Tito Puente, one of the greatest names in music, died on May 31, 2000. Shortly after his passing two of the seminal figures in Latin jazz sat down to talk about the loss of their friend. They reminisced about the past, surveyed the present and peered into the future. The occasion was an interview conducted by Martin Cohen with Jose Madera. Twenty-eight years ago Jose joined the Tito Puente Band and never looked back. He ultimately became the group's musical director and played a featured role in the evolution of Latin music in this country and around the world. And because he was at the epicenter of the Latin jazz scene he got to know one of its chief architects: Martin Cohen has been friend, producer, and devoted fan of some of the great music makers of the modern era. He is also the founder of Latin Percussion Inc., the company that manufactures what are widely acclaimed as the world's premier percussion instruments. Listening to these old friends reminisce about what they've seen and wrought has the intimate feel of eavesdropping.

They first met at Martin's office at Palisade Park in 1969, but did not really get to know each other until 1974 when Martin produced a landmark recording, Standard Latin Rhythms Vol.1, on which Jose was featured. He had been playing timbales with Machito using the third pair of timbales ever produced by LP® Inc.,when he got and accepted an offer to join the Puente Band. He started out on bongos, but on a West Coast tour, the band lost its conga player and Puente tapped Madera to fill the slot. It's a slot he's filled ever since.

Fifty years ago Latin music was no more than a flicker at the periphery of the nation's consciousness. What there was that crossed over to the mainstream was considered largely a novelty. For the most part Latin bands worked the dance circuit where the players were lucky to earn cab fare. Jose began his career when that was still the way things were.

"There was never really much money to be made in the dance era. If you go back to the forties and look at Machito's band, those guys were working for $4 and $5 a night. Eventually it got to $25, $35, $45. I don't know what it is now, maybe $150 to $200. But still, when you think about it we're talking the year 2000, we're talking about playing Latin dances, and guys are loading their stuff to make this kind of money. Which is maybe okay if you're working 6 nights a week. But you're not working 6 nights a week now."

As Martin commented, Jose's father raised a family of three playing the saxophone. But very few working musicians can raise a family on that kind of income today, and it begs the question of where the future of music is heading.
But Jose was fortunate, playing with what was often called the "best band in the land". When he joined Tito's group in 1972 the players were on salary performing up to nine times a week, wearing as many as ten different uniforms, and working a series of clubs in a fairly predictable roatation.

"I could give you the line-up: Monday night was the Panamanian out on Queen's Blvd; Tuesday was the Revelation, a club in Brooklyn; Wednesday was always the Corso; Thursday was a club in Staten Island called the Hadar; Friday was sometimes the New York Casino or the Cabo Rojeno; Saturday was the same thing, and Sunday afternoon was the Penthouse in Brooklyn and sunday night the Cabo Rojeno again. At the end of the year I'd get a W-2 for $14,000 or $15,000. It wasn't a great salary, but for 1972 it wasn't too bad."

Gradually the band's focus shifted from the dance circuit to concerts and jazz venues. Martin Cohen was instrumental not only in helping the band change direction but in organizing a series of overseas tours. The success of these performances propelled the Puente band to worldwide recognition, and opened the door for other Latin bands to follow. Jose was now visiting and performing in places he'd never imagined.

"We went to Indonesia where we played five cities. We went to Bali, to Australia, to New Zealand. We went to Israel twice. We went to the Phillipines, to Singapore, to Hong Kong. We did a ten city tour of Japan, as well as all over Europe."

The band-which was really an orchestra by now-became one of the most popular musical acts in the world. There was something special, something unique about what they did and how they did it. Much of this came from Tito himself. He was an enormously gifted and versatile musician whose sense of showmanship was second to none. The word genius comes frequently in conversations with those who knew him well. His heart and his talent lifted everyone around him and gave the band an aura, a mystique. Generations of young players imagined themselves onstage with the King. But the reality was only the very best made the cut. When he died the entire musical world mourned his passing, not only because of his stature as a musician but because of his humor and his humanity. Martin asked Jose to share some of the lighter moments from his years with the King.

"Once we were in Italy and they put us up at an older hotel. Now in all the countries we traveled to they had different voltages and you had to carry different voltage converters. And I go into the hallway outside my room and there's Tito who wants to use an iron but he's not sure about the current. And I ask him if he's got an iron and a converter and he says yes. So I tell him to just plug it, turn it on and start ironing. So he plugs it in, turns it on, and all the lights in the hotel go off."

There are converters and then there are converters.

"Another time we happened to be working at Casino 14, which, for those who don't know was down on 14th Street and 4th Avenue. We were scheduled to start at 11 but Tito doesn't show up. We play the first set without him and the club owner's pissed because Tito's not there. We're all outside at about 12:30 getting some air when Tito pulls up and hollers, You guys don't know what happened, I got held up by these guys, they had guns and knives. But when I told them who I was they let me go."

Now even if nobody in the band is buying this they know it comes from the same place that made Tito such a riveting presence onstage.

"We were in Mexico City doing a TV show and I remember Tito telling the producer, Listen, I'm going to play a timbale solo on this number so make sure you follow me, stay right with me on everything I do. So we start this mambo and right in the middle of the number Tito drops a stick and it starts rolling into the audience. So Tito stops playing and goes after the stick and the camera is following right behind him chasing Tito as he's chasing the stick."

Perhaps the most amazing thing about a band this accomplished was its evolution and commitment to new directions. One of those new directions was a unique collaboration with a number of symphony orchestras.

"The premise was that the music Tito had written would be rearranged for a full orchestra. Then the band and the orchestra--over one hundred musicians--would perform together. We did this with maybe 20 symphonies all over the map including Atlanta and Richmond in the South, and Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl our West. The last one was in Puerto Rico. And by the way, not because I'm Puerto Rican, but that was the symphony that played this music the best, just spectacular."

There are always more things to do with a life than can be done. But Tito Puente did more than most. The same can be said for Jose Madera. He will continue to direct the band bringing in a series of guest soloists for the forseeable future and then, who knows. One thing is sure though, and that is that anybody who loves Latin music will be hoping Jose Madera and the Puente Band will be around for a long, long time to come.

All quotes taken from an interview conducted by Martin Cohen in July, 2000.

Listen to Jose talk about his career and about teaching at the Harbor Conservatory.

Story by Jim McSweeney.

To learn more about Jose Madera, please CLICK HERE.