- Title: USA: TITO PUENTE CELEBRATES HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY
- Date: 25th August 1998
- Summary: PUENTE WIDE SHOT PERFORMING CLOSE UP PUENTE PUENTE PERFORMING
- Embargoed: 9th September 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: USA, United States
- Country: USA
- Topics: Communications
- Reuters ID: LVA6BY0QHT5QJBP0B8EIACMISUVT
- Story Text: Tito Puente, America's best known Latin music celebrity, has just celebrated his 75th birthday - but despite his age there are no signs of him retiring.He says he's one main ambition - to play on the moon.
Tito Puente, the musician dubbed "The King of Latin Music", has just released his latest album "Dancemania '99 Live".
"The purpose of this album, Dancemania Live 1999 - I call it - is because people are getting into our Latin msuic for dancing, and that's the way I play this music"
"I went out, got a bigger band, we had 21 man band, trombones, saxophones, trumpets all kinds of percussion, it was wonderful sensation doing that to a live audience" Tito told Reuters Television.
Puente was born the 20th of April 1923 in New York from Puerto Rican parents.His full name is Ernest Antony Puente junior.
He grew up in east Harlem district of New York during the so-called Jazz Age and drew his early inspiration listening to jazz and watching musical films.
As a student at the New York School of Music his tutors included the respected Latin musicians Victoria Hernandez and Luis Barona.
In the seventies Tito's music became widely known under the name "Salsa", although he thinks that the term is not quite descriptive of the kind of music he plays.He prefers to use the term Latin, which he says takes in various styles including cha-cha, mambo and guaguanco.
During his long playing career he's performed with a number of world famous musicians, among them Carlos Santana.
Puente says he wants his to be the first band to play on the moon. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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