The Fourth Case of the Latin Fiesta

Since my return from vacation the big show has featured artist spotlights in Brazil and Africa... that means it's time for another crowd-pleasing Latin mix.

My recent Latin mixes have been decidedly rustic, featuring guajiras, son montuno, and Afro-Peru. This week we are taking the Latin sound uptown for a survey of Latin big band of the 50s and 60s.

We start the set today with a heavenly slice of radio Havana... we'll hear classic big bands of Cuba from the pre-revolutionary 50s, including 3 songs from the incomparable godfather of the son, Beny More. We will also hear some of the earliest work from Celia Cruz singing with the Cuban orchestra Sonora Matancera.

When Fidel Castro formed a Communist government in Cuba, the center of the Latin musical universe broke into a thousand pieces. Although many musicians stayed in Cuba (including Beny More), they knew that they would be earning a low fixed wage for their living, like all Cubans in this system. Many of the top musicians chose to leave the country, and the majority of these artists eventually joined the Latin scene in New York (including Celia Cruz).

The middle of today's set features a battle of the bands between two of the most popular Latin orchestras in the New York scene of the 60s, the bands of Machito and Tito Puente. This is an uptown and sophisticated cousin of the radio Havana music we heard today, but at the same time more irreverent. In a word, more modern.

We will end the set today with a taste of big band salsa from the 70's and 80's. Here we finally move away from Cuba (and Cubans in New York), playing bands from Venezuela and Colombia.