongocero Chino Pozo. The outtake tracks from the Cuban Carnival sessions show how tight his band had to be to lay this gem down live onto reel-to-reel tape in the days before multi-tracking. It’s the anatomy of a recording session preserved with engineer chatter and Tito providing instruction en español to the band. Also included are six unreleased alternate takes of “Pa Los Rumberos” and outtakes from the Revolving Bandstand sessions which are looser but with refreshed improvisations and dynamics. Overall, a historically rich must-hear for Puente-philes.

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