70s Salsa (was The Fania Label 1970-1980: S/D)

Did you buy most of those as downloads? I probably need to do more of that.

from Roena's wiki site:

Complementing the musicality of the salsa group was always the showmanship inherent in Roberto Roena. Dying his hair in new colors, playing percussion in his underwear and sporting a harness so he could “fly” around the stage of New York City's Madison Square Garden were some of the tricks that he used to stand out among the other groups in vogue. In fact, a noted journalist that followed Apollo Sound once remarked that they were “the first group in Puerto Rico with a system of psychedelic lights and go-go girls.”

Yeah, I only have about four on physical CD; the rest I got digitally. They're all killer. The first couple are pretty weird - he's got songs in English, including covers of Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" and Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Spinning Wheel."

I did do a half-hearted search of the Roena I have (especially one CD I suspected in particular) but never found a song that fit that description.

Not a big Ray Barretto fan, I particularly like this song (though I haven't heard the whole album):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_-fvX6E8mI

I need to check into him further.

So I see that Will Hermes has a new book out about music in NYC from 73 to 77 called "Love Goes to Buildings on Fire" that apparently includes some writing about Fania

From New Year’s Day 1973 to New Year’s Eve 1977, the book moves panoramically from post-Dylan Greenwich Village, to the arson-scarred South Bronx barrios where salsa and hip-hop were created, to the Lower Manhattan lofts where jazz and classical music were reimagined, to ramshackle clubs like CBGBs and The Gallery, where rock and dance music were hot-wired for a new generation. As they remade the music, the musicians at the center of the book invented themselves: Willie Colón and the Fania All-Stars renting Yankee Stadium to take salsa to the masses, New Jersey locals Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith claiming the jungleland of Manhattan as their own, Grandmaster Flash transforming the turntable into a musical instrument, David Byrne and Talking Heads proving that rock music “ain’t no foolin’ around.” Will Hermes was there—venturing from his native Queens to the small dark rooms where the revolution was taking place—and in Love Goes to Buildings on Fire he captures the creativity, drive, and full-out lust for life of the great New York musicians of those years, who knew that the music they were making would change the world.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Goes-Buildings-Fire-Changed/dp/0865479801

The new 2CD Ismael Rivera compilation (part of Fania's "A Man And His Music" series) is fucking great. Goes all the way from the '50s to 1980. 45 songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Mn4iI-4qw

is my jam lately

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jpvR9q9ECM8#t=255s

entire fania all stars in africa concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS6QB8r0vcM

I love everything about this -- johnny pacheco's crazy kids show host act, the way it's shot, the seemingly overwhelming numerosity of the band (partly an illusion), the coked-up happy vibe of it, bobby valentin's sick behind the beat basslines against on top of the beat percussion, roberto roena crazy legs dancing followed by a badass 70s five

sry, this is the complete concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2-ZmO13_dI

thx for posting, need to watch this

there's a record of the concert too, on spotify. doesn't seem to have the whole thing, but has some neat additional bits, e.g. what sounds like a soukous band welcoming them at the airport and maybe jamming with some of the fania guys?

cross currents between african and latin american pop music post-WWII are really fascinating

like those vids. feel like they could use a few more guys up on stage, though.

yeah, kind of a threadbare lineup, very minimal

The CD (which was recently reissued as a CD/DVD set - I own it) is very weird; there's almost no music from the concert, it's all rehearsal stuff and the aforementioned recording of African musicians, etc. - it's like a Smithsonian Folkways album or something. But the DVD, which has the concert footage as well as rehearsal, backstage, footage of bandmembers just wandering around Kinshasa, etc., is killer.

want

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/arts/music/johnny-pacheco-dead.html

RIP Johnny Pacheco, co-founder of Fania, a Dominican born , NYC raised flautist, songwriter, bandleader who brought salsa & charanga to the world. Was involved with a number of Celia Cruz albums

RIP... absolute legend

https://img.discogs.com/xCHnJRHRvKFVVl5tKkzIy6goJnc=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2952899-1536074905-9015.jpeg.jpg

RIP.

I didn’t see any personal reminiscences on Friendbook. At first I thought maybe people had some beef with him but he guess he just didn’t really play with any of the Latin Jazz cats that are around now.

On twitter Willie Colon took a brief break from tweeting right-wing memes, to tweet 6 times re Pacheco.

I need to go back to the Pacheco & Cruz albums

Okay, it was pointed out to me that there was a personal recollection from the violinist Sam Bardfeld, who is a friend of friends and plays with a lot of name acts.

Ugh, don't like the way that sounds.

Been slowly digging into this scene over the last year. Don't know much Pacheco, but i stumbled on some Willie Rosario that I really liked. Justo Betancourt's Leguleya No album is my favorite so far.

Willie Colon's Twitter feed is... disappointing.

there was a period of time when the Zavvi i had access to during my lunch hour was getting in Fania cd reissues overstocks and selling them off for £1 each.
despite not being into salsa at all, i grabbed what i could when i could (about 12 albums in the end).
when the sun comes out i still put them on and enjoy them more and more each time.

A 2020 article on Alegre Records who recorded Pacheco before he later co-founded Fania

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/alegre-records-history/

Here he is with fellow legend, Queen Mother Celia Cruz and his collective Fania All Stars in Zaire in 1974. Johnny Pacheco conducting the musicians and dancing w Celia like a boss. It’s the joy.
RIP Johnny Pacheco. pic.twitter.com/NUKYlxiKgN

— Karla ~ Ovalle (@KarlaValley) February 15, 2021

that rules!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/arts/music/johnny-pacheco-fania-records-playlist.html

Brief bio plus 15 cuts Pacheco was involved with

https://elpais.com/babelia/2021-02-25/johnny-pacheco-del-nuevo-tumbao-al-tumbao-anejo.html?ssm=TW_CC?event_log=oklogin&prod=REGCRARTBAB&o=cerrbab

The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura published last year Los rostros de la salsa (Tusquets), a book in which the author offers an intimate portrait of the genre through conversations with its main icons, such as Rubén Blades, Willie Colón, Juan Formell and Johnny Pacheco. We reproduce in full the one that he maintained in 1995 with the latter, who died on February 16 , in which he reviews his career from his frenetic adventures in New York in the seventies to the creation of the Fania record company and its consolidation as a name indispensable of Latin music.

An interesting interview translated to English

in addition to the charanga I had an ensemble that played in the style of the Sonora Matancera, Arsenio and Chapotín, and in '64 I was left alone with this group. So I started with thatCuban tumbao , but I added a tres and instead of the timbales I included a bongo and that's where "the new Pacheco tumbao " began, which would later be known as the " tumbao ", and now as the " old tumbao ", because I've been 30 years with the same formula. Since I learned it with Cugat, I always say that if a formula works, there is no reason to change it, and with that tumbao I have had the good fortune to record many of the greats of Latin music: Daniel Santos, Julio González, Pete Conde Rodríguez, Héctor Casanova, and my divine goddess, Celia Cruz.

I have the English translation of that book, Faces Of Salsa, and it is a very good read.

I should get that book

Thursday interview 7:30 et with Cita Rodriguez , singer w/ Mambo Legends Orchestra and daughter of Pete El Conde Rodriguez , Fania artist, sponsored by the Hostos Center for Arts & Culture as part of the Conversaciones Musica series

https://www.facebook.com/1661302984112144/posts/2861425087433255/?d=n

RIP Fania label legendary pianist Larry Harlow

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/20/1029760076/larry-harlow-salsa-music-icon-dead

RIP Larry. Have been obsessed with this record for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y9uwafGrlM

Thanks. So many cool little elements to “Dame un Tipi”— the spoken tone of the woman vocalist, the steady driving clave backbeat via Harlow and others, the various instrumental touches thrown on top

The whole album is delicious. It's a shame it's so ridiculously expensive on Discogs!