Album Notes

The Palladium Ballroom on 53rd Street and Broadway was the hearf of Mambo & Latin music and the home of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez.

The Big 3 Palladium Orchestra is the bain-child of Machito's son Mario Grillo. It was decided to approach the Puente & Rodriguez families to represent the music of the Palladium era. Margaret Puente and Tito Rodriguez Jr. were delighted to offer their original charts for use, along with the Machito scores.

Joe Madera began writing augmented charts to enable the bigger group to perform these pieces of Americana Music History and the ball was now in motion. The Big 3 Palladium Orchestra was born.

'the most thrilling music by far came from a sensational, relatively new band, called the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra....The Big 3 already may rank as the most brilliant large Latin jazz ensemble this side of Havana.' - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

'Recorded live at the Blue Note Club, this group just sizzles. The original arrangements swing in a very sophisticated way mixing the old with the new. A great release, every aspect of the music on the album is sheer class with some real, tasty, jazzy solos...' The Beat

'the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra, with it's screaming horn section, frenzied rhythm section, and its high-octane, bone-crunching arrangements is, by far, the most hard-core tribute record I have heard in a long time. A guaranteed dance-club floo5r burner.' DJ Alert/Descarga.com