There was a time when Fania Records was Latin music’s most transcendent label, hailed because the Motown of salsa. From its apocalyptic rise in late ’60s New York to its triumphant sound empire within the ’70s and ’80s, the corporate has bought tens of millions of albums, its incomparable roster showcasing the pedigree and class of Afro-Caribbean music : Celia Cruz and Tito Ponte. Héctor Lavoe, Willie Colón and Rubén Blades. Ray Barretto, Larry Harlow and Eddie Palmieri, simply to call a number of.
But the imprint that outlined the id of a complete style finally succumbed – like salsa itself – to inevitable decay and the emergence of recent traits. When Yankee Dad dropped “Gasolina” in the summertime of 2004, many thought reggaetón was the salsa of the youthful technology: Puerto Rican music to the core, edgy and unpredictable, socio-politically conscious and compulsively danceable.
Hector Lavoe – Fania sixtieth Anniversary Cover for Craft Recordings Latino’s 2024 vinyl reissues.
(Artisanal Latin)
But Fania’s legacy stays, not solely within the recollections of these fortunate sufficient to expertise the Seventies salsa explosion in full bloom but in addition, extra importantly, in a catalog that features thousands of timeless albums.
In 2024, the label celebrated its sixtieth anniversary, and the query of whether or not this treasure of Latin tradition is cared for correctly has grow to be extra pertinent than ever.
“If you wore a Fania T-shirt in New York within the ’90s, folks would cease you on each block and ask you the place you bought it,” says Bruce McIntosh, vice chairman of Latin catalog at Craft Recordings, the Concord publishing home accountable for Fania and different prestigious labels.
“For right now’s youngsters, it is not their mother and father who hearken to this music, however their grandparents. They have heard the songs and artists however usually are not conversant in the label. Our mission is to make the brand new generations conscious of it.”
Fania was based in 1964 by Johnny Pacheco, a prolific Dominican musician and bandleader, and divorce lawyer Jerry Masucci to publish Pacheco’s movie “Gunshot” – a pleasant, rustic assortment of lilting tropical dance tunes, together with a canopy of the Cuban commonplace “Fania.” Dozens of masterpieces adopted, from Ray Barretto’s expansive 1968 movie “Acid” — a celebration of psychedelia, Latin soul and boogaloo — to the joyful tunes of Cruz and Pacheco”Celia and Johnny” – a 1974 LP that restored Cruz’s mojo and confirmed her standing because the queen of salsa with the mega-hit “Químbara.”
“Fania All Stars” – Fania sixtieth Anniversary Cover for Craft Recordings Latino’s 2024 vinyl reissues.
(Artisanal Latin)
By the late Nineteen Nineties, the corporate had wolfed up the assets of most of its opponents: basic labels like Tico, Alegre and Inca. But its superb catalog lay in disarray, ready for an astute purchaser prepared to extract its treasured gems.
The label modified fingers a few occasions after which, in 2018, Concord Music acquired Fania Records and its publishing — its 19,000 grasp recordings and eight,000 compositions — in a reported deal around 30 million dollars. Considering the sheer dimension and cultural significance of those property, followers have been ready to see what steps Concord will take to curate the Fania canon.
Not a lot, apparently.
In addition to producing a pleasant CD field set of Latin soul singles, Concord has restricted its curation to presenting the unique albums in high-resolution audio on streaming providers and releasing a handful of basic titles on 180 gram vinyl. “We’re doing a couple of dozen vinyl releases across the sixtieth anniversary,” says Sig Sigworth, president of Craft Recordings. “We simply have to decide on which one album we’ll do it.”
More than 40 million records had been bought within the US final yr, however with streaming nonetheless taking the lion’s share, vinyl accounts for lower than 5% of album-equivalent music consumption. Fania’s reissues are perfect for DJs and collectors, however do little to focus on the depth of the label’s discography.
Cover for the reissue of a Roberto Roena album.
(Artisanal Latin)
In 2018, Craft launched a lavish five-CD field set on one other prime label. “Stax ’68: A History of Memphis” compiles and annotates the singles launched by the enduring soul label in 1968, one in every of its most fertile years. Another set adopted in 2023: “Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriters Demos.” Could Fania profit from an analogous strategy?
“The very first thing I might do is remaster and reissue the whole catalog in bodily format,” says salsa legend Blades from his dwelling in New York. “But releasing music alone would not be sufficient. I might fee a collection of field units, analyzing the music and inserting it in the suitable historic context.
At age 76, Blades stays lively in music. In November he added one other Latin Grammy to his assortment. A Panamanian singer-songwriter, he arrived in New York within the early Seventies, received a job on the Fania put up workplace and from there satisfied a number of the label’s stars to report his compositions. After a interval as a singer in Baretto’s orchestra, he fashioned an excellent collaboration with trombonist and producer Willie Colón. Published in 1978, their tropical sociopolitical manifesto “Sowing” stays the salsa LP par excellence.
The cowl for a 2024 vinyl reissue of a Celia Cruz LP.
(Artisanal Latin)
“Something that hasn’t been talked about sufficient is salsa’s contribution to the battle towards racism,” he provides. “No one cared concerning the shade of your pores and skin on the Palladium nightclub. It did not matter when you had been ugly, had soiled footwear, or had three lacking enamel. If you knew how you can transfer on the dance flooring, essentially the most lovely ladies would battle over you.”
Tomás Cookman, founding father of the Los Angeles-based boutique label National recordsand one of the passionate supporters of Latin music within the United States, has his personal wishes for the catalog.
“If I had been answerable for Fania, I might undoubtedly take a grasp class at Rhino Records,” says Cookman. “I cope with the Talking Heads and see the kind of love and quality that Rhino is investing within the band’s current reissues.”
A lifelong salsa fanatic, Cookman dreamed of buying Fania’s property himself, however Concord beat him to the punch as he tried to lift funds.
Cover for a reprint of a Ralfi Pagan album.
(Artisanal Latin)
“Of course, it is really easy to be the Monday morning quarterback,” he says with a smile. “But I really feel Concord is shy about selling music. And we’re not in 1987, once you needed to print 200,000 copies for a launch. Nowadays, you possibly can simply order 10,000 copies and promote all of them. We do it commonly at Nacional.”
Looking forward, there are two potential paths for Fania. One is specializing in the extra obscure titles within the catalogue. For each Cruz or Puente album, there is a wealth of lesser-known gems – from The Conquerorwith sixteen-year-old pianist Oscar Hernández, future chief of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, a “Online”, a swanky boogaloo session from conguero George Guzman.
The label combed by the grasp tapes for demos and wastefalse begins and studio jokes: a technique that has paid good dividends to quite a few luminaries, from Elvis Presley TO Crimson King.
“We have some scraps and a few junk, however there’s nothing new,” McIntosh counters. “Everything has already been found. There are many false begins, however no full track. Much of it is not even music, as they burst out laughing or Héctor Lavoe (the salsa star) asks somebody to shut the door. It could be added content material, however digitally there aren’t many locations you possibly can put it.”
“There is one other facet wherein Fania has failed,” says Blades. “They ought to have launched new albums from the surviving musicians. The unique artists who participated within the salsa explosion of the Seventies ought to have made new recordings and staged a tour which, in itself, would have helped revive {the catalogue}. But they did not do any of that. At the top of the day, these persons are within the enterprise of promoting information.”
For now, the splendid vinyl reissues will suffice. And for these approaching Fania’s discography for the primary time, the previous albums proceed to fascinate with their poetry and vision.
“We additionally deal with educating younger folks concerning the roots of Latin music,” McIntosh says. “Where are those Rauw Alejandro or Bad Bunny samples from. Some of those children do not even know what a CD is, as a result of they’re 18.”
Album cowl for a reissue by Hector Lavoe.
(Artisanal Latin)
“When you take a look at such a reissue, you could have to have the ability to inform a narrative to curate one thing in a novel approach,” Sigworth says. “How are we going to inform this? How will we weave collectively the music and the liner notes to take that narrative the place we wish it to go? Fania was a gateway not solely to music but in addition to the voice of Latinos within the 70s and 80s.
Blades, who continues to carry out at sold-out venues throughout the Americas, believes salsa’s potential to succeed in the mainstream remains to be there.
“To assume that this music is previous and irrelevant will not be primarily based in actuality,” he says. “I simply received again from the present a concert in Cali and I noticed 20,000 Colombians singing collectively. Most of them had been younger. I informed them, ‘When this track got here out, you were not even born but.’”
