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Tremendo
Cumban
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AMB 88024
Tremendo
Cumban
Recorded in New York City 1949 - 1952
MACHITO: Leader, maracas & vocals (1 • 10)
Musicians on these sessions include:
Graciela Perez: vocals (1 • 4 • 8)
Rugual Brothers: vocals (8)
René Hernandez: piano
Mario Bauza, Bobby Woodlin,
Frank Davila, Ed Medina: trumpet
Fred Zitom Vern Friley, Eddie Bert: trombone
Lennie Hambro, Jimmy Frisaura,
Gene Johnson, José Madera,
Freddie Skerritt, Leslie Johnakins: reeds
Bobby Rodriguez: bass
José Mangual: bongos
Luis Miranda: conga
Ubaldo Nieto: timbales
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Tremendo Cumban (J. Valentine) .............................................................................3:14
Holiday Mambo (Chico O’Farrill) .............................................................................3:23
Bongo Fiesta (Fuller - Machito) ................................................................................3:03
Donde Estebas Tu (Duarte)........................................................................................3:22
Adios (Madriguera - Woods) .....................................................................................2:31
Beerebee Cum Bee (A. Daly)......................................................................................3:04
Mambo Inn (Sampson - Bauza - Woodlen) ............................................................3:27
Hay Que Recordar (Piloto - Vera)..............................................................................2:55
Carambola (Gillespie - O’Farrill) ..............................................................................3:06
Ay, Que Mate (Machito)..............................................................................................3:21
P
1952
Achtern Dahl 4 • D-27729 Vollersode • Germany
P
2010 &
C
2010 …AND MORE BEARS LC 12483
AMB 88024
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The great Machito was born as Frank Grillo into a family of six in Havana, Cuba. At a very early age
he became very attracted to music, and as a young boy he liked to sing with his father’s employees.
(His father was a manufacturer of cigars, who also owned a warehouse and general store.)
Through his singing the young Machito got to be around some of the most famous groups of that
time, the 1920s, such as the Sexteto Habanero, for instance. Later he began playing the maracas, the
instrument that would be with him all through his life, having carefully observed one of the best
maraqueros in all Cuba, Champito. From 1928 to 1937 he worked with several different groups, such
as El Sexteto Occidente, Sexteto Agabama, Sexteto Universo, Sexteto Nacional etcetera. In 1937 he
arrived in New York and quickly found work with a group that called itself La Estrella Habanera. Some
time later he was a featured singer with Septeto Anacaona, in which Machito’s sister Graciela also
sang; then for the next two years Machito recorded with Cuarteto Caney, Conjunto Moderno and the
Orquesta Hatuey, as well as appearing as singer with the bands of Noro Morales, Augusto Cohen and
Xavier Cugat.
As Machito remembered it: “I first became inspired when I listened to Duke Ellington, and when I
started my first band later on, it was a combination of the Duke and Glenn Miller. But we quickly
went into our own style. You know, Afro-Cuban rhythm is one of the richest in the world! It has
influenced our music today, even the popular things on the juke-boxes.” In reverse, Machito acknowledges
that he himself has been influenced largely by two American bands. “From Count Basie and Chick
Webb we learned to respect musical knowledge. When you join Afro-Cuban rhythm with good musical
knowledge, the result is very exciting music”.
In 1940 he decided to form his own band, The Afro-Cubans, with Mario Bauza as musical director.
Bauza, a brilliant trumpet player, was an old friend from Havana who had arrived in New York in 1930,
and had already distinguished himself in the bands of Don Redman, Noble Sissle and Cab Calloway,
apart from his many appearances at studio sessions.
AMB 88024
When the band opened at the La Conga
night club, it was an immediate success.
The Afro-Cubans were on their way!
After Word War II a new form of jazz was
being played, Bebop, and Machito played
alongside such jazz greats as Charlie Parker,
Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald, to name
just three among many, also making some
recordings. Bandleader Stan Kenton was
quoted as saying that “Machito plays the
greatest Cuban jazz in America today, and
has been a major influence on the band
and myself.” Machito’s orchestra appeared
not only at major night spots, but also at
the Palladium, Birdland, The Band Box and
the Apollo Theater.
The recordings presented here are among
the most famous performances ever by the
Afro-Cubans and, moreover, they were made
at probably the most creative period of
Machito’s long career, a time when the
orchestra had reached a musical peak that
clearly justified its world-wide fame and
recognition.
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