The Tito Rodriguez Thread

BullitproofSoul

Son Montuno
Hey all, time to start a new thread...my musician of the month for September is Tito Rodriguez

so let's start with the usual

Anyone have...

- Anecdotes about him?
- Seen him live?
- Sit in on any of their recording sessions?
- Pics of them/with him?

and, if all else fails...

a favorite song of his?
 
There are two musicians in history that I wish I could have seen perform live. One of them is Tito Rodriguez.
 
There are two musicians in history that I wish I could have seen perform live. One of them is Tito Rodriguez.

Who's the other one?

Personally I have a list as long as your arm. Probably longer in fact. TR is certainly on there. Ideally I would have liked to have seen him at The Palladium.
 
Oh yessssss!!!
My list is long, too, but he is top 10 for sure! Very close to Clifford Brown in ranking...
If I could choose among the two it would be hard...
Yes, of course there are many more but those two always stand out for me because I just missed them by a year or two of when I began going to live music shows in New York City. Lee Morgan was playing at Slugs in the East Village in 1972 when he was tragically struck down and Tito Rodriguez' last performance was at Madison Square Garden in 1973 with Machito ( I did get to see Machito several times, btw, and Tito Puente more times than I can count ). But ahhh... as DJ Yuca said, to have seen TR at the Palladium... wow that would have been a gas!
 
I have played the 7 inch of Cornbread at jazz dance nights (many years ago now) and it got plenty of people grooving. And the sampled Lee Morgan track mentioned above is called Absolutions.

Now back to Tito Rodríguez!
 
I'm revisiting Tito Rodriguez this month, if anybody wants to talk about him

Well I did see and dance to him, "live " in late 50s early 60s in LA . He was very cordial, and became friendly at the club, with one of the teachers ( a Brazilian girl ) great dancer, and she also spoke Spanish .
 
There's too much great music to mention but I'll post two videos where he's live, and he also shows some dancing skills!


Thank you Lidiap for posting this... I really enjoyed both clips, especially the music, what a voice. I also liked his dance steps in the first vid. My question for Terence would be, are the dance steps he does, are in anyway representative of what people were doing in the mambo/palladium era?
 
a transplanted N.Yorker
Thank you Lidiap for posting this... I really enjoyed both clips, especially the music, what a voice. I also liked his dance steps in the first vid. My question for Terence would be, are the dance steps he does, are in anyway representative of what people were doing in the mambo/palladium era?

He actually reminded me of the way one of my LA P.R .buddies( Jimmy Ramos a transplanted N.Yorker ) danced freestyle.

Beyond a basic, the styles of dancers ( like today ) varied. The more extreme solo shines , and some partner work by certain dancers, became their "trademark " so to speak .A classic ex. would be Rocki Mari a well known salsero and promoter ,in LA.
 
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