"I'm from 110th Street."

A cliffhanger episode of The Simpsons, one ending the sixth season and the answer-episode beginning the seventh season, the memorable "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" event, had Lisa trying to use the financial windfall from Springfield Elementary's discovery of oil to bring in one Tito Puente as a new music class teacher.

That was the first time I'd ever heard of Tito Puente. In the intervening years, after purchasing the DVDs of the Simpsons and, like a nerd, listening to the commentaries, I learned that it was Matt Groening's personal push to bring one of his own favorite musical artists into the fold of the show, hence, Tito gets on the show.

I did enjoy the mambo version of the theme song, and thought, well, that Tito is a pretty cool musician, and not much else.

Recently I saw a short film about the commemoration of the street that he grew up on in what became Spanish Harlem, and about his influence, legacy, and his tireless drive to make people feel the rhythm.

Born on 420 in 1923 on 110th Street in New York to Puerto Rican immigrant parents, Tito showed early that he was a musical prodigy child. By sixteen he was playing percussion with the biggest band leader in Uptown at the time, Manchito. It was said that he most likely would have been playing earlier in his life had there not been Spanish traditions and curfews in effect limiting the amount of time he could spend outside the house.

It didn't take Manchito very long to highlight his young percussionist and bring him to the front of the band, where Tito could show off, and the music that we now call "salsa" (the old-timers hate that name) and they called "mambo" was crystallized in its current state. Desi Arnez, and his character Ricky Ricardo from from "I Love Lucy" was a mambo star and band leader, like his idol, El Rey, Tito.

Tito was drafted into World War II, worked on a ship and learned saxophone and a little arranging. After he returned he used the GI Bill to attend Julliard and learned arranging in its entirety, basically learning the elements to elevate mambo from a groovy dance rhythm to a Latino-jazz art-form.

After Manchito passed, Tito Puente and the other Tito, Tito Rodriguez, friends from their days learning from Manchito, struck up a friendly rivalry and played the same club every night for seventeen years.

When Tito would go on tour, later in life, his band would speak about how shocked they were about the incredible crowds that would turn out. Tito was always more modest and self deprecating.

It was said that his music was ahead of its time, and this is probably true. In more than sixty years, he never played anything else besides mambo.

One of Tito's most well known songs was made well known seven years after he composed and recorded it. "Oyo como va" was on his 1963 album "El Rey Bravo", but most people know the song from Santana's 1970 recording, a recording that propelled Santana, and his brand of Latin-rock, to a new mainstream popularity.

After dying in 2000, 110th St, for a five block stretch, was renamed Tito Puente Way. When people asked him where he was from, and while he would always identify with his Puerto Rican heritage, he would answer, "I'm from 110th Street."

Pandora has allowed me to enjoy his gift while I clean up and get dinner ready, which is very nice.