May 8, 2011 - A very hot day becomes a perfect evening in Palm Desert, a city surrounded by rocky mountains, manmade into an oasis of palm trees and architectural beauty. Within its borders stands a magnificent McCallum Theatre, welcoming its patrons with gorgeous water fountains and chandeliers, promising a most enjoyable sensory experience with the music of the respected Desert Symphony.
It was the closing of the season at McCallum Theatre Saturday night, when the Symphony was joined by the son of the legendary Mambo King, timbalero and bandleader, Tito Puente.
Tito Puente Jr. has humbly taken upon himself to continue his father’s legacy. On stage, he gives his father all credit for the scores of music and arrangements left behind. He gives due credit to the source of the rhythm that inspired his namesake: the guaguanco of Cuba and those who have best represented it in the United States throughout the years, like Maestro Francisco Aguabella. Tito Puente Jr. shows respect for his culture and his people by switching to Spanish to ask: “Donde esta mi gente Latina?” (Where is my Latin people?) and adding a few more sentences in the tongue that sounds like music to their ears.
In front of an already elegant Desert Symphony, Puente Jr. stands handsome in his white jacket, black vest and bow tie. He is accompanied by his musical director Marlow Rosado, and Gamalier Reyes on bongos and vocals (and a few fancy dance steps), Daniel Pena on congas, and Luis Rodriguez on bass. Emmy winner and President of Bridge Management Inc, and a good personal friend of Puente Jr, Frank Fiore, conducts the symphony. Puente Jr. has brought along a repertoire of his father’s music, some charts recently found in Berkeley, CA, that included pieces meant to be played alongside a symphony.
The lighting of the stage and the sound system are perfect. The crowd, many of them regular patrons of the Desert Symphony, can not help but tap to the rhythm that has made their symphony musicians tonight include the claves, the bongos, and a funky pair of glasses on the face of one of their saxophone players.
“Palm Desert needed to hear some Latin Jazz,” says Puente Jr, and it was his honor to step on the same stage where, back on 1996, his iconic father also performed.
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