Dance Mania (Legacy Edition) [Digipak]

Performer: Tito Puente
Artist: Ray Barretto
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Tito Puente (arranger, vibraphone, marimba, timbales); Santitos Colon (vocals); Rafael Palau, Jerry Sanfino, Schepp Pullman, Tony Buonpastore (saxophone); Bernie Glow, Jimmy Frisaura, Frank Lo Pinto, George Lopez, Gene Rapetti, Larry Moser, Leon Merian (trumpet); Raymond Concepcion (piano); Bobby Rodriguez (bass); Ray Barretto, Julito Collazo, Ray Rodriguez (percussion); Vitin Aviles, Otto Olivar, Santitos Colon (background vocals). Reissue producers: Domingo G. Echevarria, Harry Sepulveda, Samuel Lopez. Recorded in New York, New York in November & December 1957. Includes liner notes by Domingo G. Echevarria and Harry Sepulveda. Digitally remastered by Dick Baxter and Domingo G. Echevarria (1991, BMG/Studio ID, New York, New York). Dance Mania, Tito Puente's best-known and best-selling album, came ten years into his career, but at a time (1957) when the craze for mambo and Latin music was beginning to crest. (Another landmark LP, P�rez Prado's Havana 3 A.M., had been released the previous year, and Prado's "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" had hit number one in 1955.) Recorded as part of a just-signed exclusive contract with RCA and appearing in vibrant sound as part of the label's Living Stereo series, Dance Mania exploded with a series of tight arrangements, propulsive playing, and the features of new additions in vocalist Santos Col�n and conguero Ray Barretto (who helped, in part, make up for the recent loss of Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria to Cal Tjader's group). Puente didn't dilute his sound for Dance Mania -- unlike the many commercial crossover LPs that were released by both established groups and ad hoc studio collectives -- but his hard mambos here were performed at tempos that encouraged dancing by more staid LP-buyers, slightly slower than the high paces of his Tico sides or Palladium shows. Brassy and swinging, yes, and certainly as precise as a great Latin band could get, but not as torrid as Spanish Harlem dancers would be accustomed to. Most were Puente originals, spanning mambo and cha-cha and guaguanco, and Dance Mania built the foundation for great Latin LPs to come. ~ John Bush A late '50s album by Latin jazz and Afro-Latin master Tito Puente that hooked into the mambo craze and also offered some spicy rhythms and excellent solos. This has been reissued on CD. ~ Ron Wynn These glorious cuts from 1957 hardly require any introduction. Played by one of the very finest bands of the day, it's easy to see how this became the sizzling Afro-Cuban jazz that had Latinos and Anglos alike tearing it up on America's hippest dance floors. Mr. Puente does it all here, from composing many of the tunes to crisp, electrifying arranging and bandleading to his deft marimba and timbal playing. Really, who else had an orchestra that hit rhythmic breaks with such ferocity and control? The husky, milky sound of Santitos Colon's voice makes for a pointed contrast with the driving, strident force of the band. The classic Aguabella-penned guaguanco "Complicacion," features relatively simple, melodic horn orchestration when compared to the layering effect brought to a thrilling crest in "Mambo Gozon." The instrumentals are also wonderful. There's the whimsically titled "3-D Mambo," with its blistering staccato trumpet hits and then the gay, romantic roll of "Varsity Drag." Of sure interest to those who were there as well as newer Latin jazz audiences, this is music with no expiration date.

Dirty Linen (p.58) - "[T]he mambos, cha chas, boleros, and rumbas that made DANCE MANIA such an influential recording when it was first released remain vibrant and irresistible." Billboard (p.36) - "The rhythms were complex but cleanly expressed, the pace furious, the discipline relentless....This is music half a century old that sounds as fresh and unstoppable as the moment it was made."

New York City-born percussionist Tito Puente infused his big-band music with the mambo sound he helped to popularize in the US. He started out playing with the likes of Noro Morales and Machito before starting his own band in the late 1940s. Known as "King of the Mambo," Puente styled himself after the great swing-era band leaders, and ruled for years over a dance-oriented world of Latin rhythms spiced with jazz and pop. Through mambo, cha-cha, salsa, and more, Puente's career weathered the ups and downs of musical trends, and the iconic band leader, who passed away in 2000, ranks as a legend of Latin jazz.

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