In this article, we will discuss the topics like, What is the net worth of the Late American Artist Tito Puente? Everything about Tito Puente and also How much money has he amassed? Therefore, if this is something that piques your curiosity, stick with us.
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr., better known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, band leader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He was born on April 20, 1923, and died on June 1, 2000. He is best known for his 50-year career of dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz pieces. His most famous song is “Oye Como Va”.
His music has been in movies like The Mambo Kings and Calle 54, which was made by Fernando Trueba. He was a guest star on Sesame Street and in “Who Shot Mr. Burns?,” a two-part episode of The Simpsons.
Early Life
Tito Puente was born on April 20, 1923, at the Harlem Hospital Center in Manhattan, New York. His parents, Ernest and Felicia Puente, were Puerto Ricans who lived in Spanish Harlem in New York City. Also, his family moved around a lot, but most of his childhood was spent in Spanish Harlem. His father was the head of a factory that made razor blades.
His mother enrolled him in 25-cent piano lessons when his neighbours reported that he was pounding on pots and window frames at seven years old. At 10, Gene Krupa inspired him to play percussion. In the 1930s, he and his sister Anna formed a song-and-dance duo. He had planned to become a dancer, but an ankle tendon injury kept him from doing that. When Machito’s band’s drummer was called up to serve in the army, Puente took his place.
Career
During World War II, Puente was drafted in 1942 and served in the Navy for three years. He was let go with a Presidential Unit Citation because the escort carrier USS Santee he was on was in nine battles (CVE-29). With the help of the GI Bill, he was able to go to the Juilliard School of Music to study conducting, orchestration, and theory.
During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his fame. He helped popularize Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds like the mambo, son, and cha-cha-chá. Many people thought that Puente was Cuban because he played popular Afro-Cuban rhythms so well. Dance Mania, which came out in 1958, may be Puente’s best-known album.
“Oye como va” (1963), a cha-cha, is one of his most well-known pieces. Carlos Santana popularized it, and Julio Iglesias, Irakere, and Celia Cruz covered it. He received the key to New York from former mayor John Lindsay in 1969. In 1992, the National Congressional Record added him, and in 1993, the Smithsonian awarded him the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal.
Early in 2000, Puente was in a movie about music called Calle 54.
In the TV show La Epoca, which is about the Palladium era in New York, Afro-Cuban music and rhythms, mambo and salsa as dances and music, and a lot more, Tito Puente’s name comes up a lot. The film talks about many of Puente’s and Arsenio Rodrguez‘s contributions. It also has interviews with some of the musicians Puente recorded with Alfonso “El Panameno” Joseph.
Net Worth of Tito Puente
A job like Tito Puente’s is a dream come true. Net worth of Tito Puente has grown a lot since he became famous all over the world. Tito Puente was worth $5 million when he died in 2000. He did live in luxury, and he and his family enjoyed all of their wealth. No one outside of his family knew anything about his property.
Personal Life & Death
Richard “Richie” Puente, Puente’s son, played drums in the funk band Foxy in the 1970s. Tito Puente Jr., who is Puente’s youngest son, has carried on his father’s legacy by singing and recording many of the same songs. Audrey Puente, his daughter, is a TV meteorologist in New York City. She works for WNYW and WWOR-TV.
On May 31, 2000, after a show in Puerto Rico, he had a massive heart attack. He died on June 1, 2000, after heart valve surgery in New York City. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 2003.
Awards & Acknowledgement
- Tito Puente received the 1995 Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award.
- During the time that Sen. Roberto Rexach Bentez was in charge, a special session of the Senate of Puerto Rico was held in his honour, and Tito Puente was also able to perform on the floor of the Senate in his own style.
- On September 10, 2007, Rep. José Serrano and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) held a ceremony to name a US Post Office in Spanish Harlem after him (D-NY).
- San Juan’s Luis Muoz Marn Park. The Roberto Clemente Coliseum is next door.
- In 1995, Berklee College of Music gave Puente an Honorary Doctorate of Music.
- At the end of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Puente gave a performance. The timbales he played are on display in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of American History.
- He was given the National Medal of Arts in 1997.
- He got a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990.
- In 1984, the Los Angeles City Council gave him a Decree of Honor.
- On June 5, 2005, Union City, New Jersey honoured Puente by putting a star on the Walk of Fame in Celia Cruz Park.
- The International Latin Music Hall of Fame made him a member in 1999.
- Columbia University bestowed an honorary Mus.D degree on him on May 19, 1999.
- East 110th Street in Spanish Harlem became “Tito Puente Way” on August 20, 2000.
- Hispanic Heritage Month’s Google Doodle honoured Puente on October 11, 2022.
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