The Palladium Ballroom once stood at the corner of 53rd Street and Broadway in New York City. It opened on today’s date in 1946, and in its heyday, was the mambo capital of the world, showcasing performances by Latin superstars like Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, and Machito.

The Palladium closed in 1966, but its dance floor and bandstand were recreated for the 1992 film The Mambo Kings, in which Tito Puente plays himself.

The spirit of the Palladium was also evoked in a more recent chamber work by the Puerto Rican composer Dan Román. Fascinated by both the music of contemporary minimalist composers and the popular dance forms of Puerto Rico, Román combines the two in his four-movement work entitled “Musica de Palladium” for violin, viola, cello, and piano.

The work’s final movement, is entitled “Sensacional,” and is, according to Román, “a collage of aural images taken from mambos and other dance music of Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodríguez.”

“Musica de Palladium” was written for The New World Trio, and recorded by them, joined by violist Steve Larson.