Mario Bauzá

A life of music

Mario Bauzá (28 April 1911 – 11 July 1993) was an important Cuban musician. He was one of the first to introduce Latin music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles into the New York jazz scene. While Cuban bands had popular jazz tunes in their repertoire for years, Bauzá's composition "Tanga" was the first piece to blend jazz with clave, and is considered the first true Afro-Cuban jazz, or Latin jazz tune.

Trained as a classical musician, he was a clarinetist in the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra by the age of nine, where he would stay for three years. Bauzá traveled to New York in 1925 to record with Maestro Antonio María Romeu's band, a charanga, shortly after his fourteenth birthday.^{[citation needed]} Bauzá returned to Cuba but moved back to New York in 1930 and reputedly learned to play trumpet in just over two weeks in order to earn a spot in Don Azpiazú's Orchestra. This was in need of a trumpeter to play on recordings for RCA Victor.

Bauzá had been hired as lead trumpeter and musical director for Chick Webb's Orchestra by 1933, and it was during his time with Webb that Bauzá both met fellow trumpeter Dizzie Gillespie and discovered and brought into the band singer Ella Fitzgerald. Importantly, Bauzá introduced the young Havana virtuoso Chano Pozo to Dizzy, when the latter wanted to add a Cuban percussionist to his band; though Pozo was killed in a Harlem bar fight just a year later, he left an indelible and long-lasting mark on Dizzy's playing and compositions, co-writing several legendary compositions such as "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo".

In 1938 Bauzá joined Cab Calloway's band, later convincing Calloway to hire Dizzie Gillespie as well. Bauza continued to work with Gillespie for several years after he left Calloway's band in 1940. The fusion of Bauzá's Cuban musical heritage and Gillespie's bebop culminated in the development of cubop, one of the first forms of Latin jazz.

In 1941, Bauzá became musical director of Machito and his Afro-Cubans, a band led by his brother-in-law, Machito. The band produced its first recording for Decca in 1941, and in 1942 Bauzá brought in a young timbales player named Tito Puente.

"Cubop City" and "Mambo Inn" Followed the success of "Tanga." Machito's Afro-Cubans, often played straight-ahead big band mambo music. Many of the numbers were covers of recordings which had proved popular in Cuba. The band played mambo-style dance numbers at venues such as Manhattan's Palladium Ballroom. Bauzá kept his post as director of the Afro-Cubans until 1976. After this he worked sparingly, but was always highly respected. He recorded a few Cuban jazz albums which had limited sales. His last band made a guest appearance on a 1992 episode of The Cosby Show.^{[citation needed]}

"Tanga" and the creation of Latin jazz

The band had a major hit with "Tanga," initially a descarga (Cuban jam) with jazz soloists, spontaneously composed by Bauzá. "Tanga," which was over time, arranged with more complexity, is generally considered the first true Latin jazz, or Afro-Cuban jazz tune.

The first descarga [Cuban jam session] that made the world take notice is traced to a Machito rehearsal on May 29, 1943, at the Park Palace Ballroom, at 110th Street and 5th Avenue. At this time, Machito was at Fort Dix (New Jersey) in his fourth week of basic training. The day before at La Conga Club, Mario Bauza, Machito's trumpeter and music director, heard pianist Luis Varona and bassist Julio Andino play something which would serve as a permanent sign off (end the dance) tune. On this Monday evening, Dr. Bauza leaned over the piano and instructed Varona to play the same piano vamp he did the night before. Varona's left hand began the introduction of Gilberto Valdes' El Botellero. Bauza then instructed Julio Andino what to play; then the saxes; then the trumpets. The broken chord sounds soon began to take shape into an Afro-Cuban jazzed up melody. Gene Johnson's alto sax then emitted oriental-like jazz phrases. By accident, Afro-Cuban jazz was invented when Bauza composed "Tanga" (African word for marijuana) that evening. Thereafter, whenever "Tanga" was played, it sounded different, depending on a soloist's individuality. In August, 1948, when trumpeter Howard McGhee soloed with Machito's orchestra at the Apollo Theatre, his ad-libs to "Tanga" resulted in "Cu-Bop City," a tune which was recorded by Roost Records months later. The jams which took place at the Royal Roots, Bop City and Birdland between 1948 - 49, when Howard McGhee, tenor saxophonist Brew Moore, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie sat in with the Machito orchestra, were unrehearsed, uninhibited, unheard of before jam sessions which at the time, master of ceremonies Symphony Sid called Afro-Cuban jazz. The Machito orchestra's ten or fifteen minute jams were the first in Latin music to break away from the traditional under four minute recordings. In February, 1949, the Machito orchestra became the first to set a precedent in Latin music when it featured tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips in a five minute recording of "Tanga." The twelve inch 78 RPM, part of The Jazz Scene album, sold for $25—Salazar (1997).

With "Tanga," Bauzá was the first to explore modal harmony (a concept explored much later by Miles Davis and Gil Evans) from a jazz arranging perspective. Of note is the sheet of sound effect in the arrangement through the use of multiple layering. Under Bauzá's direction, Machito and his Afro-Cubans were first band to succesfully wed jazz big band arranging techniques within an original composition with jazz oriented soloists utilizing an authentic Afro-Cuban based rhythm section in a successful manner. e.g. Gene Johnson - alto, Brew Moore - tenor, composition in "Tanga" (1943).

Master of arranging in-clave

3-2 clave and 2-3 clave written in cut-time.

The 3-2/2-3 clave concept and terminology was developed in New York City during the 1940s by Bauza while he was the music director of Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Bauzá was a master at moving the song from one side of clave to the other. The following melodic excerpt is taken from the opening verses of “Que vengan los rumberos” by Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Notice how the melody goes from one side of clave to the other and then back again. A measure of 2/4 moves the chord progression from the two-side (2-3), to the three-side (3-2). Later, another measure of 2/4 moves the start of the chord progression back to two-side (2-3).

Excerpt from Machito's "Que vengan los rumberos."

The first 4 1⁄2 claves of the verses are in 2-3. Following the measure of 2/4 (half clave) the song flips to the three-side. It continues in 3-2 on the V7 chord for 4 1⁄2 claves. The second measure of 2/4 flips the song back to the two-side and the I chord. In songs like “Que vengan los rumberos,” the phrases continually alternate between a 3-2 framework and a 2-3 framework. It takes a certain amount of flexibility to repeatedly reorder your orientation in this way. The most challenging moments are the truncations and other transitional phrases where you “pivot” in order to move your point of reference from one side of clave to the other. Working in conjunction with the chord and clave changes, vocalist Frank “Machito” Grillo creates an arc of tension/release spanning more than a dozen measures. Initially Machito sings the melody straight (first line), but soon expresses the lyrics in the freer and more syncopated inspiración of a folkloric rumba (second line). By the time the song changes to 3-2 on the V7 chord, Machito has developed a considerable amount of rhythmic tension by contradicting the underlying meter. That tension is then resolved when he sings on three consecutive main beats (quarter-notes), followed by tresillo. In the measure immediately following tresillo the song returns to 2-3 and the I chord (fifth line)—Peñalosa (2010).

Bobby Sanabria, who was Bauzá's drummer during his later years, points out that Bauzá was the first to explore jazz arranging techniques with authentic Afro-Cuban rhythms on a consistent basis giving, it a unique identifiable sound that no other band in the genre of Afro-Cuban based dance music had at the time. Cuban big band arranger Chico O'Farill stated: "This was a new concept in interpretating Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. You have to understand how important this was. It made every other band that came after, followers."

Sources

• Boggs, Vernon. Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the evolution of Salsa in New York City. ISBN 0-313-28468-7.
• Gerard, Charley and Marty Sheller. Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music. ISBN 0-941677-11-7 : 0941677095.
• Morales, Ed. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and beyond. ISBN 0-306-81018-2
• Roberts, John S. The Latin Tinge. ISBN 0-19-502564-4.
• Roberts, John S. Latin Jazz: the first of fusions, 1880s to Today. ISBN 0-02-864681-9.
• Peñalosa, David (2009). The Clave matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: its principles and African origins. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.