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A talented section player who rarely soloed, Mario Bauzá's main importance to music was behind the scenes as one of the main instigators of Afro-Cuban jazz, the potent mixture of Latin rhythms with jazz improvisation. A multi-instrumentalist, Bauzá played clarinet and oboe with the Havana Philharmonic before moving to New York in 1930. During a stint with <a href="spotify:artist:7H1OQzVy0Oklm5Wr025qhm">Noble Sissle</a> in 1932, he switched to trumpet. As musical director with <a href="spotify:artist:7AgtFmxbJL1wDbp7yYrzQb">Chick Webb</a> (1933-1938), Bauzá helped convince the drummer of the potential greatness of <a href="spotify:artist:5V0MlUE1Bft0mbLlND7FJz">Ella Fitzgerald</a>. He was with <a href="spotify:artist:4xgDy82aqLHAG2Is3ELRWv">Don Redman</a> during 1938-1939, and then <a href="spotify:artist:03cwCzIWQ8BRmXjGPDAL04">Cab Calloway</a> (1939-1941). Bauzá was largely responsible for <a href="spotify:artist:03cwCzIWQ8BRmXjGPDAL04">Calloway</a> hiring <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Dizzy Gillespie</a>, and in 1947 he would introduce <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Gillespie</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:6BW7FX1tlaJqg7CZXY09vt">Chano Pozo</a>. Bauzá became the longtime musical director of his brother-in-law <a href="spotify:artist:3mdrgtEX1xhiauu3Pn06LL">Machito</a>'s orchestra (1941-1976), encouraging <a href="spotify:artist:3mdrgtEX1xhiauu3Pn06LL">Machito</a> to add jazz solos to his music. In the 1980s and early '90s as the head of his own Afro-Cuban orchestra, Mario Bauzá (who had long since given up playing trumpet) recorded three excellent albums of his arrangements and finally received some recognition for his important contributions to music. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi
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