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Machito

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The singer and maracas player Francisco 'Machito' Grillo grew up in Havana and moved to New York in 1937. In 1940 he founded Machito & His Afro-Cubans; his brother-in-law, the trumpeter Mario Bauzá, became the musical director. Bauzá had played in jazz orchestras and wanted to combine Cuban rhythms with jazz arrangements. The result was Tanga (1943). The band played in dance halls such as the Palladium Ballroom and became the model for Latin orchestras. Jazz soloists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Cannonball Adderley recorded with Machito; Parker played on Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite in 1950. Machito kept performing until his death in 1984, most recently in London.