I became interested in this label in my teens exploring other Latin sounds after hearing early Santana.
Everybody salsa! Fania, the ramshackle New York label that sent Latin rhythms global
Its founders went from flogging LPs from a car to defining a genre in the late 60s. As a box set is released, manager Harvey Averne and star Joe Bataan recall those heady days in East Harlem
It is 1967. Latin boogaloo – a fusion of African American R&B and Cuban rhythms reflecting the rich melting pot of East Harlem, New York – is sweeping the barrio. Johnny Pacheco, a devotee of traditional Latin music, considers boogaloo “horrendous” and “not music”.
Nevertheless, he will quickly learn to love the money it makes his groundbreaking label, Fania Records. After the boogaloo fad subsides, a new wave of innovative, charismatic young stars will rise to make Fania the premier Latin label in the US. Salsa – their distinctive blend of traditional tropical rhythms – will become the vibrant soundtrack to pre-disco New York.
An exhaustive new box set chronicles this history. “People often say Fania was the Motown of Latin music,” says the DJ and producer Dean Rudland, the curator of It’s a Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fania. “But African American music easily crossed over to the American mainstream, whereas, until recently, crossover has been very elusive for tropical music in the US. Fania proved the Nuyorican [New York Puerto Rican] community could fill out Yankee Stadium, that their artists could sell out arenas across the world. It was a powerful thing.”
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