Mario Bauzá (April 28, 1911 – July 11, 1993) was a jazz, Latin, and Afro-Cuban jazz musician. He was one of the first to introduce Cuban music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles to the New York City jazz scene. While Cuban bands had had popular jazz tunes in their repertoire for years, Bauzá’s composition “Tangá” was the first piece to blend jazz harmony and arranging technique, with jazz soloists and Afro-Cuban rhythms. It is considered the first true Afro-Cuban jazz or Latin jazz tune.

As a child he studied clarinet becoming recognized as a child prodigy on the instrument leading to being featured with the budding Havana Symphony at the age of 11. Bauzá then performed on clarinet and bass clarinet with pianist Antonio Maria Romeu’s charanga (flute and violins) orchestra. This proved a fateful event as the orchestra came to New York City to record in 1926. Bauzá’s stayed with his cousin, trumpeter René Endreira, who was a Harlem resident and played with The Santo Domingo Serenaders, a band was made up of Panamanians, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans of color playing jazz. The teenage Bauzá was impressed with Harlem’s African American community and the freedom they had. He also witnessed a performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” and was inspired with saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer’s feature in the piece. Upon his return to Cuba he vowed he would return to New York City to become a jazz musician doing so in 1930 learning to play the alto saxophone while maintaining his clarinet technique. A chance encounter with vocalist Cuban vocalist Antonio Machin, who needed a trumpet player for an upcoming record date he was leading gave Bauzá an unusual opportunity. Machin was the vocalist for the Don Azpiazú Havana Casino Orchestra who had taken New York City by storm with their public performances and recent hit recording of “El Manisero,” The Peanut Vendor. Machin was offered a record date to record four tunes. Machin when he would perform solo would do so with two guitars, a trumpet, and himself on maracas. All the trumpet players that knew how to play in the Cuban style who were part of Azpiazú’s orchestra had left to back to Cuba. Faced with a dilemma Bauzá offered his services to Machin because he knew the finger positions on the horn buying a trumpet and in two weeks developed enough technique to play on the recordings. He would now devote his time to playing the instrument being inspired by Louis Armstrong. By 1933 Bauzá had been hired as lead trumpeter and musical director for drummer Chick Webb‘s Orchestra, and it was during this time with Webb that Bauzá both met fellow trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and allegedly discovered and brought into the band singer Ella Fitzgerald.

In 1938 Bauzá joined Cab Calloway‘s band, later convincing Calloway to hire trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He would leave Calloway’s band in 1940. Bauzá’s musical relationship and friendship with Gillespie would continue yielding game changing results. The fusion of Bauzá’s Cuban musical heritage and Gillespie’s bebop culminated in the development of cubop, one of the first forms of Latin jazz.

In 1939, Bauzá became co-founder and musical director of Machito and his Afro-Cubans with his vocalist brother-in-law, Francisco Raúl Guittierez Grillo (Machito). The band produced its first recordings for Decca in 1941, and in 1942 Bauzá brought in a young timbalero named Tito Puente.