Tito Puente - ‘Quatro: The Definitive Collection’

This box set is just one portion of Tito Puente’s career from 1956 to 1960, and while it may be named 'Quatro', there’s actually cinco 180 gram LPs inside.

  This vinyl release was limited to 5000 copies worldwide.  Digitally re-mastered from original recordings, and has a 46-page booklet (included in the freeload), that features new liner notes covering the era of 1955-1960 plus never before seen photos and memorabilia, along with quotes from Tony Bennett, Emilio Estefan, Sheila E, Marc Anthony and others.

‘Quatro: The Definitive Collection’ captures a brief moment in time when Tito Puente’s musical ambitions aligned perfectly with a somewhat adventurous yet dance-hungry record-buying public.  After these RCA Victor records, nothing would be the same for Tito.




Cuban Carnival, issued in 1956, produced some hits that have endured to the present day. " Pa' Los Rumberos" was later covered by Santana; "Que Sera" (What Is It?) has been covered by more Salsa bands than I can count, and Cuban Fantasy has been covered by numerous Latin Jazz bands.


Night Beat, a big band instrumental album issued in 1957, throws down some serious "CuBop", especially in the tracks "Mambo Beat", "Night Hawk" and "Emerald Beach", which can hold their own with any of the Latin Jazz coming out of other big bands at the time and still hold up to this day.  Tracks like "Sea Breeze" and "Carioca" alternate nicely between straight ahead and Latin Jazz.  "The Late, Late Scene" mixes in a nice Blues motif.  There is also some tasty Afro Cuban in a 6/8 time signature, as in "Night Ritual".  'Night Beat' also has some wailing saxophone solos throughout that a lot a people unfamiliar with Puente's work from this period wouldn't automatically associate with him, along with some solid trumpet work from Doc Severinsen.  This is probably the recording from the early part of his career that you could use if you ever needed to settle an argument about whether Tito should be taken seriously in the Jazz department.


Dance Mania, issued in 1958, remains one of his most famous dance albums and includes the enduring classic "Complicación".  This was before the Salsa era, and the songs still had specific dances associated with them - "Mambo", "Son Montuno", "Guaguanco".  "Mambo Gozon" illustrates why Tito, along with Tito Rodríguez, and Machito were referred to as "The Big Three" in New York at the height of the Mambo craze.  There is also a lot of nice vibraphone work in this recording, and although Tito's most popular title "El Rey" is usually associated with his work with the timbales, historically speaking, his pioneering use of the vibraphone in this music provided an enduring contribution to Latin Jazz.


Revolving Bandstand, issued in 1960, is an interesting face off between Tito Puente's and trombonist Buddy Morrow's bands playing the same classics such as "Autumn Leaves" and "Harlem Nocturne" but alternating styles as they go. Rather than separate takes of each song, the arrangers had each band take passages within the same song.  Consequently, there are regular shifts between straight ahead and Latin Jazz throughout every track in the recording.  In the wrong hands, this could have been a disaster, which probably explains why it hasn't been tried very often, but on this recording is seamless.

A fifth bonus CD titled Bonus Edition includes the definitive versions of "Ran Kan Kan" and "Timbal y Bongo" along with seven outtakes of "Pa' Los Rumberos" and some other surprises.  The outtakes provide some insight into how demanding Tito could be during the recording process.

If you are already a Tito Puente fan, Quatro is a must-have collector's item.  If you like "Cubop" and the Latin Jazz of the 50s but aren't that familiar with Tito's work from that period, you should also check this out without hesitation, as there will be some revelations for you in these recordings (especially Night Beat).  Ditto if you are any sort of Mambo fan at all.  These sessions went down before Salsa came up, and people still remembered that different rhythms had different names.

For the freeload, tell us about some of the foods you don't eat.