In 1969, he was awarded the key to New York City and and the Harlem street where he grew up - E. He was considered a musical pioneer for his creativity and experimentation, and is widely credited for popularizing Latin music in the U.S. His parade of hits began with “Ran Kan Kan,” Puente’s first professional track recording, which serves as the soundtrack of the Google Doodle.īeyond the mambo movement, Puente experimented across other genres of Latin music such as the Boogaloo, Pachanga and eventually Salsa. He started his own band, the Tito Puente Orchestra, in 1948 and quickly earned a reputation for his performances that encouraged audiences to get on the dance floor. He continued his studies at New York City’s Juilliard School of Music after the war. He served in the Navy during World War II, playing alto saxophone as the ship’s bandleader - along with more than 10 other instruments. He started his career as a drummer in his early teens and found his big break playing for Federico Pagani’s Happy Boys and Machito’s Orchestra.

He was surrounded by Puerto Rican, Cuban and big band music growing up, and displayed significant musical talent from an early age. Puente was born on April 20, 1923, in New York City’s Spanish Harlem and died June 1, 2000. So Tito was part of my Puerto Rican soundtrack.” Tito was like a Svengali for talents like Celia Cruz. “My aunt introduced me to Tito Puente via La Lupe, a famous singer in Puerto Rico and New York. “Tito was part of my musical experience growing up in Puerto Rico,” Aponte said in a Q&A released by Google.

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