Fania All-Stars
The house band of Fania Records, comprised of the label's band leaders, top sidemen and vocalists; and whose history represents the rise and promulgation of salsa as a marketing tag for Latin music. Italian-American lawyer Jerry Masucci co-founded Fania in 1964 with Dominican Republic-born band leader Johnny Pacheco, explained the genesis and early development of the band in 1973: "In December 1967 . . . I was vacationing in Acapulco. I was out fishing and when I got back I received a phone call from New York from two promoters Jack Hooke and Ralph Mercado of Cheetah fame (a club on the south-west corner of 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, which Mercado co-managed in the 60s, promoting R&B acts like James Brown and Aretha Franklin). At that time they were holding concerts at the Red Garter (in Greenwich Village) Monday nights and were interested in getting the Fania All Stars together to do a jam session with invited guests Tito Puente of Tico Records and Eddie Palmieri and Ricardo Ray And Bobby Cruz of Alegre Records. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I flew back and got in touch with Johnny Pacheco. We put some material together and packed the place with 800 people. We also made the first two recordings of the Fania All Stars: Live At The Red Garter volumes 1 and 2 (1968). Although the albums were not too spectacular regarding sales.' A second Fania All Stars concert, held on 26 August 1971 at the Cheetah, was a complete sell-out. Volumes 1 and 2 of the Fania All Stars Live At The Cheetah which were recorded that night became the biggest selling Latin albums ever produced by one group from one concert. The Cheetah concert was filmed and featured in the documentary Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa) produced by Masucci and directed by Leon Gast, which premiered in New York on 19 July 1972.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Ella Fue (She Was The One)
- Donde
- Picadillo
- Fania All Stars' Cha Cha Cha
- Que Pasa?
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