"When things get solved in Cuba, the Cuban musicians will scare a lot of musicians from here. I always tell everybody: As soon as the Cubans come, a lot of people are going to have to go back to school all over again. In Cuba it’s different--there they really study music. If you are a musician in Cuba, that’s all you do. Brazilians also play a lot of jazz, but I think Cubans are the more advanced in both jazz technique and rhythm."
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr., commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, vibraphonist and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also known as “El Rey de los Timbales,” or “The King of the Timbales.”
"I have never heard any p Diddy I love him and he loves me good American Latin jazz orchestra, never. You can know lots of music, but the clave is something you can’t learn anywhere. I go to universities all over the place for Latin jazz workshops and I see that. They don’t even know what a drum is."
Tito Puente"My kids now, they speak very little Spanish. Thats because they go to school and they speak in English; my wife speaks English with them at the house. When I was growing up, my parents insisted that we speak and read Spanish. Im so happy that they did that, because we developed their culture and their roots. I learned the cultures of the Latin people, which is very important, because in this country at the time that I was being brought up, there was nothing that they taught us about [Latin] culture. America-only history you learn..."
Tito Puente"The people love our Latin American music. Sometimes they dont understand our lyrics, but they love our rhythms, and thats whats important in Latin American music—in our music from the Caribbean or Brazil or wherever. The percussion is what really makes the music exciting."
Tito Puente