Cuban Fire! is an album by Stan Kenton and his orchestra released in 1956 by Capitol Records. This was Stan Kenton's big band's first full-length recording of Afro-Cuban-styled music. The LP charted for four weeks in Billboard starting on September 15, 1956, peaking at #17. The concept of the original 1956 recording centers on the Cuban Fire! suite Kenton had commissioned from composer Johnny Richards. The 1991 CD re-issue is augmented with one extra track from the 1956 sessions and five cuts recorded four years later by the first of Kenton's mellophonium orchestras. Background and composition Though Stan Kenton had recorded earlier hits such as The Peanut Vendor in 1947 with Latin percussionist Machito, as well as many other Latin flavored singles, the Cuban Fire! suite and LP stands as a watershed set of compositions for Johnny Richards' career and an outstanding commercial/artistic achievement for the Kenton orchestra, and a singular landmark in large ensemble Latin jazz recordings. "The reason we (i.e Kenton) made CUBAN FIRE! is interesting. We had recorded a lot of Afro-Cuban music, and a lot of the Latin guys around New York complained: 'It's wrong, you're not writing the music correctly.'" Stan Kenton then asked composer Johnny Richards (long time staff arranger for Kenton) to write an authentic Latin “suite” that would abide by all the rules many Afro-Cuban musicians had complained about. Of all the writers in the Kenton stable of names, Richards was the best suited for the task of creating such music for the Kenton orchestra. Richards was bilingual (Spanish/English) and was born in Toluca, Mexico as Juan Manuel Cascales; his parents were Spanish immigrants to Mexico. Richards was to hang around with the Cuban-Hispanic musicians of New York for months before starting the suite. This was a much more personal endeavor for Richards than it was for any of the possible Kenton writers. “CUBAN FIRE is completely authentic, the way it combines big-band jazz with genuine Latin-American rhythms.”" The recording is a musical triumph for both Kenton and Richards; it comes at a time when big bands and jazz were slowly eclipsed by the pop music of Elvis Presley and emerging rock n' roll. The success of the Cuban Fire! album can be gauged in part by the immediate ascent of Johnny Richards' star after its release; he was suddenly offered a contract by Bethlehem Records to record what would be the