In New York City, Machito formed the Afro-Cubans in 1940, and with Mario Bauzá as musical director, brought together Cuban rhythms and big band arrangements in one group.

George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Cab Calloway and Stan Kenton credited Machito as an influence.

[10] Regardless of his place of birth, Machito was raised from an early age in the Jesús María district of Havana, where his sister Graciela was born August 23, 1915.

[11] After an earlier attempt to launch a band with Mario Bauzá, in 1940 he founded the Afro-Cubans, and conducted their first rehearsal on December 3 at the Park Palace Ballroom[15] located at W. 110th Street in Harlem.

[16][17] A big band-style brass section with trumpets and saxes was backed by a trap drum, piano, bass and a Cuban bongo.

Machito was the front man and maraca player of the Afro Cubans, while Bauza determined the character of the band as musical director.

[24] As a result, Machito's music greatly inspired such United States jazz musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Stan Kenton.

Earlier, anticipating a long absence of the band's leader, Bauza had sent for Machito's younger foster sister Graciela, who traveled to New York from Havana where she had been touring with El Trio Garcia, and singing lead with the all-female Orquesta Anacaona.

[11] Beginning in 1947, teenager Willie Bobo helped move the band's gear to gigs in Upper Manhattan, just so he could watch them play.

Near the end of the evening, if there were no musician's union leaders in sight (he was underage), he borrowed bongos from José Mangual and played with the band.

The next month, the bands of both Kenton and Machito shared the stage at The Town Hall, New York setting off a surging interest in Cubop.

[7] Machito was sought after by record producers, and in his live shows he featured soloists Howard McGhee on trumpet and Brew Moore on tenor sax.

[7] Machito's star was ascendant, and he played Carnegie Hall on February 11, 1949, on a bill including Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Bud Powell and Coleman Hawkins.

[7] Each summer from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s, a period of 22 years, Machito and his band played a ten-week engagement at the Concord Resort Hotel in the Catskills.

Guest musicians include Doc Cheatham and Joe Newman on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, and Eddie Bert on trombone.

That year, the band earned another Grammy nomination for Fireworks—a change of tone signaled by the appearance of Lalo Rodríguez as co-lead singer and composer of three tunes.

[10] A lifelong Roman Catholic, he married Puerto Rican Hilda Torres on January 17, 1940,[10] at which time he changed his nickname from "Macho" to "Machito".

[26] The family lived in Spanish Harlem at 112th Street and Second Avenue, where Machito enjoyed cooking for his children, writing the occasional song such as "Sopa de Pichón" while working in the kitchen.