The bond between Pacheco and Cruz coursed like an unshakable electric current through the salsa scene. That particular refrain came to mind, and from there I ran to make the arrangement.” American superstar Stevie Wonder eventually performed his own rendition with the All-Stars, mixed with a cover of the McCoys' "Hang on Sloopy," live in 1976.Ĭelia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco, “Quimbara” (1974) ![]() … Bobby Valentín and I were leaving the restaurant Asia, which was located across the street from the Cheetah, and we both got stuck at the door and could not leave. "It was two days before the Fania All Stars’ concert at the Cheetah. 1.” The song’s title, which loosely translates to “Get out of my way,” was born of the kind of awkward social interaction familiar to many Pacheco explained the inspiration behind the song in the same 2016 interview. Set inside Manhattan’s Cheetah Lounge, a hub for the New York salsa scene, the concert would be recorded and released as the 1971 album “Live at the Cheetah, Vol. The All-Stars got their first closeup as a group in the 1972 documentary "Nuestra Cosa Latina" (Our Latin Thing), directed by Leon Gast ("When We Were Kings"). Pacheco y su Charanga, “Óyeme Mulata” (1961) In honor of the Dominican trailblazer, below is a sampler of essential tracks. Still, Fania has maintained an ample digital archive on YouTube, where many of Pacheco and the Fania All-Stars’ greatest hits live on. Fania has since survived two acquisitions from other labels - first by Emusica, then by Concord - and relocation from its birthplace in New York City to Miami. “Pacheco was a visionary he was the man,” Bruce McIntosh, an executive at Fania Records, told The Times on Tuesday. That same year Pacheco, a nine-time Grammy nominee, was finally honored with a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. By 2005, the All Stars’ live recordings were added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Even as the genre’s popularity began to wane in the States by the early ’90s, the Fania All-Stars continued to climb the Latin charts and book plum international gigs well into the 2000s. The Fania All-Stars were instrumental in making salsa one of New York’s most illustrious exports, moving feet and shaking hips en masse around the world, from a soldout show at Yankee Stadium in 1973 to a historic 1974 concert in the Congo. “Now I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do next!” “I wanted to have the best orchestra ever,” said Pacheco. Together, Pacheco eventually corralled the labelmates into a power-packed supergroup known as the Fania All-Stars. With Mascucci in control of the business side of things, Pacheco curated their roster with the most charismatic Latin jazz musicians in New York City, including the prominent percussionist Willie Colón, the buoyant Cuban vocalist Celia Cruz, American player Larry Harlow, Panamanian singer Rubén Blades and Puerto Rican icons Héctor Lavoe, Ray Barretto and Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez. Pacheco, fatigued by his own battles over royalties with his label, finally tapped Italian American lawyer Jerry Mascucci to co-found their own imprint in 1964 - now known as Fania Records. In tandem with an influx of Cuban immigrants to the city, Pacheco and his milieu ushered in the 1960s Latin dance craze, the Pachanga. By 1960, Pacheco signed with Alegre Records and launched his own ensemble, titled Johnny Pacheco y su Charanga, a group that refashioned the syncretic Spanish-African folk tradition of son Cubano by taking cues from merengue, cha-cha-chá and other tropical genres that found a home in New York City. ![]() Pacheco spent his young adult years hopping from band to band, sharing ensembles with Nuyorican contemporaries like Charlie Palmieri, Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente. It was after a short stint as an engineering student at Brooklyn Tech that he pivoted to the Juilliard School of Music, where he specialized in Latin percussion. From there he dedicated himself to two courses of study - engineering and music. The Pacheco family emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx in 1946, when Johnny was 11 years old. Born in the Dominican Republic, Pacheco inherited his musical prowess from his father, Rafael Azarias Pacheco, bandleader and clarinetist of the renowned Santa Cecilia Orchestra.
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