JAZZ REVIEW : Puente, Niece Turn OCC Appearance Into Family Affair

It was well into his first set Saturday--and just after his best known number, “Oye Como Va”--that Tito Puente announced to the sellout crowd: “I’m finally getting to you.”

Before that, his nine-piece ensemble had struggled with sound problems, namely a nearly invisible piano and muddy, reverberating bass tones that at times drowned out the rest of the band.

Luckily, the problems at the Robert B. Moore Theatre on the Orange Coast College campus were mostly resolved during the intermission and the band responded with sparkling, percussive-rich Latin arrangements of standards as well as salsa and mambo-paced instrumentals.

An added highlight was Puente’s niece, Millie Puente, who put her warm, spirited voice to a number of tunes (including “What a Difference a Day Makes,” the Dinah Washington standby that has been given new life thanks to its use in men’s clothing commercials) and also took turns at the timbales, often in tandem with her uncle.

Her best moments came during the ballad “Involvidable,” when her voice took on rich, almost smokey characteristics as she delivered the Spanish lyric with a modicum of intimacy. Though Puente, 68, constantly was feigning exhaustion in his attempts to keep up with her during their timbales exchanges, she actually added little in the way of percussion beyond repeating her uncle’s phrases, and he vastly outshone her during a solo spot.

But Tito was most impressive at the vibraphone. During “Autumn Leaves,” he filled the hall with ringing chords and racy, well-spaced lines. After his lush, solo introduction, the bandleader used the familiar melody only as a touchstone, preferring to work the chord changes in a series of sweet, melancholy lines.

Trumpeter-fluegelhornist Piro Rodriguez brightened the show with strong work throughout. His emotional trumpet improvisation on “Involvidable” complemented Millie’s up-close ways, and from his fluegelhorn, he added flurries of burnished tones. Pianist Sonny Bravo took advantage of his long-awaited visibility in the second set to show off a splashy, chordal style that he filled with jazz-tune references, while all the while keeping a left-hand pulse. Longtime band member Mario Rivera added strong, Coltrane-inspired tenor into the mix, as well as pointed (but sometimes long-winded) flute statements.

However, well into the second set, the sound problems returned and the horn section started to shift about nervously while sending glances back to the mixing board. Bassist/veteran band member Bobby Rodriguez could only shrug while trying to keep his sound from blanketing the rest of the band. At the close, the crowd clamored for more, but the band would not come back (Millie and Puente came out to announce they had to catch a “plane to Long Beach”). With that kind of sound mix, one couldn’t blame them.