Palladium (dance club)
The Palladium was a legendary dance salon in New York City in the 1950s . He gained his fame through his Afro-Cuban rhythms, especially the Mambo and the Cha-Cha-Cha .
history
The Palladium was located on West 53rd Street at the corner of Broadway in the Music and Theater Zone . It offered space for more than 1,000 couples on its dance floor. White Anglo-Americans danced the foxtrot , tango and the old swing here . It emerged from the "Alma Dance Studios", which got into a crisis at the end of the 1940s and was sold in 1949. The manager at the time, Federico Pagani, set up a separate event on Sundays as early as 1947, a matinee for the Hispanic audience: the "Blen Blen Club". The group “Machito y sus Afro-Cubans” played a mixture of Cuban rhythms and bebop . Behind the group was the Cuban music director Mario Bauzá , the band leader was Frank Grillo “Machito” , who brought in his sister Graciela, and the composer was the percussionist Chano Pozo, who had previously played with Dizzy Gillespie . The success of this type of Latin jazz was enormous, the salon was fully booked on Sundays. Under the new owner Max Hyman, a second day of the week for Latin American rhythms, Wednesday, was reserved from 1949 and two other groups were contracted: Tito Puente and the “Picadilly Boys”. Puente, who had already participated in the matinee on Sundays, only gradually became the band leader of the group as a percussionist. Because of his virtuosity and creativity, he was nicknamed "El Rey del Timbal". The third orchestra was the septet of the other "Tito": the singer Tito Rodríguez .
From 1950 Dámaso Pérez Prados "Mambo No.5" achieved tremendous popularity. From then on, "The Big Three", as the three orchestras were now called, dedicated themselves to the mambo and released one mambo hit after the other, the most famous: "Picadillo", "Ran Kan Kan" (Puente), "Mambo Mona ( Mama Guela) ”,“ Joe Lustig Mambo ”(Rodriguez) and“ Asia Minor ”,“ Babarabatiri ”(Machito). At the end of the 1950s, the Cha-Cha-Cha was added.
In November 1958, the Cuban José Fajardo traveled with his orchestra to New York to give musical support to Senator John F. Kennedy at a Democratic Party event in the Waldorf-Astoria . Then he played at the Palladium - and stayed there, because on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his guerrillas of the July 26th Movement moved into Havana . At first this did not seem to affect the Palladium: many Cubans fled to the USA, Cuban music was more popular than ever before. Fajardo played cha-cha-cha and bolero , he brought the "bilongo" with him and even made the danzón popular again with his flute . After the Bay of Pigs disaster on April 17, 1961, the US government tried to reduce the cultural influences of Cuba in the US. The Palladium was no longer licensed to sell high-proof alcohol. It was then able to hold out for some time and finally had to close in 1966.
Importance and developments
The importance of the "Blen Blen Club" at the end of the 1940s should not be underestimated: A group of black (!) Latin Americans played for the first time in a dance salon for an Anglo-American audience. As a result, Latin American music groups became not only the filler for breaks, but also the main attraction of the program. With the musicians, the colored spectators came to the dance, the “canallas” (dt. Scoundrel , villain ), with their “smell” and their “bad manners”. This represented a not inconsiderable business risk for the palladium and took some getting used to for the fine white society.
“Machito y sus Afro-Cubans” became the model for numerous groups who tried to copy Latin jazz. New York became the stronghold of Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music dominated the dance rhythms.
A Latin big band was dedicated to Latin American rhythms. In addition to the piano and the bass, it consisted of the classic trumpet, trombone and saxophone sections. Bongos , timbales and the tumbadoras ( congas ) established themselves as rhythm instruments ; Chano Pozo, Machito's percussionist, was responsible for the exposed position of the latter . The timbales increasingly supplanted the drums. But while elsewhere the timbales began to be played like drums, Tito Puente retained the Cuban pattern of danzón and sons , making him one of the most influential timbalists in Latin American music. Pérez Prado , on the other hand, used a percussion for his mambo that placed the emphasis entirely on the tumbadora.
Many famous Latin American musicians played in the Palladium: José Fajardo , Orchestra Aragón , Beny Moré and from Puerto Rico Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera , Cesar Concepción , and many others. Famous dancers such as Freddie Rios, Mike Ramos, couples Pete and Millie Donay, Augie and Margo Rodriguez danced at the Palladium with its dance competitions. "Killer Joe Piro" taught people the steps and turns of the Mambo and the Cha-Cha-Cha. The Palladium was the Mecca of Latin American dance.
But the Palladium was not only reserved for Latin American music, many jazz greats made music here and many famous personalities were among its guests, including Dizzy Gillespie , Marlon Brando , Sammy Davis Jr. , Bob Hope , Lena Horne , Shirley Booth , Henry Fonda , Abbe Lane , boxing heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles , u. a.
present
Today only one restaurant on 53rd Street with the same name reminds of the Palladium. Various dance schools have tried to tie in with the Palladium era by teaching salsa as a New York style that, like mambo and cha-cha-cha, begins on the second beat.
Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 48 ″ N , 73 ° 58 ′ 58 ″ W.