Metro Cigar News Spring 1998: Tito Puente

Tito Puente
cigars, music & food for the masses

His music moved grandma and grandpa to swivel their hips to the rumba, click their heels to the tango, and sail across the dance floor to the strains of the cha cha. Along the way he opened a restaurant and sponsored cigar smokers at his City Island, NY eatery.

Not bad for a Puerto Rican kid from the streets of New York whom most people thought was a Cuban.

Ernesto Anthony Puente, Jr., made his debut on April 20,1923 in New York City. His parents had just arrived from their native tropical island to the Hispanic Barrio in East Harlem.

The area was not then what it is today and the Hispanic community was a close-knit group that made strong efforts to maintain its Puerto Rican heritage.

As a youngster, Ernesto was lengthened to Ernestito and then shortened again to Tito.

Surrounded by what is perhaps the most cosmopolitan city in the world, young Tito and his friends grew up in a varied mixture of Latin music sounds and the great Big Bands of Dorsey and Goodman.

His music education took flight with 25 cent piano lessons and then evolved into the drums. But his first paying gig was a stint with a local barber shop quartet. Dance lessons gave him the grounding to perform as half of a child song and dance team with his sister, Anna, in the early 30's.

"I pride myself on being one of the few band leaders who really knows how to dance," Tito commented.

This combination of background and ability transformed what could have been a run-of-the-mill career into one of the more flamboyant and enduring stage personalities of the century.

Mixing the cultures was a hallmark of Tito's long career and it shouldn't be surprising to note that one of his first collections was with a band called "Los Happy Boys," a name that was a combination of Spanish and English that was a precursor to the acceptance of his music, a success that brought him fame in both the Hispanic and Anglo communities.

In the early days of World War II, the band's drummer was drafted into military service and Tito had his first big break. Not content to sit in the back of the band and act as scenery, Tito did away with the chair and played standing up, a tremendous departure from the norm. That one little change in the way things had always been done liberated the rhythm section and opened the door for the flashy style of performance that in time would become routine.

In the 1940's and 1950's, Latin music topped the lists in popularity and Tito's fame rose accordingly. Over the years he was nominated for the Grammy ten times and won four trophies with the old-fashioned miniature victorola. He also was presented with a Presidential Commendation for his entertainment work during the war and received the Eubie Blake Award (the Eubie) from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Smithsonian Medal of Honor and the institution's Lifetime Achievement Award. He also received the ASCAP Founder's Award and Washington, DC's Hispanic Heritage Committee Award for the Arts. Tito has performed for four U.S. presidents.

In 1996 he performed before the largest gathering in history at the Atlanta Olympic games. Add to this impressive list the fact that he has four honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He's been on the Bill Cosby show, the Simpsons, the Late Show with David Letterman and Sesame Street. Tito's acted in the movies the Mambo Kings and Radio Days.

And yet after a half century he shows few signs of slowing down.

A devoted cigar smoker, Tito opened a restaurant on New York City's City Island, named, somewhat egocentrically, Tito Puente's.

Using the restaurant not only to provide fine food to a discriminating audience, Tito has held a series of Celebrity Cigar Smokers there. Those in attendance range from the suave to the interesting. At a recent smoker Sandra Santiago of the Miami Vice TV show was among the guests as was Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa. Bill Cosby and Armand Assante were expected to be there, but sent regrets.

A hit of the evening was the performance of master roller, Edmundo Soto, who captivated the guests with his rapidly moving hands, deftly demonstrating the difference between hecho a mano, made by hand, and machine rolled cigars.

Plans are in the works for another of the well-received smokers at Tito Puente's Restaurant and it's sure to be a celebrity-filled party.