Chano Pozo
Encyclopedia
Chano Pozo was a percussionist, singer, dancer and composer who played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz
. Though he died young of unnatural causes, no discussion of Latin jazz is complete without mentioning his name and no discussion of the trumpet giant Dizzy Gillespie
, the godfather of Latin jazz in the U.S., can begin without the name of Pozo, who was the first in a long line of Latin percussionists in Dizzy's various bands. Dizzy's dozens of Latin-flavored compositions, including the hit song "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written by Pozo), "Fiesta Mojo" and others - have Afro-Cuban drumming derived from the ritual rhythms of West Africa as their rhythmic backbones. Despite a short stint in Dizzy's band abbreviated by Chano's early death, Pozo's influence could be felt in Dizzy's playing and compositions for decades, which Dizzy acknowledged without hesitation.
to Cecelio Gonzales, a bootblack, and Carnación Pozo. Chano's family (three sisters and a brother, as well as his older half brother, Felix Chapottin who became one of the great Cuban soneros) struggled with poverty throughout his youth. His mother Carnación, to whom his father was married, died when Chano was eleven, and Cecelio took his family to live with his long-time mistress, Natalia, who was Felix's mother.
Chano showed an early interest in playing drums, and performed ably in Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies in which drumming was a key element. The family lived for many years at El Africa solar (Africa Basement), a former slave quarters, by all accounts a foul and dangerous place, where it was said even the police were afraid to venture. In this environment criminal activities flourished, and Chano learned the ways of the street as means of survival. He dropped out of school after the third grade and earned a solid reputation as a rowdy tough guy, big for his age and exceptionally fit. He spent his days playing drums, fighting, drinking, and engaging in petty criminal activities, the latter of which would land him a sentence in a youth reformatory. There are no official records documenting the crime for which he was sentenced, though at least one account has him causing the accidental death of a foreign tourist, adding to a record of thievery, assault, and truancy. At the age of 13, Chano was sent to the reformatory in Guanajay
, where he learned reading and writing, auto body repair, and honed his already exceptional skills playing a variety of drums.
. Also known as "La Regla de Lukumi", this is an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from traditional beliefs of the Yoruba people
of Nigeria
. Developed among Afro-Cuban slaves, the religion began as a blending of these West African spiritual beliefs and Catholic doctrine. Yoruba deities were identified with Catholic saints to fool the slave owners, as the Spanish colonialists had forbidden the practice of African religions. Chano pledged allegiance to the Catholic Saint Barbara
, identified widely with Shango
, the Yoruba god of fire and thunder, and took him as his personal protector. Both Shango and St. Barbara had associations with the color red, and for the rest of his life Chano would often carry a red scarf signifying his allegiance.
Upon his release from Guanajay, Chano returned to his father's house in Havana. Cecelio persuaded his son to practice his trade of bootblack, but Chano's temperament was not suited for this occupation and he quit after less than a year. In 1929 he took a job selling newspapers for El Pais, Havana's most influential publication, hawking papers on a number of street corners. His forceful nature and success in selling brought him to the attention of newspaper owner and influential businessman Alfredo Suarez, who hired Chano as his personal driver and bodyguard. He was rumored to have performed duties as debt collector or "leg breaker" for Suarez. Chano spent his free time dancing, singing, fighting, chasing women and playing his drums. He also began to compose music.
s, or street troupes. They consisted of singers, dancers, musicians, and the ever-present rumberos. Mostly young, street-toughened drummers, rumberos were integral to each comparsa (something like a 'jam club'), since rumberos provided throbbing, sensuous rhythms regarded as the base for all Afro-Cuban music. In a few short years Pozo was the most well-known and sought after rumbero in Cuba, with the most talented comparsas (local groups) vying for his services, and was regularly winning top cash prizes for his compositions. Chano elevated the status and reputation of rumbero to near mythic proportions with his swaggering attitude as he led his own comparsa through the streets and with increasing successes became a hero to Havana's poor people. Pozo and some of his fellow musicians wrote a conga music composition that earned them first prize in the city of Santiago de Cuba's carnival of 1940: "La Comparsa de los Dandys," a composition that is considered by some to be the unofficial theme song of Santiago de Cuba
, and a familiar standard played at many Latin American carnivals.
Once Pozo became famous he also became renowned by his sense of fashion: his all-white top hat and tuxedo look predated that of Flavor Flav
by at least 45 years.
, Armando Peraza
, Francisco Aguabella
, Julito Collazo
, Carlos Vidal Bolado
, Desi Arnaz
and Modesto Duran. Pozo moved to New York City in early 1947 with the encouragement of Miguelito Valdés
, and participated in a recording session with Valdés, the legendary band leader Arsenio Rodríguez
, Carlos Vidal Bolado
and José Mangual. In September 1947, after Mario Bauzá
introduced the two, he was featured in Dizzy Gillespie
's Big Band at Carnegie Hall
and subsequently on a European tour. Their notable material includes "Cubana Be, Cubana Bop" (written by George Russell), and "Tin Tin Deo" and Manteca
, both co-written by Pozo.
, New York, at the age of 33, allegedly over an argument regarding the quality of a bag of marijuana he had bought from his assassin.
He is buried in the Colon Cemetery, Havana
.
His grandson Joaquín Pozo, who was living in Cuba as of 2006, is also a famous conguero.
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
. Though he died young of unnatural causes, no discussion of Latin jazz is complete without mentioning his name and no discussion of the trumpet giant Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, the godfather of Latin jazz in the U.S., can begin without the name of Pozo, who was the first in a long line of Latin percussionists in Dizzy's various bands. Dizzy's dozens of Latin-flavored compositions, including the hit song "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written by Pozo), "Fiesta Mojo" and others - have Afro-Cuban drumming derived from the ritual rhythms of West Africa as their rhythmic backbones. Despite a short stint in Dizzy's band abbreviated by Chano's early death, Pozo's influence could be felt in Dizzy's playing and compositions for decades, which Dizzy acknowledged without hesitation.
Biography
Luciano "Chano" Pozo Gonzales was born in HavanaHavana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
to Cecelio Gonzales, a bootblack, and Carnación Pozo. Chano's family (three sisters and a brother, as well as his older half brother, Felix Chapottin who became one of the great Cuban soneros) struggled with poverty throughout his youth. His mother Carnación, to whom his father was married, died when Chano was eleven, and Cecelio took his family to live with his long-time mistress, Natalia, who was Felix's mother.
Chano showed an early interest in playing drums, and performed ably in Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies in which drumming was a key element. The family lived for many years at El Africa solar (Africa Basement), a former slave quarters, by all accounts a foul and dangerous place, where it was said even the police were afraid to venture. In this environment criminal activities flourished, and Chano learned the ways of the street as means of survival. He dropped out of school after the third grade and earned a solid reputation as a rowdy tough guy, big for his age and exceptionally fit. He spent his days playing drums, fighting, drinking, and engaging in petty criminal activities, the latter of which would land him a sentence in a youth reformatory. There are no official records documenting the crime for which he was sentenced, though at least one account has him causing the accidental death of a foreign tourist, adding to a record of thievery, assault, and truancy. At the age of 13, Chano was sent to the reformatory in Guanajay
Guanajay
Guanajay is a town and municipality in Artemisa Province in western Cuba, located about southwest of Havana. The town lies among hills and has an excellent climate; in colonial times it was an acclimatization station for newly-arrived troops from Spain. It later became well known as a health...
, where he learned reading and writing, auto body repair, and honed his already exceptional skills playing a variety of drums.
Santería
During this time he became a devotee of SanteríaSantería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
. Also known as "La Regla de Lukumi", this is an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from traditional beliefs of the Yoruba people
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. Developed among Afro-Cuban slaves, the religion began as a blending of these West African spiritual beliefs and Catholic doctrine. Yoruba deities were identified with Catholic saints to fool the slave owners, as the Spanish colonialists had forbidden the practice of African religions. Chano pledged allegiance to the Catholic Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara, , Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr....
, identified widely with Shango
Shango
In the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder...
, the Yoruba god of fire and thunder, and took him as his personal protector. Both Shango and St. Barbara had associations with the color red, and for the rest of his life Chano would often carry a red scarf signifying his allegiance.
Upon his release from Guanajay, Chano returned to his father's house in Havana. Cecelio persuaded his son to practice his trade of bootblack, but Chano's temperament was not suited for this occupation and he quit after less than a year. In 1929 he took a job selling newspapers for El Pais, Havana's most influential publication, hawking papers on a number of street corners. His forceful nature and success in selling brought him to the attention of newspaper owner and influential businessman Alfredo Suarez, who hired Chano as his personal driver and bodyguard. He was rumored to have performed duties as debt collector or "leg breaker" for Suarez. Chano spent his free time dancing, singing, fighting, chasing women and playing his drums. He also began to compose music.
Carnival
Chano's reputation grew among the people each year, not only because of his physical prowess as a dancer, drummer, and success with women, but for the compositions he wrote for Carnival, during the nightly celebrations of which neighborhoods formed highly competitive comparsaComparsa
A comparsa is the band which plays a conga during a Latin American Carnival celebration. It consists of a large group of dancers dancing and traveling on the streets, followed by a Carrosa where the musicians play...
s, or street troupes. They consisted of singers, dancers, musicians, and the ever-present rumberos. Mostly young, street-toughened drummers, rumberos were integral to each comparsa (something like a 'jam club'), since rumberos provided throbbing, sensuous rhythms regarded as the base for all Afro-Cuban music. In a few short years Pozo was the most well-known and sought after rumbero in Cuba, with the most talented comparsas (local groups) vying for his services, and was regularly winning top cash prizes for his compositions. Chano elevated the status and reputation of rumbero to near mythic proportions with his swaggering attitude as he led his own comparsa through the streets and with increasing successes became a hero to Havana's poor people. Pozo and some of his fellow musicians wrote a conga music composition that earned them first prize in the city of Santiago de Cuba's carnival of 1940: "La Comparsa de los Dandys," a composition that is considered by some to be the unofficial theme song of Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
, and a familiar standard played at many Latin American carnivals.
Tourism
Cuba was by this time a popular tourist destination, with the biggest hotels, The Sevilla Biltmore, the Nacional, and El Presidente catering to rich Americans and Europeans, and Chano was determined to break the color barrier which restricted employment for those of dark skin. He began to court musicians and others who might help him by auditioning in unusual places, most notedly in front of the Cuban-owned radio station Azul, which broadcast popular recordings as well as live Cuban folk music. Chano befriended many of the musicians who worked there, playing his drum on the street to catch their attention as they arrived for work. Although admired for his prodigious talent, dark skinned blacks were prohibited from working most venues outside of the slums, and Chano searched for opportunities. He would find that opportunity in the person of Armando Trinidad, owner of the radio station. Armando persuaded Chano to work for him, albeit only as the bouncer for Azul, where his imposing size and reputation kept rowdy crowds in check.Once Pozo became famous he also became renowned by his sense of fashion: his all-white top hat and tuxedo look predated that of Flavor Flav
Flavor Flav
William Jonathan Drayton, Jr. , better known by his stage name Flavor Flav, is an American rapper and television personality who rose to prominence as a member of the rap group Public Enemy...
by at least 45 years.
New York
Chano Pozo is one of a handful of Cuban percussionists who came to the United States in the 1940s and 50s. Other notable congueros who came to the U.S. during that time include Mongo SantamariaMongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
, Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza
Armando Peraza is a Latin jazz percussionist. Through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Carlos Santana, he has been internationally known from the 1950s through to the 1990s...
, Francisco Aguabella
Francisco Aguabella
Francisco Aguabella was an Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist whose career began in the 1950s.-Biography:Aguabella was born in Matanzas, Cuba. In the 1950s, he left Cuba to perform with Katherine Dunham in the Shelley Winters film Mambo filmed in Italy...
, Julito Collazo
Julito Collazo
Julio "Julito" Collazo was a master percussionist.Collazo was born in Havana, Cuba. He began playing the ritual music of Santería on the batá drums at the age of fifteen. He moved to United States in the fifties to join in a world tour with the Afroamerican dancer Katherine Dunham and her Dance...
, Carlos Vidal Bolado
Carlos Vidal Bolado
Carlos Vidal Bolado was a Cuban conga drum musician and was one of the original Machito and his Afro-Cuban boys. Bolado holds the double distinction of being the first to record authentic folkloric Cuban rumba and the first to play congas in Latin jazz Carlos Vidal Bolado (1914–1996) was a...
, Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
and Modesto Duran. Pozo moved to New York City in early 1947 with the encouragement of Miguelito Valdés
Miguelito Valdés
Miguelito Valdés, born Miguel Ángel Eugenio Lázaro Zacarias Izquierdo Valdés Hernández , also called Mr. Babalú, was a Cuban popular singer of high quality...
, and participated in a recording session with Valdés, the legendary band leader Arsenio Rodríguez
Arsenio Rodríguez
Arsenio Rodríguez was a Cuban musician who played the tres , reorganized the conjunto and developed the son montuno, and other Afro-Cuban rhythms in the 1940s and 50s...
, Carlos Vidal Bolado
Carlos Vidal Bolado
Carlos Vidal Bolado was a Cuban conga drum musician and was one of the original Machito and his Afro-Cuban boys. Bolado holds the double distinction of being the first to record authentic folkloric Cuban rumba and the first to play congas in Latin jazz Carlos Vidal Bolado (1914–1996) was a...
and José Mangual. In September 1947, after Mario Bauzá
Mario Bauza
Mario Bauzá was an important Cuban musician. He was one of the first to introduce Latin music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles into the New York jazz scene...
introduced the two, he was featured in Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
's Big Band at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and subsequently on a European tour. Their notable material includes "Cubana Be, Cubana Bop" (written by George Russell), and "Tin Tin Deo" and Manteca
Manteca (song)
"Manteca" was co-written by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo in 1947. It was one of the first examples of Afro-Cuban influences being incorporated into mainstream jazz...
, both co-written by Pozo.
Death
The hot-tempered Chano Pozo was killed in a fight at a bar in HarlemHarlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York, at the age of 33, allegedly over an argument regarding the quality of a bag of marijuana he had bought from his assassin.
He is buried in the Colon Cemetery, Havana
Colon Cemetery, Havana
The Colon Cemetery or more fully in the Spanish language Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón was founded in 1876 in the Vedado neighbourhood of Havana, Cuba on top of Espada Cemetery. Named for Christopher Columbus, the 140 acre cemetery is noted for its many elaborately sculpted memorials...
.
His grandson Joaquín Pozo, who was living in Cuba as of 2006, is also a famous conguero.