Machito
Machito | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo |
Also known as | Frank Grillo |
Born | c. December 3, 1909 |
Origin | Havana, Cuba |
Died | April 15, 1984 London | (aged 74)
Genres |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1928–1984 |
Machito (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine
sister.In New York City, Machito formed the
Machito's music had an effect on the careers of many musicians who played in the Afro-Cubans over the years, and on those who were attracted to Latin jazz after hearing him. George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Cab Calloway and Stan Kenton credited Machito as an influence. An intersection in East Harlem is named "Machito Square" in his honor.
Early life
Machito gave conflicting accounts of his birth.
Regardless of his place of birth, Machito was raised from an early age in the Jesús María district of Havana, where his foster sister Graciela was born August 23, 1915. Her parents raised both of them.[11] Young Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, the son of a cigar manufacturer, was nicknamed "Macho" as a child because he was the first son born to his parents after they had three daughters.[12] In his teens and twenties in Cuba, "Macho" became a professional musician, playing in several ensembles from 1928 to 1937.[13]
Career
Macho moved to New York City in 1937 as a vocalist with Las Estrellas Habaneras (Havana Stars).[14] He worked with several Latin artists and orchestras in the late 1930s, recording with Conjunto Moderno, Cuarteto Caney,[13] Orchestra Siboney, and the bandleader Xavier Cugat.[11] After an earlier attempt to launch a band with Mario Bauzá, in 1940 he founded the Afro-Cubans, and conducted their first rehearsal on December 3 at the Park Palace Ballroom[15] located at W. 110th Street in Harlem.[16][17] A big band-style brass section with trumpets and saxes was backed by a trap drum, piano, bass and a Cuban bongo.[18] Several weeks later, in early January 1941, Machito took on Mario Bauzá as musical director;[19] a role he retained for 34 years.[3] As an instrumentalist, Bauza played trumpet and alto saxophone.[20]
The band had an early hit with "Sopa de Pichon" in 1941. Its title is slang for "pigeon soup", a Puerto Rican joke about nearly starving as an immigrant in New York.[21]
Machito and the Afro-Cubans, were among the first to fuse
As a result, Machito's music greatly inspired such United States jazz musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Stan Kenton. One of the items in the Kenton orchestra's repertoire was an idiomatic Afro-Cuban number known as "Machito," composed by Stan Kenton with Pete Rugolo and released as a Capitol 78 in 1947.
In April 1943 during World War II, Machito was drafted into the United States Army. After a few months of training, he suffered a leg injury and was discharged in October. Earlier, anticipating a long absence of the band's leader, Bauza had sent for Machito's younger foster sister Graciela, who traveled to New York from Havana where she had been touring with El Trio Garcia, and singing lead with the all-female Orquesta Anacaona.[11] Graciela served as the lead singer of the Afro-Cubans for a year before Machito returned to front the band.[11] Graciela stayed on — at performances, the two singers alternated solo songs and created duets such as "Si Si No No" and "La Paella". Adding to the percussion, Graciela played claves alongside Machito's maracas.[11]
Beginning in 1947, teenager
Machito accepted a recording date with
Each summer from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s, a period of 22 years, Machito and his band played a ten-week engagement at the Concord Resort Hotel in the Catskills. Machito's album Vacation at the Concord was issued in 1958 as a representative experience of an evening's performance, but it was not recorded at the resort.[26] Five-year-old Mario Grillo learned to play the timbales during the 1961 summer series, with lessons from Ubaldo Nieto, then returned to New York with his father's band and played his first gig, taking a single timbales solo at the Palladium Ballroom while standing on a chair next to Tito Puente.[26]
In 1957, Machito recorded the album Kenya, with mostly original songs by
Smaller format
In 1975, Machito's son Mario Grillo, known as "Machito Jr", joined the band for its recording with Dizzy Gillespie, Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods; the album, featuring arrangements by Chico O'Farrill, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Later in 1975, Machito determined that he would accept an invitation to tour Europe with a smaller eight-piece ensemble. Bauzá quit; he had grave doubts that such an enterprise would work musically. Graciela left as well.[11] The tour and the smaller band proved very successful; the start of perennial tours of Europe. (Bauzá admitted, years later, that he had acted too hastily.[7]) Mario Grillo took over the duties of musical director in 1977. That year, the band earned another Grammy nomination for Fireworks — a change of tone signaled by the appearance of Lalo Rodríguez as co-lead singer and composer of three tunes.[26] Further European tours were undertaken using the band name "Machito and his Salsa Big Band", and Machito's daughter Paula Grillo carried female lead vocals, stepping into Graciela's shoes.[26] When the band appeared in London in February 1982, they accepted long-term engagements, making London their "home base".[26]
At
In 1983, Machito won a
Personal life
Machito was somewhat short in stature, at 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m) in height.
Machito suffered a stroke before a concert in London, England in 1984, collapsing while waiting to go on stage at Ronnie Scott's club.[7] He died four days later on April 19, 1984, at University College Hospital in London.[26] His son Mario carried forward the legacy by leading The Machito Orchestra after his father's death.[26] His daughter Paula, though dedicating her life to scholarly studies, has occasionally fronted the group as its singer.[26][29]
Mario Bauzá died in 1993. Hilda Grillo, a patron of Latin music after her husband's death, died in July 1997. Having never married, Graciela died in April 2010 at the age of 94.[11]
Legacy
In 1985, New York mayor
A documentary film by Carlo Ortiz, Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy, was released in 1987, showing an elderly Machito and his wife in their Bronx apartment, as well as archival footage from performances in the 1940s and afterward.[32]
Selected discography
As leader
- Mucho Macho Machito (Clef, 1948–1949)
- Kenya (Roulette, 1957)
- Vacation at the Concord (Verve, 1958)
- Machito with Flute to Boot (Roulette, 1959)
- Machito at the Crescendo (GNP Crescendo, 1961)
- Machito!!! (Timeless, 1983)
As sideman
- Miguelito Valdés, Bim Bam Boom – An Album of Cuban Rhythms (Decca)
- Miguelito Valdés, Afro-Cuban Music (Decca, 1942)
- Charlie Parker, South of the Border (Verve, 1948 and 1951–1952)
- Dizzy Gillespie, Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods (Pablo, 1975)
See also
References
- ^ a b Ginell, Richard S. Biography. Allmusic, 2011
- ^ "Obituary: Machito". Time. 23. Time Inc.: 106 1984.
- ^ a b c Child, John (November 18, 1999). "Profile: Machito". descarga.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-19-512793-5.
- ISBN 978-1-85828-761-4.
- ISBN 978-0-313-31443-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87930-619-9.
- ISBN 978-1-4259-8157-0.
- ISSN 1070-4701.
- ^ a b c d Frankenstein, Alfred Victor; Spaeth, Sigmund Gottfried; Mize, John Townsend Hinton (1951). Who is who in music. p. 284.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ratliff, Ben (April 9, 2010). "Graciela Peréz-Gutierrez, Afro-Cuban Singer, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4.
- ^ a b Clarke, Donald (1998). The Penguin encyclopedia of popular music (2 ed.). Penguin Books. p. 801.
- ^ Medina, Luis; 1984; "Machito," Avance Magazine; pg. 15
- ^ Salazar, Max; 2002; "Mambo Kingdom: Latin Music in New York;" pg. 9
- ^ The Christian, Volume 98, Issue 26; 1960; pg. 12
- ^ Allen, Ray; 2019; "Jump Up!: Caribbean Carnival Music in New York;" pg. 5 9
- ^ Leymarie, Isabelle; 1997; "Cuban Fire: The Story of Salsa and Latin Jazz;" pg. 159
- ^ Interviews Cited Bauzá, Mario. Interview by John Storm Roberts, Jazz Oral History Project, Smithsonian Institution. 13 December 1978.
- ISBN 978-0-19-532000-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8130-3393-8.
- ^ Yanow, Scott; 2001; "The Trumpet Kings: The Players who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet;" pg. 43
- ISBN 9781491747704.
- ^ Salazar, Max; 2002; "Mambo Kingdom: Latin Music in New York;" pg. 11
- ^ a b Salazar, Max (March 1997). "Remembering Willie Bobo: the famous Salsa musician". Latin Beat magazine. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Child, John (May 5, 2007). "The Machito Orchestra: Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow". descarga.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-4520-8282-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8256-7277-4.
- ^ Cazares, David (January 9, 1998). "Machito Orchestra Keeps The Flame Alive". Sun Sentinel.
- ISBN 978-0-8147-2712-6.
- ^ Siegal, Nina (September 8, 2000). "In the Footsteps of Mambo Kings". Puerto Rico Herald. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2011. Originally appeared in The New York Times.
- ^ Wilmington, Michael (June 8, 1987). "Movie Review: 'Machito': The Legacy Of A Latin Beat". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
Bibliography
- Austerlitz, Paul and Jere Laukkanen (2016). Machito and His Afro-Cubans: Selected Transcriptions. Middleton, WI: A & R Edition. ISBN 9780895798282.
- ISBN 978-0826455864.
External links
- Machito discography at Discogs
- Music of Machito and his Afro-Cubans at the Library of Congress