Mario Bauzá Cárdenas, a prominent Cuban trumpeter, clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and orchestra conductor, was born on April 28, 1911, in Havana. At the age of five, he entered the world of music, taking classes with Arturo Andrades. He enrolled in the Municipal Conservatory of Havana (Rastro No. 1 and Espada, Centro Habana, Havana) sometime later, in 1918. At that institution, he studied with Modesto Fraga, María Luisa Chartrand, and Fernando Carnicer, with whom he received lessons in music theory, piano, and clarinet, respectively. Having studied other musical subjects, Mario completed his training as a clarinetist in 1927.
Upon graduation, seduced by popular music, he turned down a postgraduate scholarship at the University of Milan. As a professional, he joined the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, where he worked as a clarinetist.
In 1926, as part of the orchestra conducted by maestro Antonio María Romeu, he traveled to New York City, United States, where he spent a month recording several danzones. There, he first appreciated the jazz work of several big bands, such as those of Paul Whiteman and Fletcher Henderson. As a result of this experience and having noticed the central role of the saxophone in Whiteman’s orchestra, he decided to play alto sax.
He worked in José Curbelo’s orchestra on alto saxophone and soprano clarinet until 1928; he was a member of the septet Jóvenes de Redención and other groups; he played alto saxophone with Los Diplomáticos.
Years later, in 1930, Mario Bauzá moved to that country, where he settled, playing saxophonist and playing with Justo Azpiazu’s orchestra. He recorded as a trumpet player with the Machín Quartet, directed by singer Antonio Machín, and worked with him that year and the following year. He participated in significant recordings with the quartet in New York.
He also joined other groups, some of the most important in the American jazz scene of the time. These included Noble Sissle, in 1931, playing alto saxophone; with Hi Clark and his Missourians, he played lead trumpet at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. He joined Chick Webb’s group, also playing lead trumpet, and in 1933 became its musical director, a position he held until 1937.
From that date on, he worked with Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson, and with Cab Calloway, which he joined in 1938.
In December 1940, at the Park Plaza, Mario Bauzá Cárdenas debuted with Machito y los Afro-Cubans, a group he helped form and with whom he shared the stage at the La Conga club for almost four years. He served as artistic director, creating musical arrangements and hiring musicians. He wrote around 500 arrangements for the group and was Machito’s artistic director for a period of 35 years.
Afro-Cubans were instrumental in the emergence of Cubop; Mario incorporated ideas from bop composers, adding rhythms from Cuban music, and merging them into arrangements that contributed to the advancement of Cuban jazz.
During the 1940s, he created the sound and style of Latin Jazz, or Afro-Cuban jazz, based on the fusion of jazz harmonies with Cuban rhythms. This is one of Mario Bauzá Cárdenas’s contributions to music, which is why he is considered the founder of what we now call Latin Jazz. His Tanga is recorded as the first Afro-Cuban jazz composition.
In 1950, Mario Bauzá Cárdenas, along with René Hernández and Bobby Woodlen, composed his song “Mambo Inn,” which was recorded by Count Basie. In the 1970s, he left Machito’s orchestra and in 1976 founded his own group, the Mario Bauzá Orchestra.
Later in 1986, together with Graciela Pérez, he recorded Afro-Cuban Jazz, an album on which New York-based musicians left their mark. That same year, he created his pieces El Mareíto and Imitations; he also founded the Mario Bauzá Afro-Cuban Jazz Concert Orchestra. With this orchestra, in 1991, he gave a concert at New York’s Symphony Space Theater to celebrate his eightieth birthday. At that concert, he shared with the famous Dizzy Gillespie. As a result, he signed his first contract as a soloist and director of his own band, with the president of the German record company Messidor Musik.
He recorded his solo debut, Tanga, in December, and his second album, My Time Is Now, was also conceived that same month but the following year, in 1992. In May 1993, Mario Bauzá recorded his third and final album.
Among the awards he collected during his artistic career, we can mention the Mayor of New York City’s Honor Award for the Arts and Culture, which was presented to him on November 27, 1981.
Mario Bauzá Cárdenas died on July 11, 1993 in Manhattan, New York.
In his work as a composer we find the following works: Lona (1934), Tanga (1941), Cubop City (1948), Mambo Inn, with René Hernández and Bobby Woodlen (1950), Chachachá clarinet (1954), Frenzy, Holiday and Wild Jungle (1958), Jammin’with Machito (1969), Cubanola, Imitations and El mareíto (1986), Lourdes Lullaby (1993).