From the Salsa Museum, we can boast of having a long list of important artists who have supported us since the project started or over the course of all these years. One of them is Roberto Romero Caballero, better known as Tito Allen, who is called ”El Elegante de La Salsa” by his most loyal fans as a result of the book ”Swing Latino” by Angel Mendez.

A little bit of Tito Allen’s biography

Tito Allen was born in the neighborhood of Santurce, municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1946. He began his professional career in music as a 16-year-old teenager, when he was already part of groups in which he played the guitar and even performed on Puerto Rico’s Channel 4.

Although it is true that, initially, he was much more inclined to rock and roll and also used to play the bass, he changed his mind as time went by and decided to become a salsa singer, to the delight of all fans of the genre who gained forever one of their greatest Puerto Rican references. The best thing is that he turned out to have an incredible voice, so it was a very wise decision.

Obviously, Tito had his own inspirations to become what he is. In interviews with Tito, from his point of view, Cheo Feliciano is one of the best salseros of all and he has been listening to him since he was with Joe Cuba Sextet. As for the orchestras, he has also revealed that his favorite is that of Bobby Valentín and the song with which he identifies the most is ”Contento”. Another artist for whom he also expressed his admiration and desire to collaborate is the legendary pianist Eddie Palmieri.

Tito Allen’s career

This talented man’s career is so wide that it is impossible to list everything he has done since he started in music, but it is possible to highlight that he has always tried to collaborate with as many groups and artists as possible and the list of recordings he has with other great names proves it. Tito Allen has sung along with Cheo Feliciano, Ray Barreto, La Típica 73, Adalberto Santiago, Papo Lucca, Willie Rosario, Fania All Stars, Pupi Legarreta, among many others.

It should also be noted that the singer traveled to New York in 1972 in order to attend Tito Puente’s shows and try to sing with him, but unfortunately he had no vacancies at that time. In view of this refusal, he decided to meet with pianist Edite Martínez, which resulted in a quintet that used to play in nightclubs.

He went back to Puerto Rico, but traveled again to New York very soon after, since he got a chance to play at ”El Corzo” with Ray Barretto’s orchestra, which was in need of a singer after the departure of Adalberto Santiago. After that, he finally managed to sing with Tito Puente for a few months and then went on to join La Típica 73 and La Puerto Rico All Stars.

All this without counting the large number of productions and recordings in which Tito sang and delivered backing vocals with many other big names in the industry.

Supporting the Salsa Museum 

Recently, Tito visited us at the Salsa Museum to give us his support and promote the institution as so many of his colleagues have done. In our social networks, you can see two pictures of the artist with our president Johnny Cruz, Viti Ruiz, Jorge Leureyro, Christopher Rey and Ray Sepulveda. 

Read also: Puerto Rican singer Max Rosado and what he had achieved in Washington DC