Machito

Machito ( born February 16, 1912 in Havana, Cuba, † April 15, 1984 in London; actually Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo Francisco ) was a Cuban Latin jazz musician and band leader.

In 1937 he emigrated to the United States of America, where he sang with Xavier Cugat and among other Noro Morales. In 1940 he founded the Afro - Cubans with his brother Mario Bauza as music director. Machito sang and played maracas. He was known for the Afro-Cuban rhythms in his music such as mambo, rumba, cha- cha-cha, Cubop, Pachanga and Son montuno. His band, which consisted of about twenty musicians who influenced the history of Latin jazz in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1950, he played Chico O'Farrill Afro - Cuban Jazz Suite by Charlie Parker as a guest soloist. Even more significant jazz musicians such as Flip Phillips played with his Afro - Cubans as guest soloist; Arranger was in the 1980s, a native of Argentina Jorge Anders. Several times he worked with Dizzy Gillespie. The mid-1970s Machito toured for the first time in smaller ensembles. Always open to new trends and styles of South American music, he also devoted himself to the salsa. In 1983, he won a Grammy with Machito & His Salsa Big Band '82.

His sister Graciela is also singer for the Afro - Cubans that were conducted later by his son.

1984 Machito suffered shortly before a concert performance at the jazz club Ronnie Scott's having a heart attack and died in a London hospital four days later.