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Perez Prado
Cuban-born Dámaso Perez Prado was known as "The Mambo King," a title he earned for his popular compositions and recordings of the early 1950s that spread the fame of the dance that blended Afro-Cuban rhythms with American swing.
Prado arrived in the world on December 11, 1916, in Matanzas. Born to a schoolteacher mother and a journalist father, Prado studied classical piano, and played the instrument in local clubs and movie theaters. At 26, he moved to the capital city of Havana, where he played piano for a large orchestra and then a small band. He arranged music for composer Gapar Roca de la Peer. The most popular band in Cuba played his songs, and lead singer Cascarita liked the arrangements. That allowed Prado to get a job as pianist and arranger for the band. Around 1943, Prado played after-hours jam sessions with a small group of musicians, and from those gatherings, he developed an interest in the Mambo, based on the cross-rhythms and syncopations he heard.
By 1947, Prado was unpopular at home for his use of American jazz rhythms. He found it difficult to obtain work, and settled in Mexico after touring Argentina, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Prado formed his own band in Mexico City and played regularly at the Club 1-2-3. His popularity grew and he was hired as music director for locally-produced films, sometimes appearing in those movies as himself.
Prado recorded for the RCA Mexicana label from 1947-49, and sold so many records that he was signed to the RCA Victor label in the U.S. He made his first recording for the American company on December 12, 1949. The double-sided "Mambo No. 5" and "Qué Rico el Mambo" helped popularize the Mambo in the States as well as Mexico. Dave Barbour and His Orchestra covered the latter song as "Mambo Jambo" and had a top-30 hit with it on the Billboard charts in 1950. With his music finding an appreciative audience in the U.S., Prado launched an American tour. He made his debut at the Puerto Rico Theater in the Bronx, New York, in April 1951. An eight-city tour brought Prado to the West Coast in August, when he played to turn-away crowds at venues like the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Prado was so popular in the U.S., he remained in America for almost 20 years. He became a regular at the Palladium Ballroom in Manhattan, where mambo contests were in vogue, and then the Starlight Roof at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue. Internationally acclaimed dancer/anthropologist Katherine Dunham hosted Prado at her School of Dance in New York City, where a culturally elite audience heard his music. Dunham appeared as a dance teacher in the 1954 film "Mambo," which featured some of Prado's music on the soundtrack. The Mambo became a national craze that same year, thanks to hits like Rosemary Clooney's "Mambo Italiano," Perry Como's "Papa Loves Mambo," and Vaughn Monroe's "They Were Doin' the Mambo." That helped pave the way for Prado's first No. 1 hit, "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White," in 1955. Strangely, it wasn't a mambo, but a cha-cha, and Prado didn't write the song. He did compose "Patricia," one of the biggest hits of 1958. The single topped the pop chart as well as the R&B chart.
Prado returned to Mexico City in the early 1970s, continuing to record and tour. In 1987 he made his final recording, as well as his last appearance in the U.S., at the Hollywood Palladium on September 12. He died of a stroke on September 14, 1989.
His music has lived on, and in 1999 Lou Bega had an international pop hit when he wrote amusing new lyrics for "Mambo No. 5."
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