It is rare, and ever increasingly so, that a musician would spend a lifetime in a band. But percussionist Johnny “Dandy” Rodríguez Jr. who was a teenager when he was allowed to sit in with the Tito Puente Orchestra and be an apprentice for a few months before earning a place in its rhythm section, was also there at the end, playing alongside Puente until his death, after a concert on May 31st, 2000.
“I went from being a kid, coming into the band as a 16 year old to being the man running the band at the end,” said Rodríguez, 70, in a conversation from his home in Las Vegas.