Eddie Torres

Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American-Puerto Rican musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer.

He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music.

Puente and his music have appeared in films including The Mambo Kings and Fernando Trueba's Calle 54.

He guest-starred on television shows, including Sesame Street and The Simpsons two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?".

Puente was born on April 20, 1923, at Harlem Hospital Center in the New York borough of Manhattan, the son of Ernest and Felicia Puente, Puerto Ricans living in New York City's Spanish Harlem.

His family moved frequently, but he spent the majority of his childhood in Spanish Harlem.

Puente's father was the foreman at a razorblade factory.

His family called him, Spanish for Little Ernest, and this became shortened to "Tito".

As a child, he was described as hyperactive, and after neighbors complained of hearing seven-year-old Puente beating on pots and window frames, his mother sent him to 25-cent piano lessons.

He switched to percussion by the age of 10, drawing influence from jazz drummer Gene Krupa.

He later created a song-and-dance duo with his sister Anna in the 1930s and intended to become a dancer, but an ankle tendon injury prevented him from pursuing dance as a career.

When the drummer in Machito's band was drafted to the army, Puente subsequently took his place.

Puente served in the Navy for three years during World War II after being drafted in 1942.

He was discharged with a Presidential Unit Citation for serving in nine battles on the escort air craft carrier USS Santee (CVE-29) where his duties included playing alto saxophone and clarinet in the ship's big band as well as occasionally drum set, piano during mess hall, ship's bugler, and machine gunner during battles.

The GI Bill allowed him to study music at Juilliard School of Music, where he completed his formal education in conducting, orchestration, and theory after three years.

During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity and helped to bring Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo, son, and cha-cha-chá, to mainstream audiences.

His album Dance Mania was released in 1958.

Among his compositions is the cha-cha "Oye como va" (1963), popularized by Latin rock musician Carlos Santana and later interpreted, among others, by Julio Iglesias, Irakere and Celia Cruz.

In 1969, he received the key to the City of New York from former Mayor John Lindsay.

Richard "Richie" Puente was the percussionist in the 1970s funk band Foxy.

Puente's youngest son, Tito Puente Jr.., has performed and recorded many of Puente's songs.

His daughter Audrey Puente is a television meteorologist for WNYW and WWOR-TV in New York City.

In 1992, he was inducted into the National Congressional Record, and in 1993 he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian.

Puente is one of the subjects of a television production called La Epoca, a film about the Palladium era in New York, Cuban music and rhythms, mambo and salsa as dances and music and much more.

The film discusses many of Puente's, as well as Arsenio Rodríguez's, contributions and features interviews with some of the musicians Puente recorded with.

Puente's oldest son Ron Puente is from a first marriage to Mirta Sanchez.

Puente appeared in the two-part whodunit drama "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" in the sixth season finale and seventh season premiere of American comedy cartoon show The Simpsons in 1995.

In the shows, Puente joins Springfield Elementary School as a music teacher after the school discovers it is located over an oil well.

However, Mr. Burns manages to pump the oil first, which makes him the legal owner of the well.

This causes the school to fall into debt with budget cuts to the music and maintenance departments, causing Puente to lose his job.

When Burns is later shot, Puente becomes one of the prime suspects but manages to clear himself by performing one of his songs for Chief Wiggum.

Seven alternative endings were filmed of various characters shooting Burns; Puente is one of the alternates.

Although all endings were animated, the ending of Maggie Simpson shooting Burns was the ending chosen to air.

After a show in Puerto Rico on May 31, 2000, Puente suffered a massive heart attack and was flown to New York City for surgery to repair a heart valve, but complications developed, and he died on June 1, 2000.

He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

With Dizzy Gillespie

With Benny Golson

With Quincy Jones

With Sonny Stitt

With Bobby Sanabria