Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez Centennial Celebration

New York, NY (April 6, 2023) – On May 5 and 6, at 8:00 p.m. in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, Grammy nominated Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra bassist, composer, and arranger Carlos Henriquez leads an all-star band to celebrate the respective centennial birthdays of Mambo Kings Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. 

For Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez Centennial Celebration With Carlos Henriquez and Friends, Henriquez and a hand-picked big band honor the centennials of two greats: iconic timbalero, vibraphonist and gregarious Nuyorican bandleader Tito Puente—a pioneering figure in Latin Jazz, and his sometimes rival, San Juan-born vocalist, timbalero and bandleader Tito Rodriguez. These 1923 babies revolutionized the Latin dance scene of the 1950s and 1960s and changed the course of jazz. 

Led by Henriquez, the ensemble includes trumpeters Jesus Ricardo, Kali Rodríguez, Linda Briceño; saxophonists Abdias Armentero, Paul Nedzela; José Madera on timbales; Bobby Allende on congas; Johnny Rodriguez on bongo; pianist Manuel Valera; and vocalist Jeremy Bosch, and more musicians to be announced.

Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez Centennial Celebration continues Jazz at Lincoln Center’s season of cross-cultural offerings that illuminate, actualize, and reaffirm the notion of jazz as a global language and the music’s power to bridge divides and coalesce distinct communities. In addition to leading the centennial event to honor the Mambo Kings on May 5 and 6, Henriquez plays a significant role in the organization’s education initiatives focused on the history of Latin music and jazz.

• There will be a free pre-concert lecture at 7:00 pm for each performance

On May 11-13, 2023, Henriquez will serve as a judge in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 28th annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, the hallmark program for the largest jazz education network in the world. This year, Jazz at Lincoln Center is making the first-ever publication of four works by Afro-Cuban-New York jazz and salsa pioneer Machito available to participating high schools. This marks the first time in Essentially Ellington history that a Latin composer is featured with four tunes added to the EE library.

Carlos Henriquez was born in 1979 in the Bronx, New York. He took up the bass while enrolled in The Juilliard School  ’s Music Advancement Program. At LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Henriquez participated in the LaGuardia Concert Jazz Ensemble which went on to win first place in Jazz at Lincoln Center  ’s Essentially Ellington competition. In 1998, Henriquez joined the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, touring the world and playing on more than 25 albums. He has performed with diverse artists including Chucho Valdés, Paco De Lucía, Tito Puente, the Marsalis Family, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, and Marc Anthony. He has been a member of the music faculty at Northwestern University School of Music since 2008 and, in 2010, served as Musical Director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s cultural exchange with the Cuban Institute of Music with Chucho Valdés. He issued his debut album as a leader The Bronx Pyramid in 2015 on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine Records, and his Grammy-nominated release The South Bronx Story in 2022.

For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit Jazz.org. For live streaming information, visit JazzLive.com.