By: Ramón Muñiz Hernández
Tito Rodriguez is gone, but the music remains. His music will continue to matter regardless what happens to our evolving popular culture. His fame as a singer, his voice, his style, his band, his music will be remembered and honored from his own country, Puerto Rico, to New York, to the world. Long after his death, every day, in cities and towns all over the planet, someone plays his music and discovers that quality that gave him a special place on the public stage of the Americas and the world. High art always survives.
Pablo “Tito” Rodriguez, born in Puerto Rico, is survived by his son who knows the importance of being called Tito Rodriguez, Jr. Tito Jr. remembers his father by carrying the torch of his art and legend, with a sense of pride and tradition, playing his songs and enabling an entire generation to enjoy his music, giving the American landscape a voice that lingers like a beautiful song..
When Tito Rodriguez died the news made the front pages of newspapers in his native Puerto Rico and Latin America and many cities worldwide. It was the death of an original. Over the previous year he had been in and out of hospitals, he had been a long time dying, but he had also been a long time living and entertaining people all over the world. Tito Rodriguez mattered to a lot of people and will continue to matter in the years to come. The music was the engine of his life, he transcended several eras; he was wonderful with his children, he was funny, he was vulnerable; like all great artists, he was one of a kind.
Now Tito Rodriguez is gone, but the music remains. The man and his music are well preserved in the musical arrangements kept through the years by his son. He has assembled a big band with some of the most fiery and tasty mambos ever written of all times. Here are the classic mambos of an era, the greatest arrangements, performed by a big band with a sound that only a big band can produce. Tito Rodriguez, Jr has proven that great music never dies. His own CD’s are considered classics and are being re-released by Universal Pimienta also. His new show combines his greatest hits with his father’s. It is a true passing of the baton.
The stage is being set. Those performances are here today for all to enjoy, it is musical history, is the continuation of a strong and powerful sound, full of vitality, of a contagious music that appeals to the feet and the brains and that can be enjoyed simply as music in concerts too. It is a rich heritage, a rich legacy. The Latin musical experience is a force, a storm, a volcano speaking, a train at full speed, an explosion, is something that goes beyond the mere aesthetics of music; it is the longing for freedom, the joy of the dance, the respect for the sublime, the romantic love songs of the islands of the Caribbean, it’s a hymn to life and eternity; music represents life, music is forever.
Bandleader Tito Rodriguez, Jr. is on a mission, almost a religious endeavor, and that is to take his father’s music, the late great sonero/bolerista Tito Rodriguez, the Frank Sinatra of tropical music, as well as his own, to all towns and cities of the world for the pure enjoyment of life. Their music is happy and brings joy to all listeners and dancers. Their music lives on!