Pérez Prado

Dámaso Pérez Prado, a Cuban bandleader and composer, was born on December 11 1916 in Matanzas, Cuba. His mother was a school teacher, his father a newspaper man. He studied classical piano in his early childhood, and later pl

Dámaso Pérez Prado, a Cuban bandleader and composer, was born on December 11 1916 in Matanzas, Cuba. His mother was a school teacher, his father a newspaper man. He studied classical piano in his early childhood, and later played organ and piano in local clubs.

He grew up in Cuba and worked with casino orchestras in Havana for most of the 1940s. In 1948, he moved to Mexico to form his own band and record for RCA. He quickly specialized in mambos, an upbeat adaptation of the Cuban rhumba. Prado's mambos stood out among the competition, with their fiery brass riffs and strong sax counterpoints, and most of all, Prado's trademark grunts. In 1950, arranger Sonny Burke heard "Que Rico Mambo" while on vacation in Mexico and recorded in back in the U.S. as "Mambo Jambo." The single was a hit and Prado decided to profit himself from the success and tour the U.S. His appearances in 1951 were sell-outs and he began recording U.S. releases for RCA.