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This site includes information on the most important Perez Prado's recordings, films, and videos that have invaded the markets of the world. This site serves also as a information clearing house for Cuban Music and Latin Jazz. It will grow to meet the needs of its visitors.
If you are; Latin, Latino, Latina, Hispanic or even non-Hispanic you will love this site. If you speak Spanish "espanol" you will love Perez Prado's music. If you love mambo, Latin Jazz, rumba, big band, salsa, dengue descarga, world music, you will enjoy his music. Perez Prado traveled the world including the following countries; Cuba, Spain, Peru, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Columbia, Germany, Venezuela, Colombia, New York, Mexico, Japan. Perez Prado recorded for the major labels such as; BMG, WEA, ORFEON. He also worked in many films "pelicula" that were distributed around the world and that are seek by his fans. Most of his music can be bought from JPR RECORD CLUB.
Many of my friends, have asked me to put together a page dedicated to the KING OF THE MAMBO since at one time I was part of Prado's staff. For all those interested in Mambo and Damaso Perez Prado's music, this page is dedicated to his memory. I don't want to spend time here how, where and why I was involved with his majesty. I want to focus only on his work. The only thing I can tell you is that, I didn't have to do much research of the subject because I have been following the maestro since 1949. Everything that is here is firsthand knowledge based on my recollection of the subject. What you will read on this page is what comes to my memory from the collection of CD's, movies, and records that I have and what I have read through the years on different publications. I want to express my gratitude to Agustine Velez from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico; Gilbert Mamery from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico; Joseph Levy from Saratoga Springs, NY and Jun Matsui from Saitama, JAPAN; for their contribution to this web site. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to sit down and write my memories of this subject before I passed away. The only hint I will give you is that I worked as an audio engineer for many renowned artists. My nickname is "Perin" which Prado shouted many times during his recordings.
I suggest to click here first and read the introduction before going any further. Learn what happened before 1950.
To put everything in the proper perspective, I must say that, I first met his majesty in Mexico City. I went to Mexico City many years ago, to study Physics and Engineering at Universidad Autonoma de Mexico. One day, I met him after on of his performance. He was looking for an audio engineer to work on an idea. I volunteer and that is how I started a business relationship with him. When I finished my career I left Mexico. After that first encounter, I dedicated my life to follow everything that Damaso Perez Prado was artistically doing. Unfortunately, as many others did, I left the Prado organization, looking for greener pastures.
PEREZ PRADO EARLY YEARS Dámaso Pérez Prado, was born in Matanzas, Cuba, on December 11, 1916. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father worked on a local newspaper. He studied classical piano at the Principal School of Matanzas and, in his early years he played the organ and the piano to make a living. In the early 40's he moved to Havana and played piano for an orchestra in La Playa de Mariano. Then he landed a job in a small band at the Cabaret Kursal. He played for a while with not very well known groups such as,the Orchesta Cubaney and then the Orquesta de Paulina Alvarez. Then one day he landed a job with the Orquesta Casino de la Playa, the most famous Cuban band of the day, which was directed by Liduvino Pereira. What happpen was that Anselmo Sacasas, who was the pianist of La Casino, left the group to join another group in New York. Orlando Guerra (Cascarita), the lead singer was a friend of Prado. He brought Prado to the Orchestra. In later years, Prado returned the favor by helping Cascarita land a job when requested. The idea of the mambo was emerging in the minds of Arsenio Rodriguez, Oreste Lopez and Perez Prado. Perez Prado spent his life looking for innovations, for new sounds. This was the first time in his life that opportunity knocked at his doors. The rhythm began taking shape and was polished, usually, after hours, when everybody went home. They stayed at the club shooting the breeze. Prado use to say, when he was questioned "that the mambo, was merely an Afro-Cuban rhythm with a flavor of American swing." According to Prado, " the mambo is more musical and hotter than the rumba." In the movie AL SON DEL MAMBO, Perez Prado, explain that he collected sounds (sonidos) from mother nature. The sound of a frog, the sound of running water, the wind, fire, fireworks, etc. Then he will transform this sounds into music. "Mambo is a movement back to nature, by means of rhythms based on sounds coming from mother nature." I will suggest to the reader that you should watch this movie and you will see the way that Perez Prado explain what mambo is. Initially the mambo was fast. Just watch how Resortes dance the mambo. But, to responds to critics, Prado made a slower variation of the mambo, that he called "suby." The saxophone usually sets the rhythm pattern, and the brass carries the melody. According to some experts the word "mambo" comes from the Ñañigo dialect spoken by that black group in Cuba. When I was in New York, Arsenio Rodriguez told me that "mambo is an African word that means sumo sacerdote."
Arsenio Rodriguez (1911-1970), El Ciego Maravilloso--"the marvelous blind man"--was a musician of Congo descent who was born in Cuba and was blinded at age twelve by a mule kick. He sang and played bass, percussion, and tres in Havana with various sextets and formed his own extremely popular conjunto in 1940. He revolutionize the sexteto and septeto group format, into what later was called the conjunto. Sexteto is six and Septeto is seven and Conjunto is more than seven. He added the piano, the conga and other percussion instruments as needed. He is also credited for inventing the mambo rhythm. He use the word in one of his early recordings (around the mid 40's). Orestes Lopez played the bass with Arcaño y Sus Maravillas. Arcaño band was very popular and beloved by Cubans in Havana. That's why in Lopez's mambo, the bass plays a very important role, whereas, in Prado's mambo, the metal section is more predominant. In Prado's mambo the bass start the rhythm and the sax and trumpets take over. Israel (Cachao) Lopez introduced the new rhythm, as his, to the elite society in Cuba's dance floors. The two versions of mambo are different. Arsenio Rodriguez abandoned the idea of the mambo when he left Cuba, to take care of his sight problem in New York. So Arsenio's version never stick to the plate. No matter how you want to cut it, the mambo originated in Cuba. Of the three versions, Prado's mambo was the only one that circled the planet. Fans of Oreste's mambo always try to discredit Prado's version.
Perez Prado was a fanatic of Stan Kenton. He decided to make some changes to his orchestra to bring it more closer to the Jazz format or the big band format. At times, Prado's orchestra have more than 20 musicians. Is very ironical that on the other hand, Kenton was crazy about Prado's mambo. The 64,000 dollar question is then, Who invented the Mambo? I will like to put this matter to rest by quoting Benny More who is adored both in and outside Cuba. Benny's composition, of LOCAS POR EL MAMBO say it very clearly, "¿Quien inventó esa cosa loca?, un chaparrito con cara de Foca." What Benny More is saying is, that Perez Prado invented the mambo. PEREZ PRADO WAS FORCED TO LEAVE CUBA Due to the problem with the "empresarios", Perez Prado, left Cuba looking for greener pastures. He went solo first to Puerto Rico looking for a job there. He didn't have to much success. Then he joined a group of musicians leaving from San Juan to South America. The tour was heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina and from there they returned to Mexico via Panama. The piano section of Prado was the main attraction. In fact, people thought that Prado owned the orchestra. In 1948 Perez Prado landed in Mexico City, initially for a short tour. There he met Benny More who was looking for a job. Benny More and Perez Prado joined forces and formed a Mexican Orchestra with Cuban musicians in the percussion section. His presentation in Teatro Margo and later in Teatro Blanquita became a great success. It became a revolution in Mexican soil. At the end, Prado settled in Mexico City, which at the time was the preferred destination for many Cubans expatriates. He played also at the Club 1-2-3, which was a hang-out for the rich, and became known as the "Glenn Miller of Mexico." He was on high demand by the Mexican motion picture industry. He also took part in several Mexican motion pictures. Please refer to the motion picture section of this web page. For some unknown reason, Benny More, who was in Mexico, never took part in Prado's motion picture. I asked Prado about this in later years, and he told me that "Benny was not made for that kind of environment." Prado told me that Benny only function at night after his usual dose of rum. My understanding is that Benny's character was not made for the long hours that you have to endure in the motion picture business.
Between 1947 and 1949, Prado recorded around 24 mambos with Benny Moré (1919-1963) which were released on 78 rpm records. Benny Moré arrived from Cuba with the Matamoros Trio and when the Trio returned home, he opted to stay in Mexico City and ended up singing in Prado's orchestra. In 1949 Perez Prado was signed by RCA MEXICO. His first recordings for them, made in Mexico City on December 12, 1949, were Qué Rico El Mambo and Mambo No. 5. Released by RCA Victor on its International label, this record, with its scorching brass and persuasive percussion, took the Americas (first South, then North) by storm and the mambo craze was launched. This was the first recording that I heard in 1949 when I was a child in my Puerto Rican barrio. I will never forget that year. I was then 11 years old and I have no idea that some day I will have the privilege of joining forces with the maestro. In 1951, Perez Prado went to Peru to cause a big headache to the Catholic Archdioceses. Cardinal Juan Gualberto Guevara of Lima, promised to deny absolution to anyone who danced "al compas del mambo." That year, Perez Prado, composed AL COMPAS DEL MAMBO as an answer to the cardinal.
MAMBO CONQUERS THE USA Prado's mambos were played in the New York Spanish Radio Station. This programs were targeted specially to the big Puerto Rican community in New York. Nobody knew that many Anglos were also listening to the mambo beat. The same situation happened in California, specially in the LA area. This is were the Cha of Iran was self-exiled. Nobody knew that the Cha was also a mambo fan. The songs were soon crossing-over to mainstream pop broadcasts and, in 1950, Prado scored moderate hits in the US with his early releases. He had the best musician that money can buy and a simple formula, keep the tunes clean, but, with fire, and include plenty of the high notes horns and hot percussion that sent people crazy. The first trumpet almost broke his lip flying through the high notes. In the 1950's Prado's band was big in number. At that time money was not a problem. Prado's first appearance in the United States was an engagement in New York City during April and May, 1951, "en el Teatro Puerto Rico del Bronx." In the Puerto Rico theater in the Bronx he came with Benny More as the main singer. A dispute erupted before the show could begin. According to the Union Local 802 the musician must be members of the union. Because of a dispute over rules with the Musicians' Union Local 802, his performance was under the jurisdiction of AGVA, the American Guild of Variety Artists. He was forced to sign an agreement to use local members in his next recording in order to overcome the impasse. After that date, Prado only use Cuban percussionist and the rest belong to the union during his tours in the USA. This was funny to me because Perez Prado didn't know any English at that time. He was forced to use and interpreter at times and at other he pointed to the music paper and demanded the Anglo musician to play what was on the paper. You must understand that symbolic music is a universal language. So, it was not necessary for him to know English. Prado said "just play what's on the paper." The paper was a manuscript in Prado's hand writing. The musicians were forced to play tunes unfamiliar to them at the time. Only good players could follow his script, and "Dilo" was changed to UGH! That is the origin of UGH! Because the musician didn't understand Spanish. It was a kind of Babel Story. To me this was very funny. Prado used a lot of sign language with all parts of his body. Later in May he played a one-night benefit for the Mexican Youth Center at the Ashland Auditorium in Chicago, Illinois and in August played an eight city tour of the West Coast, including stops at the Zenda Ballroom in Los Angeles, Pasadena's Civic Auditorium, and Sweet's Ballroom in Oakland. The bands at the shows were made up of American musicians, many of Puerto Rican or Cuban origin. Prado gave them a crash course in mambo in a few hours. If you ask any musician that play with Prado, you will hear the same complaint. Prado's musical book was a manuscript in his own handwriting. Very hard to read under low light conditions. He never used English. So non-Spanish musicians have a hard time. What compounded the problem was that outsider musicians were standing in line and were willing to play for free, just, to be part of the action. If you complained, Prado will remove you. The tour continued back across the country to New York and then looped through the South on its return to Los Angeles. In New York, his popularity grew over the years and Prado moved to the downtown area, first to the Palladium Ballroom on 53rd Street, then around 1954 to an extended appearance at the elite Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. In this hotel Xavier Cugat was king. During an inteview in New York, Prado was asked, what was his greatest aspiration. He responded, "I will like to be where Xavier Cugat is today." Now, we know that he went much further than Cugat.
THE REAL MAMBO KING In the 1950's everybody was dancing the mambo. In New York it was called Mambomania. The best known places were mambo was the main dish were; The Park Plaza Ballroom, at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (para los blanquitos) and the Palladium Ballroom (para el resto del populacho) where they held a contest every Wednesday. The mambo was easy to dance (for the Latinos) and you can invent your own steps. The rumba craze was near its end. The mambo was a new rhythm that was welcomed by the new generation. (La rumba es pa' los viejos.) Now, can Anglo learn to dance the new rhythm? This is were the Fred Astaire type of dancing school came into action. One of the most famous was Katherine Dunham. This great dancer, hosted Prado and his orchestra at her school at 43rd Street and Broadway in New York. In her school is were the Anglo elite went to learn how to dance the mambo. It was the meeting place of; Diplomats, painters, musicians, poets and the old couples in their sixties. Then the other orchestra followed the mambo craze. Among them we have; Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Machito, Arsenio Rodriguez, Xavier Cugat, etc.
In 1954, Prado was working on one his masterpiece that was introduced commercially as the Voodoo Suite. This one was released in 1955. The Havana 3 a.m. was released in 1956. Ten years later The Exotic Suite Of The Americas was recorded and released in 1962. In my opinion, these are his three masterpieces. The first two productions were recorded between 1954 and 1956 when the stereo craze was taking shape. Perez Prado took advantage of the new technology (one microphone per instrument). If you want to see a good film you must see Dunham herself in the 1954 film titled Mambo, which featured musical numbers by Prado on the film sound track. The peak of the mambo was in the 1950's. Perez Prado loved money and money was on the Anglo scene. So he focused more on that market than in the Latin market. He dropped Benny More and other good singers and began the instrumental mambo. The idea was to cover the pill with some sweetener and deliver the product were the money was. This departure gave Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez an opportunity to step in and fill the void that Prado left. Then Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente started a battle in duels during the Palladium nights. Both bands had their own fan club. Machito also abandon the Latin scene to follow the money trail as Prado did. But, Machito from time to time returned to the Palladium because he was a New Yorker. Prado was touring the world. In the anglo scene, from Dizzy Gillespie down to Stan Kenton, Billy Mays, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, etc, were doing the mambo. Everybody went were the money was. CEREZO ROSA ( a cha-cha-cha) AND PATRICIA Although Prado recorded and toured the USA north, south, east and west, his first #1 hit in the USA wasn't until 1955 with Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White, which stayed on the American pop charts for 26 weeks (10 weeks at #1). Ironically for the Mambo King, his most popular single was actually a cha-cha and not a mambo. You must see Jane Russell dancing this cha cha cha in the movie Underwater filmed in 1954. This cha cha cha features a spectacular trumpet solo by Billy Regis who was one of the best trumpet in Perez Prado's band. Ironically, this number was one of the last performance in Prado's life before his death in Mexico City. In later years another big hit in the USA was Patricia. DILO (Ugh!) In a Mexican program LA HORA AZUL, Perez Prado explain that the ugh! is really Dilo. People use to make fun of Prado's Ugh!. There are many jokes and stories around this Prado trademark. At one time I was part of the Prado entourage, and I noticed that when Prado was performing he used every fiber of his body to extract enthusiasm and the best performance from his musician. Not only he use UGH! to send a signal to his musician, but, he will also jump, kick, move from one side to another, make other signs with his arms and face expressions. Watching him doing his thing was really something that you will never forget in your life. Benny More, learned all this stuff from Prado. In later years, I will see Benny More doing the very same thing with his BANDA GIGANTE. In fact, I will say that Prado was a big influence in Benny More's way of leading an orchestra. This is really in the blood stream of these two Afro-Cuban giants. RIVALRY AMONG BROTHERS In 1956, a feud between Damaso and his younger brother Pantaleon (1926-1983) resulted in the strange affair of Pérez suing his sibling for $500,000, charging him with impersonation. The problem stem from the fact that in the Spanish culture you carry the last name of your father and mother. So, we have Damaso Perez Prado and Pantaleon Perez Prado. For commercial reason, in the USA, the Damaso part was dropped. When you talk about Perez Prado you knew that you were referring to Damaso. In fact there was a time that the two words were shortened to one, Prez. For quite a while there was no problem, because Pantaleon was in France and Damaso was in Mexico. But, Pantaleon, manager presented him as, Perez Prado, King of the Mambo. This is the way that it was presented in the Alhambra theater in Paris. Panteleon was then restrained by a court order from posing as Pérez Prado. He was forced to use his full name. The hostilities between brothers lasted for a lifetime. When Pantaleon died in 1983 the newspaper headline was "Mambo King Dies In Milan," Again, Damaso was furious in Mexico, because some papers in Mexico also published the same French story. Damaso was forced to come out again from retirement to play with his band almost until his real death in 1989.
THE LAST YEARS OF THE MASTER Prado was always looking for innovations. Around 1955 he introduced the suby and the pau-pau. The former was slow version of the mambo and the latter, a variation of the same thing. Neither caught the public's eye. In 1956, he tried again (also without success) to counter the cha-cha with La Culeta, again a milder mambo-like dance which was actually a a form of cha-cha-cha. Ironically, in 1956 he appeared in the Columbia Pictures film Cha-Cha-Cha Boom, which was an attempt to cash in on the cha-cha craze and featured Prado, Luis Alcaraz, Helen Grayco (then married to Spike Jones), and the Mary Kaye Trio and others. In 1958, he had his final hit with Patricia (on the US charts for 21 weeks, including one at #1), which was also used by Nino Rota as the theme song for Federico Fellini's 1960 movie La Dolce Vita. RCA Victor continued to support him through the early 1960's, but sales were in the downward trend. He tried another rhythm that he called the Chunga. In 1962, after RCA stopped releasing new albums of his material in the US, Prado's recorded output was mainly limited to smaller labels and recycled cuts in Latin-style anthologies. At this time you could see Prado's hair going gray. Around this time he introduced the Dengue. Prado put a lot of his own money on this project, including the movie El Dengue del Amor. Please refer to the movie section of this web site. In early 1970 I went back to Mexico City. I found Perez Prado active again playing in El Teatro Carpa de Mexico. This was a theater in the outskirt of Mexico targeting mainly the poor people of Mexico. He played there for a few weeks. I heard on the radio, his biggest hit El Mosquito and La Negra. He recorded an album featuring El Mosquito and other Mexican folkloric songs arranged a la mambo style. My vinyl record collection was stolen in Mexico including the latest recording of Prado. I visited him in his apartment in Paseo de la Reforma where the rich people lived. There he lived with his wife and his son and daughter. But, his tour were mainly in the Mexican soil were he was revered as the king. Sometimes he went to Peru and Argentina were he was also revered. He made several appearance in TV shows and played here and there to keep his band together. It was sad to see him standing as a statue. Gone were all the pep, kicks, motions and so on. I felt very bad to see him performing this way. I left Mexico with a knot in my throat. In the early 80's he continue making television appearance as the invited guest. Then he was signed to come back to the states. In September 12, 1987 he debuted again in the Hollywood Palladium. Many people could not get in. The king was still reigning in the eighties!! He returned to Mexico because he was losing weight and felt in bad shape. During the later part of the eighties he stayed home and his son took over the band. His health continued to deteriorate. He died of a stroke in Mexico City on September 14, 1989, at the age of 72. But, wait that is not the end!
Many people thought that with the death of Perez Prado, that was the end of his music and his orchestra. There is no question that his departure from this earth was hard to swallow, especially for his musicians that respect him so much. His musician convinced his son, Dámaso Pérez Salinas, also known as Perez Prado Jr, to keep alive the orchestra. His Mexican musicians really took over the orchestra and it sounds exactly as if Perez Prado was directing it. Not only that, but, one of his musician make the same guttural sounds, yes Ugh and all that, that really impressed me. The musicians have added a more modernistic sound. I am quite sure that Perez Prado is very happy in heaven. The office of Perez Prado Jr. in Mexico City is still very busy answering requests that pours from all over the world. Perez Prado's music is still alive. One of his number, Guaglione was used in a television commercial for the Guinnes beer in the UK. The popularity of Perez Prado is on the rise again by the new generation that didn't have the privilege to watch the master. Now thanks to the CD craze his recordings are sought by record collectors all over the world. People want to put their hands in the entire recording Prado's catalog. JPR RECORD CLUB is continuously selling Prado's recordings. If you have any comments or questions don't hesitate to send me an E-mail. Before I follow Prado's footsteps to the grave. Sometimes, people ask me if I consider Prado, the greatest piano player of Cuba. He was a great pianist, but, the strongest skill of Prado was his arrangements. He had the ability to take any song apart and then put it back together as a mambo composition. Sometimes, the mambo version was superior to the original composition. The fiasco of the Mambo King movie was because the Hollywood story was so imprecise that they didn't even care to make a movie of the real mambo king or even give some credit to Prado. His loyal fans repudiated this farce. We know who is the real mambo king. (Verdad que si!)
by Juan Pedro Rivera President of JPR RECORD CLUB
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