Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Tito Timbero (Tito the Drummer) - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
2. Timbaly Bongo - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
3. Zing-A Zing-A Zing Boom - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
4. Rogelio No Me Aprietes Mas - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
5. S�cala - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
6. Co-Co Coconut
7. Domingo Pantoja - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
8. Ya No Hay Mujeres Feas - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
9. Arroz con Pollo - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
10. Vibe Cha Cha
11. Mambo Buda
12. Cuban Fantasy
13. Mack the Knife [A Theme from the Three Penny Opera]
14. Four Beat Cha Cha
15. Cha-Cha-Cha de los Pollos (Cha-Cha for Chicks)
16. Que Ser� (What Is It) - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
17. Happy Cha-Cha-Ch� - Tito Puente & His Orchestra

Disc 2:

1. Oye Mi Guaguanc� (Listen to the Guaguanc�)
2. What Is This Thing Called Love?
3. Tiny-Not Ghengis
4. What Are You Doing, Honey?
5. That's a Puente
6. Birdland After Dark
7. Terry Cloth
8. Yesterdays
9. Caminandito
10. Mentiroso y Chaquetero
11. You Are an Angel - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
12. Just for You - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
13. Habanero - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
14. Ki-Ku-Ki-Kan - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
15. Lindo Cha-Cha - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
16. Little Jump Cha-Cha
17. It's the Bururu (Dame el Bururu) - Tito Puente & His Orchestra

Disc 3:

1. Cha Cha Fiesta - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
2. Vibe Guajira (Guarjira en Vibrafono) - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
3. Vamos a Bailar (Let's Go Cha Cha) - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
4. Silly Lil
5. Calypso Merengue
6. Sea Breeze
7. Emerald Beach
8. Carioca
9. Night Beat
10. Late, Late Scene
11. Night Hawk
12. Live a Little
13. Malibu Beat
14. Poor Butterfly
15. Tito Guajira
16. Tea for Two - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
17. Almendra

Disc 4:

1. Poquito de Tu Amor
2. Bragada
3. Obatal� Yeza
4. Alumba Chemeche
5. Oguere Madeo
6. Obaricoso
7. Four by Two
8. Conga Alegre
9. Hot Timbales
10. Complicaci�n
11. Cayuco - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
12. Saca Tu Mujer
13. Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti [Bolero][Outtake]
14. Agua Limpia Todo [Guaguanco]
15. Varsity Drag [Mambo]
16. 3-D Mambo - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
17. Mucho Cha-Cha

Disc 5:

1. La Salud
2. Frenesi - Tito Puente & His Orchestra, Tito Puente
3. Perfidia - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
4. Juanita
5. Sand in My Shoes
6. Tampico - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
7. Cha-Cha-Cha - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
8. Cha Cha - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
9. Doing the Cha-Cha - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
10. Baubles, Bangles and Beads
11. At the Balalaika - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
12. Sweet Sue, Just You
13. Managua, Nicaragua - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
14. Speak Low - Tito Puente & His Orchestra
15. Comme Ci, Comme Ca (Clopin, Clopant)
16. Guaguanc�
17. Rumba Timbales

Disc 6:

1. Ceremony of Tamb�
2. Ritual Drum Dance
3. Velorio
4. Call of the Jungle Birds
5. Caonao
6. Porque Te Perdi
7. Guancona [Guaguanc�]
8. Si Te Contara
9. Son Guach�
10. Con Sandunga
11. Blue Moon - Buddy Morrow, Tito Puente
12. So in Love
13. Moonlight in Vermont
14. Harlem Nocturne - Buddy Morrow, Tito Puente
15. Baby Won't You Please Come Home - Buddy Morrow, Tito Puente
16. I Concentrate on You - Buddy Morrow, Tito Puente

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #318560 in Music
• Released on: 2001-09-25
• Number of discs: 6
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
This multi-CD box set contains more celebrated tracks from the legendary Tito Puente's RCA recordings of the '50s and '60s. Like the tracks for The Complete RCA Recordings, Vol. 1, this collection showcases selected sides from several Puente classic LPs, including Top Percussion, Cuban Carnival, Dance Mania, and Mucho Puente. Supported by the best musicians in the business, including congueros Ray Barretto, Candido, and Francisco Aguabella, Puente swings hard in a number of authentic Afro-Cuban grooves.

His fierce and frenetic timbales solos made mambos and rumbas like "Complicacion," "Conga Alegre," and "Hot Timbales" timeless classics. On "Vibe Guajira," Puente displays his chops on the vibraphone, and he laces several big band jazz tunes like "Harlem Nocturne," "Moonlight in Vermont," and "Birdland After Dark" with spicy syncopated Cubop flavors. Think of this set as an indispensable aural document detailing the dynamic, dance-oriented genius of the Mambo King. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

Great Music / Another Poor Reissue on the part of RCA
As I said in my review of Vol. 1, this is great music. Vol. 1 was a terrible reissue, however -- just over 4 discs worth of music spread over 6 discs, no personnel listing, no indication of which albums tracks were drawn from. Did RCA correct any of these flaws for volume 2?

2 steps forward, 1 step back. Personnel are now listed (in an extremely confusing and inconsistent format, with names listed next to dates for sessions that they played on) -- but this time, the dates of recording were omitted! It would be laughable if it weren't so typical of the major labels.

Vol. 2 has 290 minutes of music -- which would easily fit on 4 discs. This time around, the discs are packaged in 3 dual disk boxes, while last time they were packaged in 6 cardboard sleeves. (Either format is fine, consistency would have been nice.)

The booklet is a little better this time: the essay tells you (more or less) which LPs the tracks were drawn from, and identifies which tracks were not previously issued or issued only on 78's.

If you have both sets, does that mean you have all of TP's RCA output? Nope. For example, there's an alternate take of DANCE MANIA's "Estoy Siempre junto a Ti," but the master take is not available in the two collections. (DANCE MANIA is available on its own.)

Verdict: most of the original LPs have been issued on CD, and the programming is superior. If you just want 5 hours of great music and don't care about the context, this set will do you fine.

Which is better, vol. 1 or vol. 2? I might give the slight edge to vol. 1, but the tracks seem to have been randomly chosen, so it's not like vol. 2 is second best.

I'm glad to have all of this great music: but I think RCA has done a great disservice and shown little respect for El Rey, Tito Puente.

Awesome 6-CD set
I was really surprised to see a three-star review was all this amazing reissue release had received. I dunno, I guess I'm a little picky about stuff like this, but these two 6-CD sets (Volume 1 and 2 of the complete Tito Puente on RCA) are gems in my record collection: they are compact, concise and the music totally kicks a**. Great sound quality, and dozens of stunning, historically powerful Latin dance classics. Yes, there could have also been a giant, extensive discography and liner notes included, but then it would have been a 12-CD Bear Family box set, and it would have cost about three times as much, and taken up a lot more shelf space. I'm plenty happy with what they did -- it's very rare that you get this much bang for your buck. Highly recommended! (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Music Guide)