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Mambo
Mucho Mambo
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AMB 88025
Mambo
Mucho Mambo
Recorded in New York City 1949 - 1952
MACHITO: Leader, maracas
Musicians on these sessions include:
Graciela Perez: vocals (1 • 4)
Rugual Brothers: vocals (4)
René Hernandez: piano
Mario Bauza, Bobby Woodlin, Frank Davila,
Ed Medina: trumpet
Mitch Miller: oboe (6)
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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Mambo Mucho Mambo (Blanco Suazo) ..................................................................3:00
Si Si, No No (Blanco Suazo).......................................................................................3:10
Mambo A La Savoy (Fuller - Machito).....................................................................2:50
Contigo En La Distancia (Cesar Portillo) ................................................................3:14
Zambia (R. Hernandez) ..............................................................................................2:37
Oboe Mambo (R. Hernandez)....................................................................................2:18
Negro Nañamboro (R. Mercerón) .............................................................................3:16
Tu Felicidad (D.R.) .......................................................................................................2:52
Freezelandia (P. Beque) ..............................................................................................3:03
Blen, Blen, Blen (Chano Pozo)...................................................................................3:09
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1952
Achtern Dahl 4 • D-27729 Vollersode • Germany
P
2010 &
C
2010 …AND MORE BEARS LC 12483
AMB 88025
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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 maraccas, 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.
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. Machito’s orchestra actually began with eleven
men and made several recordings, but he was particularly proud of the recording that Stan Kenton’s
band made with his name (Machito’s) as the title, saying: “That duet at the end (Buddy Childers on
trumpet, and Skip Layton trombone) is just too much! Kenton was among the first to recognize the
richness of Afro-Cuban rhythms. For that matter, we are very fortunate in this country because we
have the folk music of every country in the world to draw from. All the people who came here to live
brought their music with them. That’s why our music is so rich.”
AMB 88025
When the band opened at the La Conga night
club, it was an immediate success. The AfroCubans were on their way! A year later the
first recordings were made of the band under
its own name, as well as backing the celebrated
singer Miguelito Valdés on his. In 1943 Machito
was drafted into the U.S. army, and by the
time his discharge came the Afro-Cubans were
already experimenting with jazz. The very first
Afro-Cuban tune that was played was Tanga,
and it quickly became the band’s theme song.
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.
The recordings presented here are among the
most famous performances ever by the AfroCubans 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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