Graciela
In May of 1943, Graciela returned to New York City to fill in for her brother, Frank "Machito" Grillo, who was drafted into the U.S. Army. When she arrived, the orchestra was the house band at La Conga Club in Manhattan and had added singer Polito Galindez from Puerto Rico. They were broadcasting through radio station WOR and had a buzz going as one of the most popular bands in the city. "La Conga was a good club on 53rd St.," recalls Graciela. "Everybody would come out and dance to Mario Bauzá's Afro-Cuban jazz. We were always called The Afro-Cubans, but it was Mario who said we should put Machito's name in front. People make the mistake of thinking that Machito was the director. He was just a singer. It was Mario who ran the band and married jazz with Afro-Cuban music." Bauzá dreamed of a big band fusing the rhythmic fire of Afro-Cuban music with hip North American jazz. Bauzá landed in Harlem at age 19 in the midst of an artistic renaissance. He made important contributions as a reed player and trumpeter, with Chick Webb, Cab Calloway and Don Redman. "Directly, Mario helped many artists get started in their careers, like Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Tito Puente and Ella Fitzgerald," adds Graciela about her brother-in-law. It was Mario who invited Machito to come to NYC in 1937. Married to Estela (Machito and Graciela's sister), Bauzá hoped the two could start a band. That would not happen until a few years later. Early on, Machito sang with Las Estrellas Habaneras and recorded on coro (vocal chorus) with El Conjunto Moderno in 1938. His first sides as a lead vocalist were with Noro Morales, Conjunto Caney, Augusto Coen, and Xavier Cugat. By 1940, Machito was a force to contend with. He was with La Siboney when he started getting offers for gigs. He formed a small combo but soon began to assemble an orchestra. Bauzá joined the band as its musical director in 1941 and began to refine it into the Afro-Cuban jazz aggregation of his dreams. "Mario did everything," declares Graciela. "He chose the songs and prepared everything for our shows and recordings. Machito and I could sing just about anything he asked. He developed our repertoire by searching out great songs and finding talented arrangers to adapt them to our sound. Everybody always acknowledges Machito, but it was Mario Bauzá who shaped the band." Having worked in the top Harlem nightclubs with top-flight bands, Bauzá learned to use the entire orchestra as his palate. The way he spread the singers and instrumentalists throughout a set provided an entertaining variety for the audience. Graciela was a hue all her own as a featured vocalist and a great counterpoint to her brother. "We used to change up the music--bolero, guaracha, chachachá--so that the whole world could dance to something," she explains. "When we played real upbeat material I noticed some people sat down but they had already danced a few numbers. We even played a pasodoble now and then. You never knew when there was going to be a Spaniard in the audience." Llegó Dieguito, Quién Paró La Rumba, A Quili Quilito, La Peleona, El Marañón, Coco, and Rié, No Llora Má, are songs she recorded during Machito's absence. In her late 20s, she was vibrant and cut through the big band with a clear voice and strong delivery that more than ably expressed the songs. "I learned that to sing you have to put alma (soul) into it." Machito was discharged in October of 1943, and returned as the band was entering a new phase. Tanga, a Bauzá composition considered the first authentic Afro-Cuban jazz recording, drew the attention of countless musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton, among others. Largely instrumental, it was upbeat and danceable, and attracted dancers from diverse racial and ethnic groups. "People appreciated what we did back then. During the war wherever we performed the lines were tremendous. It only cost a few dollars to hear three orchestras. Now what do you get for $25? People would leave their change just to rush in and be inside dancing. We also played in the finest jazz clubs." Machito & The Afro-Cubans broke the color line working at a variety of nightclubs and dancehalls at a time of institutionalized segregation. They played all around NYC for a diverse spectrum of people. From uptown clubs like La Conga and Park Plaza, to jazz joints like The Royal Roost, Bop City and Birdland, as well as Harlem hotspots like the Apollo Theatre and Savoy Ballroom. "We set a record when we played at The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. We also played all the jazz clubs for the 'americanos,' as well as every sector of Puerto Rican society in NYC. We used to do annual dances for the postal workers, police, and other organizations until we started traveling and could no longer fit in the dates." Around 1945-47, Graciela did several sides with Machito for Verne Records. Highlights include ¿Donde Va María?, Guampampiro, Siguiéndote, Qué No Se Acabe el Bongó!, ¿Que Tal te Va?, and Mi Cerebro (which would evolve into Si, Si, No, No). Her style at that point in her career was well defined and confident. It was at the Palladium Ballroom (at West 53rd St. & Broadway), where Graciela would stand out as part of the Machito Orchestra during an era that can only be described as a golden age. "The Home of the Mambo" opened in 1949 under Federico Pagani's promotion. It was the Big Three--Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez--who shared the spotlight and kept the place packed. However, it was the Machito band that first brought Latin music into the hall in the late 1940s. "I remember Mario worked out a deal with the owner of the Palladium, who was also the manager for Chick Webb's band, where we did a Sunday matinee there. Mario got Chano Pozo's permission to call it the Bien Bien Club. There was a line of people that went around the block. The coat check room was so small in the winter that people would check their coats at the hotel across the street and rush over to dance." COPYRIGHT 2005 Latin Beat Magazine COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group |
Graciela: first lady of Latin Jazz Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2005 by Jesse Varela