* En anglais uniquement
A talented section player who rarely soloed,
Mario Bauzá's main importance to music was behind the scenes as one of the main instigators of Afro-Cuban jazz, the potent mixture of Latin rhythms with jazz improvisation. A multi-instrumentalist,
Bauzá played clarinet and oboe with the Havana Philharmonic before moving to New York in 1930. During a stint with
Noble Sissle in 1932, he switched to trumpet. As musical director with
Chick Webb (1933-1938),
Bauzá helped convince the drummer of the potential greatness of
Ella Fitzgerald. He was with
Don Redman during 1938-1939, and then
Cab Calloway (1939-1941).
Bauzá was largely responsible for
Calloway hiring
Dizzy Gillespie, and in 1947 he would introduce
Gillespie to
Chano Pozo.
Bauzá became the longtime musical director of his brother-in-law
Machito's orchestra (1941-1976), encouraging
Machito to add jazz solos to his music. In the 1980s and early '90s as the head of his own Afro-Cuban orchestra,
Mario Bauzá (who had long since given up playing trumpet) recorded three excellent albums of his arrangements and finally received some recognition for his important contributions to music. ~ Scott Yanow