Machito (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, February 16, 1908?–April 19, 1984) was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine AfroCuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music.
He was raised in Havana alongside the singer Graciela, his foster sister.

In New York City, Machito formed the band the AfroCubans in 1940, and with Mario Bauzá as musical director, brought together Cuban rhythms and big band arrangements in one group. He made numerous recordings from the 1940s to the 1980s, many with Graciela as singer. Machito changed to a smaller ensemble format in 1975, touring Europe extensively.

Machito's music had an effect on the lives of many musicians who played in the AfroCubans over the years, and on those who were attracted to Latin jazz after hearing him. George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Stan Kenton credited Machito as an influence. An intersection in East Harlem is named "Machito Square" in his honor.

Career:

"Macho" moved to New York City in 1937 as a vocalist with "La Estrella Habanera" (Havana Star). He worked with several Latin artists and orchestras in the late 1930s, recording with Conjunto Moderno, Cuarteto Caney, Orchestra Siboney, and the bandleader Xavier Cugat. After an earlier attempt to launch a band with Mario Bauza, in 1940 he founded the AfroCubans, their first gig on December 3 at the Park Plaza Hotel. "Macho" was at this time going by "Machito" out of respect for his new bride. A big bandstyle brass section with trumpets and saxes was backed by a Cuban rhythm section. Machito took on Bauza the following year as musical director; a role he kept for 34 years. Bauza also played trumpet and alto saxophone.

Machito's bands of the 1940s, especially the band named the AfroCubans, were among the first to fuse AfroCuban rhythms with jazz improvisation and big band arrangements. Machito was the front man, conductor, and maraca player of the AfroCubans and its successors while Bauza determined the character of the band. Bauza, Machito's brotherinlaw from his marriage to Machito's sister Estela, hired jazzoriented arrangers and musicians. As a result, Machito's music greatly inspired such North American jazz giants as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Stan Kenton. One of the most famous performances of the Kenton band is an idiomatic AfroCuban number known as "Machito", composed by Stan Kenton with Pete Rugolo and released as a Capitol 78 in 1947.

Machito and Graciela in 1947:

In April 1943 during World War II, Machito was drafted into the United States Army. After a few months of training, he suffered a leg injury and was discharged in October. Earlier, anticipating a long absence of the band's leader, Bauza had sent for Machito's younger foster sister Graciela, who traveled to New York from Havana where she had been touring with El Trio Garcia, and singing lead with the allfemale Orquesta Anacaona. Graciela served as the lead singer of the AfroCubans for a year before Machito returned to front the band. Graciela stayed on—at performances, the two singers alternated solo songs and created duets such as "Si Si No No" and "La Paella". Adding to the percussion, Graciela played claves alongside Machito's maracas.

Beginning in 1947, teenager Willie Bobo helped move the band's gear to gigs in Upper Manhattan, just so he could watch them play. Near the end of the evening, if there were no musician's union leaders in sight (he was underage), he borrowed bongos from José Mangual and played with the band. Later, Machito helped him get positions in other Latin bands. Many years later, George Shearing pointed to Machito and Willie Bobo as two musicians who helped him learn "what Latin music was about".

Each summer from the mid1940s to the late 1960s, a period of 22 years, Machito and his band played a tenweek engagement at the Concord Resort Hotel in the Catskills. Machito's album Vacation at the Concord was issued in 1958 as a representative experience of an evening's performance, but it was not recorded at the resort. Fiveyearold Mario Grillo learned to play the timbales during the 1961 summer series, with lessons from Uba Nieto, then returned to New York with his father's band and played his first gig, taking a single timbales solo at the Palladium Ballroom while standing on a chair next to Tito Puente.

In 1975, Machito's son Mario Grillo, known as "Machito Jr", joined the band for its recording with Dizzy Gillespie, AfroCuban Jazz Moods; the album, featuring arrangements by Chico O'Farrill, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Later in 1975, Machito determined that he would accept an invitation to tour Europe with a smaller eightpiece ensemble. Bauza quit; he had grave doubts that such an enterprise would work musically. Graciela left as well.

In 1983, Machito won a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Recording category for Machito & His Salsa Big Band '82.