Tito Puente's Drumming With the Mambo King [Paperback] Review

Tito Puente's Drumming with The Mambo King By Jim Payne & Tito Puente. Just as Latin music is just beginning to be felt in the mainstream landscape of music consumers, dancers, students, and aspiring musicians. Tito Puente left us library of music productions, some videos, scholarships, and now a new book/audio package that pulls together the multiple elements of Latin music tempos. This book is more like a dream come true. I remember going to music stores so many times looking for books on Latin music, and guest what; NADA! All that has changed, almost two years in the making, this project was developed with very close involvement from Tito. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in Latin music and its history. Additionally it gives a technical understanding of the rudiments of Latin percussion for the student and layman alike, in Tito's own voice (replete with New York City accent). Each Latin rhythm explained in the book and demonstrated on the CD is followed by a Tito classic which exemplifies the rhythm he is teaching. It is an incredible archive just to have a Tito Puente CD with many of his hits, but this one has the King's voice explaining his rhythms.  And, as always was so important to Tito, one of his last legacies was to provide us with an amazing educational tool that combines musical technique, arrangements and history, --the one lived by the King TITO PUENTE (TP).
I can't say enough about the book specially when I see a picture of Arserio Rodriguez and another one of Tito Puente as a Sax-Alto player in the Navy. Then as I scroll through Chapter One the following quote reinforces everything I have been saying about clave in my writings "Every instrument has to abide by the Clave. Stay on the Clave and you'll make it." - TP. Chapter two starts with this quote, "You can even dance to the Timbales without anything else. That's how important they are in the rhythm section. The Timbale player keeps the band together with the Clave." - TP. Clave is so important both for the musician and dancer. Without Clave there's nothing regardless of how many solos or shines one can memorize. This book has thorough explanations and exercises both in writing and audio in the form of the included CD.
If all musicians and dancers could digest this basic concept more people would switch to Latin music as the number one choice of musical entertainment; this book explains it very well.

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Product Description:
The late, great Tito Puente was a giant in the world of Latin music. This exceptional new book/CD pack, co-written with Jim Payne, includes an extensive biography, a history of Afro-Cuban music, archival photos, step-by-step instruction in Afro-Cuban music for timbales and drumset, and transcriptions of three of Tito's most famous timbale solos. This great pack also includes a 75-minute CD containing twelve of Tito's classic recordings. These are original tracks (mambos, cha chas and timbale solos that have made him famous) coordinated with authentic percussion charts, instructional examples, new solos and words of advice from the Mambo King.

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