Google Doodle Celebrates Legendary Musician Tito Puente

Google is celebrating the life and legacy of revered Tito Puente with an animated Doodle to the tune of “Ran Kan Kan,” his first professional track recording.

During his 50-year career, the Juilliard School of Music-trained musician, known as “El Rey de los Timbales” and “The King of Latin music,” gained international recognition for his mambo and Latin Jazz compositions and energetic performances.

Google chose New York-based Puerto Rican artist Carlos Aponte to illustrate the Doodle and capture the essence of the musical legend.

“The topic was meaningful because Tito was part of my musical experience growing up in Puerto Rico. My aunt introduced me to Tito Puente via La Lupe, a famous singer in Puerto Rico and New York,” says Aponte. “Tito was like a Svengali for talents like Celia Cruz. He was a household name. So Tito was part of my Puerto Rican soundtrack.”

Once you go to the Google search page, you can click on the animated Doodle that provides a one-minute long tribute. It will live on the homepage throughout October 11. But if you miss it or want a replay after that date, you can check it out on the Google Doodles archive.

I recommend you watch the “Behind the Doodle: Celebrating Tito Puente” video, produced to showcase the artist’s thought process in creating the artwork. It also includes Tito Puente, Jr. sharing details about his father, photos, videos and interview excerpts of Tito Puente himself.

Puente, whose parents were from Puerto Rico, was born in New York City’s Spanish Harlem on April 20, 1923. He was an accomplished composer, songwriter, bandleader, percussionist, record producer and performer.

He started his career as a drummer in his early teens and got his big break playing for Federico Pagani’s Happy Boys and Machito’s Orchestra. Puente served in the Navy during World War II, playing alto saxophone as the ship’s bandleader, along with over ten other instruments. After the war, he studied at Juilliard, before starting the Tito Puente Orchestra in 1948.

Puente would go on to popularize Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo and cha-cha-chá. He was revered for his skills on the timbales (timpani/kettledrums), as well as for his big band instrumentation and jazz harmonies with Afro-Cuban music. He recorded over 118 albums and is credited on dozens more.

He has been memorialized in a Tito Puente Monument in East Harlem, a star on the Hollywood walk of fameand the Harlem street where he grew up — E. 110th Street — was renamed Tito Puente Way to honor his life and legacy.