Mario Bauzá, Bobby Woodlen and Grace Sampson, music · Recorded by Machito's Afro-Cuban Orchestra for Columbia between 1951 and 1955
Mambo Inn
Mambo Inn is a mambo tune credited to Mario Bauzá, Bobby Woodlen and Grace Sampson, usually played in F. Bauzá was musical director of Machito's Afro-Cuban orchestra, which recorded it for Columbia between 1951 and 1955. Jazz players from Cal Tjader and George Shearing to Count Basie and Grant Green have recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts in March 1954 with George Shearing's quintet and a Cal Tjader session, then adds Billy Taylor's trio with a conga player, Count Basie's big band, Shearing live in 1958 and Grant Green's guitar sextet in 1962.
Billy Taylor Trio with Candido1954 · Contemporary jazz
Count Basie1956 · Swing
George Shearing Quintet1958 · Cool jazz
1960sGrant Green1962 · Latin jazz
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Start with a short 1954 single
George Shearing Quintet · 1954
George Shearing's quintet recorded it on March 28, 1954, probably at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles, with Cal Tjader on vibraphone, Toots Thielemans on guitar and Armando Peraza on congas. MGM issued it on a 78 rpm single.
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Listen for
A quintet with vibraphone and guitar beside the piano, and a conga player added for this session. The track is only 2:19, so it is easy to replay and compare with the longer versions that follow.
Try it on your instrument
Play the 's first two as a loop: and in bar 1, and in bar 2, two in each bar. Smaller version: play only the roots, G, C, F, D, two to a bar.
Recorded on March 25, 1954, probably in Los Angeles and three days before Shearing's session, and released on the Fantasy EP Cal Tjader Plays Afro-Cuban, Volume 2. According to jazzdiscography.com, Armando Peraza said in an interview that he led the session, although it was issued under Tjader's name.
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Listen for
Listen for the congas and timbales behind the vibraphone and piano. Armando Peraza plays the congas, and Cal Tjader is listed on both vibraphone and timbales.
Try it on your instrument
Play the 's first two : , then , and listen for where the next () lands. Smaller version: play B♭m7 and E♭7 as a two-bar loop.
Recorded September 7, 1954 at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, for Prestige, and released in 1955. Billy Taylor's trio plays it with Candido Camero, the Cuban percussionist, on congas.
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Billy Taylor's piano with bass and drums, and Candido Camero's congas added on top. At 4:51 it is more than twice as long as the Shearing single.
Try it on your instrument
Play the with one to a , then add the second chord in the first four bars: , , Gm7 C7, Fmaj7 D7. Smaller version: play only the first chord of each of those four bars.
Count Basie and His Orchestra · 1956 · Swing, Bebop
April in Paris
Recorded on January 5, 1956 at Fine Sound in New York for Verve, and released on the album April in Paris in 1957. The YouTube credits name Frank Foster as arranger.
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A full orchestra of trumpets, trombones and saxophones, with Count Basie at the piano, Freddie Green on guitar and Sonny Payne on drums. The track runs 3:23.
Try it on your instrument
Play only the first of each of the : , , Gm7, Fmaj7, Gm7, , Gm7, . Then add the second chord in the first four bars: , , C7, D7.
Recorded live at the Crescendo in Los Angeles on March 27, 1958, and released by Capitol in 1960 on On the Sunny Side of the Strip.
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A live club recording by Shearing's later quintet, with Emil Richards on vibraphone and Toots Thielemans on guitar. Compare its 3:28 with the 2:19 studio single from four years earlier.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole 32 once: A, A, , A, with the bridge starting on . Count the bars aloud so you know where the bridge arrives. Smaller version: play only the last four bars of the bridge, , , , then and together.
Recorded April 26, 1962 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for Blue Note. It came out on a 45 single and on the 1963 album The Latin Bit.
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Listen for
Grant Green's guitar in front of piano, bass and drums, with a conga and a chekere (a shaker) adding rhythm. At 5:53 it is the longest track on this path.
Try it on your instrument
Play 21 to 24 of the , then go straight into the : , , , and , then Gm7 and . Smaller version: play only Dm7, G7 and Gm7, one to a bar.
Mario Bauzá, musical director of Machito's Afro-Cuban orchestra, is a credited writer, and the orchestra recorded it for Columbia between 1951 and 1955. In March 1954 George Shearing's quintet and a Cal Tjader session, issued as Cal Tjader Plays Afro-Cuban, each record it.
1960s
Grant Green's sextet, with Willie Bobo on drums and Patato Valdes on conga, records it in April 1962. Blue Note issues it on a 45 single and on the album The Latin Bit.
1980s
Lou Donaldson's quintet records it in January 1981 for Sweet Poppa Lou, and Machito's Salsa Big Band plays a 13-minute live version on Live at North Sea '82. George Benson sings and plays it on Tenderly in 1989.
1990s
The Cuban jazz performer Paquito D'Rivera plays it on Tropicana Nights, which Chesky released in 1999.
More great versions
5 more, from 1951 to 1999. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sMachito and His Afro-Cuban Orchestra1951
1960s
1970s
1980sMachito and His Salsa Big Band1982
Mario Bauzá1986
George Benson1989 · Soul jazz
1990sPaquito D'Rivera1999 · Latin jazz
Machito and His Afro-Cuban Orchestra
1951
Mambo Mucho Mambo: The Complete Columbia Masters
Machito's orchestra recorded it for Columbia between 1951 and 1955, and Mario Bauzá, the orchestra's musical director, is a credited writer of the tune. The exact session date was not found.
The Cuban jazz performer Paquito D'Rivera plays it on Tropicana Nights, released by Chesky in 1999. MusicBrainz credits him on clarinet, soprano saxophone and alto saxophone on this track.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
F majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
F → A♭ → Fkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
F
A♭
F
Thirty-two in four sections of eight, , in F, following iReal Pro's Latin chart. Each puts two in each of its first four bars, and twice over, then plays Gm7 C7 and D7 in bars 5 and 6, Gm7 C7 in bar 7 and in bar 8. The chart gives bar 8 two endings: F6 back into the repeat, and F6 into the . The bridge starts away from home: and lead to , with E♭/G in the same bar, so bars 17 to 19 sit in A♭. Bar 20 is with a bass step down (). , , Gm7 and Am7 D7♭13 then climb back to F for the last A. The sources opened do not say how any of the linked recordings treat these chords.