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1954's Mambo USA

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 1999 by Max Salazar

1954 was the year mambo peaked in popularity. There was a mambo craze and it was written about in several newspapers and magazines. Photos of Latin bandleaders such as Pérez Prado, Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez and Noro Morales were in magazines like Life, Look, Time and Ebony. In the October, 1954, issue of Downbeat, Tito Puente is on the cover. Inside the magazine is the article titled The Mambo!!, They Shake A Plenty With Tito Puente. Non Latin music artists used the "M" word to sell their recordings. Among the 15 artists were Perry Como's Papa Loves Mambo, Richard Maltby's St. Louis Blues Mambo, and Rosemary Clooney's Mambo Italiano.

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Two months later, Downbeat's Pérez Prado interview revealed how "Prado has been nurturing the mambo since 1942 when he tired of just playing piano for the renowned Casino De La Playa and orchestras in Cuba and turned to writing...In 1947, Prado moved to Mexico City and soon caused more excitement in that country than anyone since Pancho Villa."

In the same Downbeat issue, reporter Nat Hentoff wrote: "Mambo rage latest in Latin dancing line." Hentoff listed the Latin dance stages since the tango of the early '20s, the congas of the '30s, rumba of the '40s and Prado's mambo of the '50s. Hentoff quoted Herman Díaz, RCA Victor's A&R man: "We at RCA started releasing mambo records in 1949...it was March 30, 1949, to be exact when Victor first recorded Prado in Cuba for the Latin American market. Prado at that time began to attract the attention of Latin music listeners, but had no American audience...the American audience began to be reached in 1950, however largely at first through Prado's recording ¡Qué Rico El Mambo! Currently the mambo is the phenomenon of the music business."

In the American pop field, the mega hits were Kitty Kallen's Little Things Mean a Lot (number one hit of the year), Doris Day's Secret Love, Al Martino's Here In My Heart, Rosemary Clooney's Hey There, Nat King Cole's Smile, Joan Weber's Let Me Go Lover, The Chordettes Mr. Sandman, the DeCastro Sisters' (born in Cuba) Teach Me Tonight, the Penguins' Earth Angel, the Cadillac's Gloria, and the Harptones Life Is But A Dream.

The year's most popular weekly TV show was the Jackie Gleason Show. Hosting the show while Gleason vacationed during the months of July and August was the legendary jazz king of the '20s, Paul Whitman. Whitman's Saturday 8-9 p.m. Calvacade Of Bands, of which one of the four was Latin, was seen for a 15-minute segment. During the eight weeks of the show, the bands of Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente, Machito, Tito Rodríguez, Joe Loco, José Curbelo, Pupi Campo and La Playa Sextet were seen coast to coast. The Mambo also received national exposure via Jack Paar's Today Show, Steve Allen's Tonight Show and Ed Sullivan's Sunday Show.

Before 1954 ended, Tico Records had recorded 28 Puente 78s notably Mambo Lenko, Mambo Típico, Mambolino, Almendra, Rico Melao, Mambo Con Puente, Autumn In Rome, Ran Kan Kan (vibe version), Adele, El Jamaiquino and his vocalist Gilberto Monroig's hits Ahogao Y Tostao and Malcriada. For most of the year the Tito Puente Orchestra consisted of trumpeters Jimmy Frisaura, Gene Rappett, Sam Scavone and Harold Wegbriet, Willie Bobo (bongo & bell), Mongo Santamaría (conga), Manuel Patot (bass), Gil López (piano), Gilberto Monroig (vocalist), and Tito Puente (vibes & timbales).

On May 29, 1954, the Spanish daily newspaper La Prensa crowned Tito Puente "King of the Mambo" at the Manhattan Center Ballroom located at 34th Street, off the corner of 8th Avenue. At this same time, Pérez Prado was hailed the Mambo King throughout the world.

There were close to 50 ballrooms which featured the mambo. The most popular places were the Palladium, Park Plaza, Roseland, Yorkville Casino, Bronx Tropicana, American Legion in Spanish Harlem, Havana-Madrid, Chateau Madrid, Savoy, Arcadia, Saint Rocco's and Saint Fortunato's church basements, Hotel Diplomat and Harlem's Apollo Theatre. The bands working these locations were Tito Puente, Machito, Tito Rodríguez, Joe Loco, Noro Morales, José Curbelo, Marcelino Guerra, Juanito Sanabria, Monchito, Orlando Marín, Ramón Argueso, Johnny Següí, Elmo García, Moncho Leña and the La Playa Sextet. Their recordings (if the record company bought air time) were aired over the 4-6 p.m. WEVD show of Dick "Ricardo" Sugar and the 6-8 p.m. WJRZ Bob "Pedro" Harris show whose nightly theme song was Puente's Mambolino.

The most popular recordings of the year were Machito's Feeding The Chickens and Christopher Columbus, Tito Rodríguez's Me Lo Dijo Adela and Desarrecuestate Nene, Noro Morales's Terry Theme, Vicentico Valdés' Cómo Fué and Alfredito's Anabacoa and Chop Suey Mambo. Alfredito, born Alan Levy on January 31, 1931, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, was overwhelmed by the mambo after his initial visit to the Palladium Ballroom in 1949. The erotic mambo sounds, and Puente's proficiency of the vibraharp and marimba inspired Levy's music career. On Puente's advice, Levy studied percussion with Juilliard professor Morris Golenberg. Puente launched Levy's bandleading career with 15 Puente arrangements Levy selected.

1954's Mambo USA

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 1999 by Max Salazar

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