Send "Various Artists " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 In 1962, Johnny Pacheco got divorced. One of the partners in the firm that represented him during the proceedings was Jerry Masucci. Pacheco was a bandleader; born in the Dominican Republic, he moved to New York with his parents when he was 11, studied percussion at Julliard, and started his own band in 1960. With this band, he was working on a fusion of all the Caribbean styles that could be heard in New York at that time, bringing together the related traditions of Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban music to plant some of the seeds that became salsa. Pacheco and Masucci formed a much deeper connection than the average lawyer-client bond, and in 1964, they founded the Fania label, initially selling records out of the trunk of a car in Spanish Harlem.Pacheco and Masucci signed many of the brightest young lights on the New York Latin scene, and over the next 15 years, the label became essentially synonymous with the emerging salsa movement. Pacheco was the label's house producer and from 1968, led the Fania All Stars, a supergroup of some of the label's best musicians. But Masucci was more than just the business end of things. He attended sessions, bought lunch for the musicians, and with his brother Alex, encouraged the development of the music. Strut's new Fania compilation documents that development over two packed discs, with key tracks by Willie Colón, Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, the Fania All Stars, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaria, Joe Bataan, and others....full text |
| Rollingstone |
| In the Seventies, the Fania label ruled the Latin music scene in New York - and, arguably, the world. This two-CD comp moves from Cuban traditionalism to the R&B fusion called boogaloo to salsa, the pan-Latin genre that - via its marketing smarts and talent monopoly - Fania basically invented. The hits are here: Willie Colón's "Che Che Colé," Hector Lavoe's anthems "El Cantante" and "Mi Gente," Rubén Blades' "Mack the Knife"-script-flip "Pedro Navaja." On "Quimbara," Celia Cruz reclaims salsa's grafted Cuban roots as birthright, bringing it all back home....full text |
| Popmatters |
| The genre of salsa music didn’t exist before Fania invented it in mid-’60s NYC. Fania’s bands were happily mixing up exotically named Afro-Cuban styles—son, charanga, guaracha, bomba—that sounded intimidating to gringo audiences without access to Wikipedia. Fania co-founders Johnny Pacheco and Jerry Masucci created “salsa” as a catch-all marketing term. On Strut’s wonderful new two-disc compilation Fania Records 1964-1980: The Original Sound of Latin New York, you can hear the music throb with energy as it picks up different genres, like a giant snowball tearing down the Manhattan streets. It starts with Pacheco’s 1964 “Dakar, Punto Final”, a simple three-chord pachanga that alternates impressive trumpet solos with a repeated gang vocal line. From there, the songs grow louder and more aggressive, gobbling up jazz and soul, Chopin and “Bat-maaaaan!”, until they sound like the hungry streets of New York. Joe Bataan’s “Subway Joe” drives the point home by creating a subway train out of relentless handclaps and blaring trombones. (What do cities sound like? Horns and clatter, mostly.)...full text |
Various Artists lyrics
