Machito

Machito stands as a foundational figure in Latin jazz, since his ensembles of the 1940s were likely the earliest to merge vigorous Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz improvisation. At full throttle the group projected a relentless drive, propelled by bustling, high-energy bongos and congas alongside incisive, interlocking brass riffs. Machito served as the visible leader, delivering vocals, directing the ensemble, and rattling maracas, while his brother-in-law Mario Bauzá operated as the guiding force offstage, persuading Machito to engage arrangers steeped in jazz. Born to a cigar manufacturer, Machito turned professional in Cuba during his teenage years and arrived in the United States in 1937 as singer for La Estrella Habanera. Throughout the remainder of the decade he collaborated with various Latin performers and bands, cutting sides with the leading figure Xavier Cugat. Following an unsuccessful prior effort to form a group alongside Bauzá, Machito established the Afro-Cubans in 1940 and installed Bauzá as music director the next year, a post Bauzá would occupy for thirty-five years. After issuing initial 78s on Decca, the Afro-Cubans gained real traction once World War II concluded, sharing bills with—and almost certainly shaping—Stan Kenton’s orchestra while Machito himself contributed maracas to Kenton’s versions of “The Peanut Vendor” and “Cuban Carnival”; they also laid down dynamic tracks for Mercury and Clef. At Bauzá’s instigation the band spotlighted an array of American jazz soloists on its sessions from 1948 through 1960, among them Charlie Parker, whose presence on “No Noise” remains especially striking, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Flip Phillips, Howard McGhee, Buddy Rich, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Mann, Curtis Fuller, and Johnny Griffin. Regular appearances at New York’s Palladium brought Machito’s outfit to the height of its popularity amid the mambo vogue of the 1950s. The group weathered the turbulence of the following decade and, even after Bauzá’s departure in 1976, maintained an active schedule through the sixties, seventies, and into the early eighties, the period when the designation “salsa” gained currency. In its final phase the band recorded for Pablo, including a joint project with Gillespie, and for Timeless. While performing at Ronnie Scott’s club in London in 1984, Machito suffered a fatal stroke. The 1987 documentary Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy, directed by Carlo Ortiz, later chronicled his career.