Tito Charneco might have been born to tell stories with the tenor saxophone.
The University of North Texas student was born in Brooklyn, that spot that has an ongoing arm-wrestling match with New Orleans over who incubates the world鈥檚 best jazz.
At age 4, he and his Puerto Rican parents moved back to the island. It was there that Charneco started studying the tenor saxophone.
On Sunday, he could win his first Grammy Award for his work on the bandstand at Town Hall in New York. He was among the musicians who gathered to play a jaw-dropping playlist for pianist, composer and bandleader Arturo O鈥橣arrill. That night, O鈥橣arrill and his guest soloists played a concert that became .
The album is nominated in the Best Latin Jazz Album category. O鈥橣arrill is a formidable talent and joins a small club of musicians by earning two nominations in a single category. Original Influencers faces O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 Munduogua: Celebrating Carla Bley for the Grammy.
On Thursday night, Charneco talked from his home in New York City, where he commutes to UNT for his doctorate. He鈥檚 close to submitting his dissertation, which is a portfolio of studies and compositions based on the poetry of Puerto Rican writer and journalist Julia de Burgos.
Charneco was already a working musician, composing for bands in Puerto Rico by age 17. He didn鈥檛 have to get an education. But he was playing in a big band on a cruise ship when a friend in the band shared a sort of dark prediction.
鈥淗e said to me one night, 鈥業鈥檓 going to UNT because this is a dead-end job, and I want to encourage you that you too should go to school if you want,鈥欌�� Charneco said.
Months later, Charneco said his friend was on the Denton campus and made good on his promise to send him information.
Loyal to the sax
Before he came to Denton, where he also earned his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees, Charneco began his music studies in Puerto Rico. He said his mother told him his father had played the saxophone.
鈥淚 made up my mind right then that I was going to play the saxophone, because I wanted to be like my dad,鈥� he said.
Eventually, the tenor saxophone claimed his loyalty.
鈥淚 hear everything in the key of B-flat, which is the key of the tenor saxophone,鈥� Charneco said. 鈥淪o I think that it was it was a real natural pairing. And then when I got to UNT for my undergrad, I made the decision that I was going to sell my alto, and I was just going to focus exclusively on tenor.鈥�
He said some friends at UNT told him he was crazy to sell his alto sax. Without it, the number of gigs he could play would shorten.
鈥淚 just wanted to be a tenor saxophone player,鈥� he said.
His music studies started with singing. When he was about 12 years old, he started band classes.
鈥淚 told the teacher that I wanted to play saxophone, and he said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e out of saxophones. Here鈥檚 the trombone.鈥� And I said, 鈥業 do not want the trombone. I鈥檓 here to play the saxophone.鈥� I must have been stubborn enough that he eventually found me a saxophone.鈥�
As he came of age in Puerto Rico, Charneco said he played in bands and started writing and transcribing popular music for bands. He still recalls his frustration when he started composing, when a mentor reviewed his work, offered feedback and so many orders to 鈥済o back and do it again.鈥� The mentor told him to create charts and compose so that musicians could take his paper and turn it into sound.
Finding mentors at UNT
鈥淚 asked him, 鈥榃hat should I be doing?鈥� And he finally told me, 鈥楯ust keep writing. Keep writing, and everything will start to fall in place,鈥欌�� Charneco said. 鈥淎nd you know what? Everything did finally start to fall in place.鈥欌��
When he decided to go to school, he considered and applied to other schools: the New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Miami, the University of Toronto and New York University. There was a moment when he thought he鈥檇 earn a degree in chemistry. But music called.
He ended up at UNT because it was the most affordable, but he soon found the historic jazz studies program a trove of talent and potential. Charneco credits his growth as an artist to the mentors he met and studied with at UNT: saxophonist , professor and percussionist , jazz history scholar and ethnomusicologist .
Charneco found that the UNT College of Music demands that musicians deepen their art while growing as technicians. But, he said, the university also challenges musicians to become more formal scholars. Most musicians curate expertise around their musical heroes and influences. UNT, however, urges musicians to research repertoire, composers, artists, and the events and eras that forged them.
His work with Leali has been especially productive; Leali challenged him to write a composition a week as he delved into his dissertation.
As for his Grammy-nominated work, Charneco has been playing in Arturo O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 band for years.
鈥淚 was familiar with the work by his father,鈥� Charneco said, referring to the work by Chico O鈥橣arrill in Original Influencers. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a legend in Latin jazz circles. And so then I became acquainted with the work of Arturo.鈥�
Charneco is a freelance musician in New York City and has friends who play in Arturo O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 band.
鈥淥ne of those friends needed somebody to sub for him, and so I did,鈥� Charneco said. 鈥淪o I began to learn the music, and I think I did the gig for about six months.鈥�
He didn鈥檛 meet O鈥橣arrill for a time because the composer was teaching clear across the country, at the University of California, Los Angeles.
鈥淚 remember the first day, the first gig where Arturo was playing. And the club was packed,鈥� Charneco said. 鈥淚 was the person closest to him. I saw him walk down the aisle and the manager looked at me and smiled. Like, 鈥楾he boss is in tonight.鈥欌��
An American tapestry of jazz
Charneco knew the album was special. The concert was recorded in 2024, and was released in 2025. For Charneco, Original Influencers tells the story of how these American visionaries 鈥� Dizzy Gillespie, Chico O鈥橣arrill and Chano Pozo 鈥� embedded their cultures and stories into a uniquely American artform.
The record sort of unfurls an American tapestry of jazz. The album has such scale, shimmying to the styles Gillespie creates, pulsing a luscious pair of hips to Pozo鈥檚 flamenco-tinged palette and spinning in O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 block party.
For Charneco, Original Influencers connects the cultural constellation of American jazz through the vessels and marrow of these writers. He considers himself a beneficiary of Arturo O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 passions and mastery.
鈥淚 know that the terms like these get overused often,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut just being visionaries, they look at: how can we get these rhythms that seem so distant to work together? And to be able to connect with the people while maintaining the aspects that are pure to jazz? If I could say in the trumpet playing of the bebop of Dizzy Gillespie, and then the rhythms that are pure Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Cuban music, and then they have the vision to write something that has never been written before stylistically, you know, genre-wise.鈥�
Work fit for a Grammy nod
Charneco admires Chico O鈥橣arrell鈥檚 decision to honor his Puerto Rican heritage when he wrote his breakthrough piece for record producer Norman Granz, a juggernaut of the 1940s and 鈥�50s.
Original Influencers captures that rare concert event. You can hear the breathless anticipation in the crowd inside New York鈥檚 storied Town Hall. After a particularly gritty conversation between trumpet virtuoso Jon Faddis and saxophonist Donald Harrison on O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 steamy tune 鈥� 鈥淥n the Corner of Malec贸n and Bourbon鈥� 鈥� the audience whoops and shouts. And when drummer Jacquelene Acevedo speed-dances after them on a drum solo? Spontaneous applause breaks out, and a man rips loose with a ferocious 鈥淵eah!鈥�
The tune is a testament to O鈥橣arrill鈥檚 near-biological awareness of the environment that birthed jazz.
After Faddis, Harrison and Acevedo do a cha-cha-cha, the tune tapers and then bursts into the celebratory brash and flash that only a spasm band could produce on a weekend in the Big Easy. When the song pauses, a murmur washes through Town Hall before exploding into a street party in Malec贸n, an oceanfront district in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. You can almost hear the musicians grinning at the audience, teasing yelps and whistles from them.
Charneco has recorded and played with Grammy nominees before. This is his first project to win a nomination.
鈥淚 know that some artists might not consider the Grammy to be of note,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of people who feel a certain way about them, especially if someone didn鈥檛 get nominated. And that happens. ... For me, I think it has meaning. Anyone who says otherwise, they are probably saying that with some salt.鈥�
The 68th Grammy Awards air at 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS. The televised ceremony highlights pop, rock and rap categories, with other categories, such as jazz, being announced during the portion that isn鈥檛 televised.