eSalsa Legend Tito Puente Remembered With Heart-Warming Google Doodle – Rolling Stone

The legendary Tito Puente did all of it: He was a percussionist, a bandleader, a songwriter, and a producer accountable for a few of the most famed mambo, Latin jazz, and salsa classics in music historical past. As we speak, followers get to have a good time his life achievements with a heart-warming Google Doodle that exhibits off and animates his iconic profession.

Illustrated by Carlos Aponte and timed with Hispanic Heritage Month, the Doodle exhibits Puente as a child in Spanish Harlem, the place he was born in 1923. He confirmed in curiosity in music from the time he was younger, typically banging on pots and bands at dwelling. In his early teenagers, he started drumming professionally and performed with the influential jazz legend Machito. The animation goes on to point out Puente’s time serving within the Navy throughout World Warfare II, the place he performed marimba, alto-saxophone and 13 different devices whereas serving as his ship’s bandleader. He attended the Juilliard Faculty of Music on the G.I. Invoice and received a status for lighting up dance flooring together with his expert performances together with his personal band, the Tito Puente Orchestra.

“Tito was a part of my musical expertise rising up in Puerto Rico,” Aponte defined in an announcement. “My aunt launched me to Tito Puente through La Lupe, a well-known singer in Puerto Rico and New York. Tito was like a Svengali for skills like Celia Cruz. He was a family identify. So Tito was a part of my Puerto Rican soundtrack.”

Puente, who handed away in 2000, left behind greater than 100 albums and main hits, akin to the favored traditional “”Oye Como Va.” The Doodle honors each Puente’s work ethic and dedication: “Love what you do, practice, examine, and be the most effective you could be. When you excel, the whole lot else will fall into place. There aren’t any shortcuts. Those that make it simply don’t final lengthy. Tito was an ideal instance; he was the most effective,” Aponte says.

One 12 months in the past in the present day, Puente was honored with the Tito Puente Monument, which went up in East Harlem. The Harlem road the place he grew up on E. a hundred and tenth Avenue was additionally renamed Tito Puente Approach as a tribute to him.