Sixty years in the past, a musician and composer named Johnny Pacheco joined forces with divorce lawyer Jerry Masucci and based Fania Information. What started as a fledgling mission to seize the sounds of New York Metropolis and much past turned one of the vital influential labels in Latin music historical past.
By the late Nineteen Sixties, Fania had develop into the Latin equal of Motown — an industrious manufacturing facility of legends and hits, the epicenter of tropical music worldwide, and a label whose very identify would develop into synonymous with the fervour and pleasure that Latin American music is understood for. The next decade would see definitive releases from an all-star roster, additional cementing Fania’s legacy.
GRAMMY.com celebrates six a long time of Fania lore with a information to the label’s important artists and albums. As you learn, ensure to benefit from the Spotify playlist beneath, or hear on Apple Music and Amazon Music.
A Transient Historical past Of Fania Information
Born within the Dominican Republic, Pacheco had moved to New York along with his household at age 11 — however he by no means forgot the bubbly Cuban dance hits that he grew up listening to.
Masucci and Pacheco arrange Fania in 1964 to launch the latter’s Cañonazo, a country LP that includes a standard conjunto of piano and trumpets, rhythm part, and the soulful vocals of Puerto Rican singer Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez. It included a rollicking cowl of “Fanía” — a Cuban hit by Reinaldo Bolaños that gave the label its identify. Its catalog quantity was LP325, commemorating Pacheco’s March 25 birthday. He was 29.
Fania’s beginnings have been humble, however Pacheco and Masucci noticed promise within the new technology of New York musicians of Cuban and Puerto Rican origin who, like Pacheco himself, have been keen so as to add a contemporary spin to the mambo and cha-cha-chá sounds of the ‘50s. They offered information out of the trunk of their vehicles, recorded a gradual provide of latest Pacheco albums, and signed promising younger artists akin to keyboardist Larry Harlow, bassist and trumpeter Bobby Valentín, and trombonist Willie Colón — unaware, maybe, that their catalog included the long run icons of the burgeoning salsa motion.
By 1967, the Fania sound had develop into edgy and explosive, assimilating the milestones of the Beatles and Motown. Their artists blended Afro-Caribbean codecs of the previous with a frantic mosaic of funk and psychedelia, rock and Brazilian, fusion and R&B. Pacheco’s unbridled creativity fueled a frantic schedule of continuous recordings and live performance performances.
A way of bonhomie nurtured the Fania roster, inspiring a relentless wave of collaborations. In 1968, the label created its personal mega-orchestra, the Fania All-Stars, a band the place each single performer was a star.
All through the ‘70s, Fania assimilated most competing labels below its banner: Alegre, Tico, Inca, Cotique, and others. Remarkably, this inventive and monetary monopoly didn’t hinder the corporate’s creativity, which blossomed all through the last decade and into the ‘80s. By then, the Fania All-Stars had carried out in Africa, and the label’s luminaries included Celia Cruz and Ray Barretto, Roberto Roena and Eddie Palmieri, La Sonora Ponceña and Héctor Lavoe.
Study extra: 1972 Was The Most Badass 12 months In Latin Music: 11 Important Albums From Willie Colón, Celia Cruz, Juan Gabriel & Others
Maybe as a result of it was a melting pot of cultures and sounds, the ‘70s salsa explosion spearheaded by Fania turned a world phenomenon, influencing tropical bands in South America, and ultimately spreading into Europe, Africa, and Asia. Inevitably, Fania skilled a delicate and stylish decay starting within the mid-‘80s when the brand new wave of salsa romántica led the music into pop territory — taking the sting away, pasteurizing the grooves.
Fania stopped producing new music round 1998. Immediately, it’s owned by the Harmony conglomerate, which mines its previous splendor by reissuing an assortment of gems on vinyl. The label’s sixtieth anniversary has included varied concert events and listening occasions in New York, Miami, London and Los Angeles. The label’s legacy stays indelible; its output a cornerstone of Latin music historical past.
Definitive Fania Artists
Johnny Pacheco: Not like most salsa musicians of his technology, Pacheco was a traditionalist and eternally obsessive about the sleek dance tunes from the golden period of Cuban music within the ’50s. He was accountable for the motion identified amongst connoisseurs as la matancerización de la salsa, which introduced the ‘70s salsa sound nearer to La Sonora Matancera, the Cuban supergroup that made Celia Cruz a star. Pacheco was extremely proud to have collaborated with Cruz on a sequence of stellar albums that reignited her profession and established her because the salsa queen of the ‘70s.
A sympathetic chief, Pacheco additionally recorded with many different nice singers, from his lifelong compadre Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez and Cuban crooner Rolando Laserie, to former Matancera star Daniel Santos, Cuban flutist Fajardo, and plenty of others. He died in 2021 at age 85.
Learn extra: How Johnny Pacheco Preached The Gospel Of Salsa To The World
Celia Cruz: It could sound surreal from right this moment’s perspective (the place la reina’s face is on the U.S. quarter), however Celia Cruz’s profession skilled a critical stoop through the ‘60s, after she left Cuba and made a number of albums with Tito Puente that didn’t take off commercially. It was keyboardist Larry Harlow who received the ball rolling when he invited Celia to sing the observe “Gracia Divina” on his salsa opera Hommy in 1971.
After the long-lasting 1974 Celia & Johnny LP with Pacheco turned a business blockbuster on the energy of anthems like “Químbara” and a canopy of Afro-Peruvian commonplace “Toro Mata,” Cruz turned Fania’s main diva. Blessed with impeccable timing, taste y azúcar, she recorded a sequence of superlative albums with Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, and the Fania All-Stars.
Fania All-Stars: There was no different band within the historical past of Latin music just like the Fania All-Stars. Each single member — from instrumentalists like conguero Ray Barretto, bongosero Roberto Roena and bassist Bobby Valentín to singers akin to Cheo Feliciano, Héctor Lavoe and Rubén Blades — loved parallel profitable careers as bandleaders and solo artists. After they got here collectively to file albums and carry out dwell, the spirit of playfulness and solidarity reminded them of an prolonged household.
The band was extremely prolific and well-received, though a few of its studio efforts flirted with disco music and tended to lapse into extreme soloing. By the point of its demise, its discography included 15 studio and a dozen dwell albums In 1974, all the orchestra traveled to Africa for a efficiency in Zaire that was filmed for a not-to-be-missed documentary, Fania All Stars: Dwell In Africa.
Eddie Palmieri: Born in New York to Puerto Rican mother and father, keyboard alchemist Eddie Palmieri grew up impressed by the piano chops of his older brother Charlie — a virtuoso bandleader himself. A stressed artistic soul, Eddie experimented wildly with dissonance and electronics, jazz fusion and funky Afro-Cuban patterns. Identified for his free-form improvisations in live performance, he stretched the tropical canon to its most excessive avant-garde limits, however salseros cherished him as a result of getting folks on the dancefloor was his utmost precedence.
He recorded a protracted sequence of seminal LPs for the Tico imprint, which was acquired by Fania in 1974. By 1981 and the long-lasting, self-titled session identified broadly as “The White Album,” Palmieri reveled in progressive salsa, with lush orchestrations and Cheo Feliciano belting out the salsified tango “El Día Que Me Quieras.”
Learn extra: Eddie Palmieri On Pioneering Latin Jazz & His Blue Word Residency: “We’re Speaking About The Biggest Jazz Room In The World”
Ray Barretto: Nuyorican bandleader Barretto was a delicate big; a rock-solid conga participant who averted solos and cherished jazz and the Afro-Caribbean custom in equal measure. In 1962, his early boogaloo observe “El Watusi” turned an enormous hit, and 1968’s Acid was a psychedelic Latin soul basic, however Barretto’s greatest energy was the rugged barrio salsa of 1971’s The Message, with the good Adalberto Santiago on vocals.
The ‘70s was a decade of supernatural creation, and Barretto constantly up to date and reinvented the sound of his band. His releases from the period range from the subtle preparations of Indestructible — he enlisted a brand new lineup after most of his musicians jumped ship to discovered competing orchestra Típica 73 — to the experimental jazz-rock of The Different Highway and the complete bloom of Barretto, with a younger Rubén Blades as visitor sonero. He returned to Latin jazz on the tail finish of his profession, however his salsa albums have an intense, timeless high quality to them. The conga grasp died in 2006, on the age of 76.
Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe: When Fania launched El Malo in 1967, trombonist and songwriter Willie Colón and his musical accomplice, Puerto Rican vocalist Héctor Lavoe, have been perceived with mistrust by some members of the outdated guard. It didn’t assist that they portrayed themselves as streetwise gangsters on their hilarious album covers. Willie and Héctor introduced salsa nearer to rock’n’roll with a larger-than-life mystique and an edgy sound that brimmed with electrical vitality on early ‘70s hits like “Che Che Colé,” “Calle Luna, Calle Sol” and the Panamanian bounce of “La Murga.”
Extremely, their prolific output through the first half of the last decade was solely the start. Lavoe launched a meteoric solo profession in 1975, with Colón initially staying on as a producer. Colón branched out into Brazilian grooves, symphonic textures and all types of formidable fusions throughout a solo profession that continues to at the present time. Overcome by his drug issues, Lavoe — referred to as el cantante de los cantantes; the singer of all singers — died in 1993. He was solely 46.
Rubén Blades: A younger, sociopolitically minded tropical troubadour, Rubén Blades had launched his salsa debut in 1970 earlier than returning to his native Panama with a purpose to end his diploma in regulation. In 1974, he moved to New York and received a job on the Fania mailroom. Quickly, he received most of the label’s stars taken with his compositions, whereas additionally moonlighting because the singer with Ray Barretto.
Sponsored by Willie Colón, Blades launched the luminous Metiendo Mano! in 1977 — the heat and sincerity of his voice framed exquisitely by Colón’s trademark wall of trombones. Their subsequent effort, 1978’s Siembra, mixed salsa hymns as candy as a ripe guava with existential lyrics that decried materialism and celebrated the way forward for Latin America as a land of unity and freedom. An outspoken communicator, Blades drained rapidly of Fania’s then questionable accounting practices, and the connection soured past restore. He continues making formidable albums to at the present time — however his Fania output signaled a pinnacle of vitality and inspiration.
Cheo Feliciano: Born in Puerto Rico, Feliciano turned an early salsa star as a vocalist with the Joe Cuba Sextet in New York — a band that changed the tropical combo’s customary brass part with the silky sound of vibes. Feliciano’s richly expressive, soulful baritone shone on early hits just like the self-penned “El Ratón” — delighting audiences with its interpret-as-you-wish lyrical metaphors.
Sudden success led Feliciano right into a heroin habit that he determined to flee by going chilly turkey and retreating to a Puerto Rico clinic. He emerged sober, and engineered one of the vital epic comebacks within the historical past of Latin music with the basic 1971 LP Cheo — boosted by the stellar compositions by the island’s resident genius Tite Curet Alonso. All through the ‘70s, Feliciano alternated between tightly woven dance gems and a weak point for embellishing sentimental baladas with delicate Afro-Caribbean preparations. Feliciano died in a automotive accident in 2014. He was 78.
Fania’s Style Releases
The music that we all know as salsa relies on Cuban dance codecs such because the son montuno, the guaguancó variant of conventional rumba, the mambo and cha-cha-chá — with the addition of Puerto Rican folks types like bomba, danza and plena. However salsa acts additionally as an umbrella time period that may incorporate different tropical genres.
Salsa: Within the Seventies, Fania albums settled on a trusted format that included principally salsa cuts, including a few luxurious boleros to the combo with a purpose to create a welcome feeling of pressure and launch. It additionally turned customary to refresh the repertoire with occasional forays into international types — a Dominican merengue, a Brazilian bossa nova, even Colombian cumbias.
Boogaloo: Throughout the late ‘60s, when the Beatles and psychedelia forged a transformative shadow on world pop, the Latin soul and boogaloo offshoots turned insanely widespread with their bilingual lyrics and zesty fusion of tropical beats and R&B. Most salseros succumbed to the pattern (even Puerto Rico’s venerable El Gran Combo launched quite a lot of wonderful boogaloo information) of their try to compete with the motion’s godfathers: the Joe Cuba Sextet, Johnny Colón, and Afro-Filipino bandleader Joe Bataan. Apparently, Eddie Palmieri’s foray into boogaloo — 1968’s swanky Champagne with Cheo Feliciano and Ismael Quintana on vocals joined by Cuban grasp Cachao on upright bass — is arguably the style’s brightest second.
Early Latin different/salsa sinfónica: Mirroring the apex of progressive rock in England and the U.S., the mid to late ‘70s noticed Fania artists daring to file longer songs, and incorporating symphonic textures into their music. And identical to the lofty beliefs of prog got here to a screeching halt with the punk revolution, the salsa romántica sound of the ‘80s ended the reign of the established order. The basic sound was revived once more within the ‘90s, outlined as salsa dura (“laborious salsa”) to differentiate it from the pop-friendly salsa romántica.
Important Albums From Fania
**For a complete overview spanning all the profession of the person who began all of it — Johnny Pacheco — strive the 2006 anthology El Maestro. A double-disc compiled with the steerage of Pacheco himself, it begins with the wide-eyed pleasure of his pre-Fania recordings and traces his evolution from conventional Cuban charanga (flute and violins) to the rootsy trumpet-heavy conjunto. It additionally highlights his collaborations with Celia Cruz, Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez and different singing stars.**
