Puente Jr., Columbus Symphony bring dad’s music to Pops concert
Toward the end of his life, mambo and salsa bandleader and composer Tito Puente began collaborating with orchestras.
Better known as “the king of Latin music,” Puente (1923-2000) had arrangements prepared of his hits.
“One of his last concerts was with the symphony in Puerto Rico,” said his son Tito Puente Jr. “We are (of) Puerto Rican heritage … and it was a dream of his to keep this going.”
Upon his death, Puente’s arrangements went missing. Eight years later, they were discovered in Berkeley, California, by his booking agency.
“They mailed it back to me and my mother and my family in New York,” Puente Jr. said. “And I decided to keep that dream of his alive by performing this music.”
This weekend, Puente will join the Columbus Symphony to perform his father’s music using those once-lost orchestra charts. The Picnic With the Pops concert will take place
Saturday at Columbus Commons.
“This is the first time I think the Columbus Symphony has ever done anything like this with Picnic With the Pops — sort of Latin night,” said conductor Stuart Chafetz, who sees the performance as an opportunity for the symphony to draw new audiences.
“There’s so much passion and sincerity in Latin, Latino, Cuban, Afro-cuban music, and then, on top of that, having it with the symphony adds that beautiful cultural sheen,” he said.
As Puente describes it, the concert will transport listeners to the Palladium nightclub in New York, among his father’s favorite regular venues.
“I will take you through the chronological time of my father’s hit songs as you go from 1949 all the way into the 1960s and ’70s,” he said. “It brought mambo people and all creeds, colors, races together in this one place on Wednesday nights.”
Yet, even at the Palladium, Puente’s father did not have the luxury of symphonic backing.
“He had saxophones, trumpets, trombones behind him,” his son said. “Where, all of a sudden, you bring in an entire symphonic sound, it’s completely different.”
For the second half of the concert, the symphony will support another notable name in Latin music — singer and songwriter Jon Secada, a Grammy Awardwinner whose compositions have been performed by artists such as Gloria Estefan and Jennifer Lopez.
“I don’t very often get a chance to really perform with a symphony orchestra,” said Secada, who promised a set list that would include many of his hits.
“All the songs I enjoy and they’re all part of the show: ‘Just Another Day,’ ‘Angel,’ ‘If You Go,’” he said. “They all have their own charm.”
Yet the collaboration with the symphony will afford Secada a chance to perform non-latin repertoire, including songs from the Broadway musical “Cabaret.”
“It was the second show that I did in New York City,” he said. “With the opportunity to perform with an orchestra, then I can do a couple things from the show.”
Like Puente, Secada relishes the chance to perform with more musicians than usual.
“When I do my show, it’s a rhythm section; maybe some horns,” Secada said. “To do anything outside of the envelope like this is always such a treat.”
Puente encourages concertgoers to arrive with more than just their tickets.
“They better have their dancing shoes on,” he said.