Tito Puente, music and words · A cha-cha-chá first released on the Tico LP El Rey Bravo
Oye Como Va
Tito Puente wrote this cha-cha-chá, a dance rhythm, and recorded it with his orchestra in 1962. Two and a repeating pattern drive it, easy to start and hard to get right. Santana's 1970 version made it famous, and jazz players, conga masters and singers have recorded it since.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Puente's 1962 cha-cha-chá and Santana's 1970 rock version. It then follows the tune through a jazz vibraphone band, two live Puente groups, a piano trio, three conga players and a singer-pianist in 2006.
1980sTito Puente and His Latin Ensemble1984 · Latin jazz
1990sTito Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars1992 · Latin jazz
Michel Camilo1997 · Latin jazz
2000sThe Conga Kings2001 · Latin jazz
Eliane Elias2006 · Bossa nova
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Hear the original cha-cha-chá
Tito Puente and His Orchestra · 1962
“Oye Cómo Va”, El Rey Bravo
Tito Puente's orchestra recorded it at the Hotel Riverside Plaza Ballroom in Manhattan, and Tico issued it on the 1962 LP El Rey Bravo. It is a cha-cha-chá, and its piano pattern and flute lead echo Cachao's mambo Chanchullo, which Puente had recorded in 1959.
latin · Cha-cha-chá with a sung refrain
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Listen for
A and the lead singers Santos Colón and Rudy Calzado sing the short refrain that gives the song its name, over a steady piano pattern and a flute. Listen for the false ending, where the band seems to finish and then plays on.
Try it on your instrument
Play for a , then for a bar, and repeat, with short block in both hands. If block chords are too much, play only the roots, A then D, one per bar, in a steady count of four.
Santana recorded it at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco for the album Abraxas, which Columbia released in September 1970. Issued as a single in 1971, it reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Electric guitar and organ
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Listen for
An electric guitar takes over the lead line from Puente's record, and a Hammond organ sets up the groove from the first seconds. The brass section is gone, replaced by a rock drum kit and percussion.
Try it on your instrument
Play and , a each, with the same short, punchy hits on every . For a harder version, count eight eighth notes to a bar over two bars and hit the chord at the start of each group of 2, 3, 2, 4, 2 and 3, the pattern Ethan Hein hears in the organ part.
Bobby Hutcherson recorded it for Blue Note at the Record Plant in Los Angeles in August 1975. It is the last track on his album Montara.
Vibraphone in front
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Listen for
Bobby Hutcherson's vibraphone leads in front of two trumpets, a tenor saxophone and four percussionists, with an electric piano and an electric bass underneath.
Try it on your instrument
Play and , a each, as short , and let each one ring for its whole bar, the way a vibraphone note rings. Then play only the roots, A and D, to hear how little changes.
Tito Puente and His Latin Ensemble · 1984 · Latin jazz
“Oye Cómo Va (Live)”, El Rey
Puente opens his Concord Picante album El Rey with a new version of his hit, recorded live in May 1984 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. A nine-piece band plays it, with Mario Rivera on flute and saxophones and Jorge Dalto on piano.
Live Latin jazz band
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Listen for
Puente plays timbales with a nine-piece band that has one trumpet, one valve trombone and Mario Rivera on flute and saxophones. At about six minutes, this version runs far longer than the 1962 original, which lasts about four and a half.
Try it on your instrument
Hold for four , then for four bars, and repeat. To improvise over them, try the notes of A Dorian: A, B, C, D, E, F♯, G. If improvising is too much, play only A, C and E over Am7 and D, F♯ and A over D7.
Tito Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars · 1992 · Latin jazz
“Oye Como Va (Live At The Village Gate/1992)”, Live at the Village Gate
Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars played it live at the Village Gate in New York on April 27, 1992, part of the Salsa Meets Jazz series. The nine players include Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi, Dave Valentin, Hilton Ruiz and Mongo Santamaría.
Live Latin jazz band
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Listen for
A trumpet, an alto saxophone, a flute and a piano share the , with Puente on timbales and two conga players behind them. The track runs more than six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Outline each with its notes: A, C, E and G for , then D, F♯, A and C for . If that is too much, play just the first three notes of each.
Michel Camilo plays it as a piano trio on Thru My Eyes, released in 1997. The album also covers A Night in Tunisia, Manteca, Mambo Inn and Afro-Blue.
Piano trio
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Listen for
Only piano, bass and drums play, and the track lasts 3:40, the shortest on this path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the two at the piano, with the left hand on the roots A and D and the right hand on the chords. If both hands are too much, play only the roots in the left hand.
The Conga Kings, Candido Camero, Carlos "Patato" Valdes and Giovanni Hidalgo, recorded it in March 2001 at St. Peter's Church in Manhattan for Chesky Records. Phil Woods, Mario Rivera, Chocolate Armenteros and Jimmy Bosch joined them on the album Jazz Descargas.
Three conga players
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Listen for
No keyboard player is in the band. Conga players, a bass, guitars and horns keep the groove going, and the band chants behind the trumpet solos by Chocolate Armenteros.
Try it on your instrument
Tap the repeating pattern from step 2 on a table, in groups of 2, 3, 2, 4, 2 and 3 eighth notes. Then add and on an instrument. If you only play the melody, hum it while you tap.
Eliane Elias sings and plays piano on it for Around the City, released by Bluebird in August 2006. Randy Brecker plays trumpet and Dave Valentin plays flute.
Singer-pianist with flute and trumpet
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Listen for
Eliane Elias sings and plays piano, with Dave Valentin's flute, the instrument that led Puente's original, and Randy Brecker's trumpet in the band.
Try it on your instrument
Hum or sing the tune over and . Play the two in whatever suits your voice, keeping the same shape.
Tito Puente's orchestra records the cha-cha-chá, and Tico issues it on El Rey Bravo in 1962. According to Wikipedia, its piano pattern echoes Cachao's 1957 mambo Chanchullo, which Puente recorded in 1959.
1970s
Santana puts the tune on Abraxas with electric guitar and organ in place of Puente's brass, and the 1971 single reaches number 13 on the US Hot 100. Bobby Hutcherson's Los Angeles band plays it with vibraphone and percussion in 1975.
1980s
Puente plays it with a nine-piece Latin jazz band, live at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in May 1984. It opens his Concord Picante album El Rey.
1990s
Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars play it live at the Village Gate in 1992. Michel Camilo takes it as a piano trio in 1997, and Puente ends his 1999 live album Mambo Birdland with it.
2000s
The Conga Kings record it at St. Peter's Church in Manhattan in March 2001, with Chocolate Armenteros on trumpet. Eliane Elias sings and plays piano on it in 2006, with Randy Brecker and Dave Valentin.
2010s
Kora Jazz Band plays it on its 2011 album with guests Manu Dibango, Andy Narell and Omar Márquez.
More great versions
3 more, from 1999 to 2006. Tap a cover to play it here.
1990sTito Puente1999
2000sEd Calle2004
Mike Stern2006
Tito Puente
1999
“Oye Como Va (Live)”, Mambo Birdland
Puente's live album Mambo Birdland, recorded at Birdland in New York and released by RMM in 1999, ends with this tune.
The tune's layout, its keys, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
A minorusual key
2 barsA form
A minorkey centers
A2 bars
A m
The sources describe no sections or length, only a cycle: two , and , alternate under a block-chord piano pattern that repeats throughout the song (Wikipedia). Ethan Hein places the whole tune in A Dorian, which is with F♯ in place of F, and counts the main Santana groove as 2, 3, 2, 4, 2 and 3 eighth notes, 16 in all, which is two of four beats. Santana plays the second chord as . The strip shows one turn of the cycle. How many bars each chord lasts is not stated in the sources checked, so the strip does not claim it.