Latino Music Cafe

Salsa Music Ups and Downs, Part 2-a: The threat of Rock & Disco

Posted on 09. Aug, 2009 by Hector Aviles in Feature, Latino Music

Salsa had a popularity boom in the late 1960’s into the early 1970’s only to later have to compete for audience with the booming popularity of rock and disco in the mid to late 1970’s into the early 1980’s. The “Travolta” era, along with some more “mainstream” rock and soul music by bands like Chicago, Eagles, Elton John, The Jackson Five, and the Commodores, among many others, attracted bigger audiences everywhere, and Latinos were not the exception. To keep this blog part from becomnig a huge manuscript, I’m dividing this blog’s Part 2 into two parts:

a. Salsa’s boom from the late 60’s through the early 70’s
b. Rock’s and Disco’s boom, and how Salsa survived it.

Salsa’s boom from the late 60’s through the early 70’s:

Harlow & Miranda

Salsa enjoyed a great boom coming out of the 60’s and into the 70’s. In New York, the charanga sound that had dominated the 60’s, was giving way to the more solid “salsa”, as bands started experimenting with their musical formats. The Fania label, who had started in the mid 60’s began recording a good number of the proliferating band-sonero groups coming out in the mid to late 60’s. Willie Colon, then still a teenager formed a band and was paired with Hector Perez, who Fania decided to rename artistically to Hector LaVoe (French for “the voice”). Larry Harlow, the 2nd artist to record on Fania in 1965 after co-founder Johnny Pacheco, later on teamed with a young charismatic singer Ismael Miranda in 1968. Eddie Palmieri recorded “Justicia” (1969), and “Vamonos Pa’l Monte” (1971) with Ismael Quintana, which both became huge hits. Pacheco goes steady with his premier singer, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, who had been part of the band on-and-off since 1964, to record huge hits in the early 70’s. Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz also go steady starting with their 1969 hit “El Diferente”. “Conguero” Ray Barretto joined forces with Puerto Rican “sonero” Adalberto Santiago and recorded 6 hit albums from 1966-1972.

In Puerto Rico, there were changes happening as well. Rafael Cortijo’s Combo had dissolved in 1962 due to some legal issues involving singer Ismael Rivera after a tour in Panama, and the Combo’s pianist Rafael Ithier  grouped some of the musicians to form El Gran Combo (1962), lead by the charismatic singer Pellin Rodriguez and strong-voiced Andy Montañez. Boogaloo was the craze of the 60’s in both, New York and

El Gran Combo

 Puerto Rico, and EL Gran Combo added Boogaloo to their recordings of that era. But in 1970 El Gran Combo started to change. They established their own record label, EGC Records, and in 1971 added a trombone to the wind section. This, and a better control of their repertoire, helped make their huge popularity in Puerto Rico, expand internationally. Also in 1969, Roberto Roena definitely left El Gran Combo to start his Apollo Sound. He teamed with singer Piro Mantilla to record several hits, starting with their debut hit “Tu Loco Loco y Yo Tranquilo” from the pen of Tite Curet Alonso. Willie Rosario, who had established his band in New York, returns to Puerto Rico and teams with singer Junior Toledo in the early 70’s to record some of his most popular music, including the smash hit “Juventud Siglo XX”. Tommy Olivencia had a resurgence in popularity during this time, and Raphy Leavitt created the influential band “La Selecta”.  Bobby Valentin returned to live in Puerto Rico in the late 60’s and had good hit records with singers Frankie Hernandez and Marvin Santiago during the following years. La Sonora Ponceña, which was well established since 1954, came out with their first band solo recording  “Hacheros Pa’ un Palo” in 1968, and continued to steadily record commercial hits since then with Tito Gomez and Luigi Texidor at vocals. There were many other bands, some more steady but less commercially popular, like Mario Ortiz, and others more popular but lasting a shorter time, like Corporacion Latina and Orquesta Zodiac.

Live at the Cheetah

This period of the late 60’s and early 70’s was Salsa’s renaissance. These established groups created a big fan following. It helped that bands had some stability in their personnel during this period, helping to grow a fan base very rapidly. Another influential event was the formation of the Fania All Stars. The Fania recording label co-owners Pacheco and Jerry Masucci decided to group the best lead artists of the label into an All Star. This was not an innovative concept. Other All Stars had already been put together, like the Alegre All Stars, which had recorded together since 1961, with Pacheco himself having participated in the 1st Alegre All Star recording. But the Fania All Stars, with its star-filled lineup, became a sensation in the 70’s. The mega-success of their “Live at the Cheetah” recording, in the renown Manhattan nightclub, of which video footage was used for the film “Our Latin Thing”, sparked a fire that would burn brightly for several years. The Fania All Stars put on a magnificent show, and traveled all over the world with it. The publicity this gave to Salsa worldwide was colossal. Below is a video of this event, with the performance of “Quitate Tu”, highlighting all singers and “cuatro” guitar player Yomo Toro.

The salsa bands in this period started to expand into a fuller sound, adding or changing instruments as they transitioned from the charanga-boogaloo craze of the 60’s into the hard salsa of the 70’s. With a stronger sound, catchy lyrics, improved recording techniques, and a public relations machine running on all cylinders, the salsa boom exploded commercially.

What’s Next: Rock’s and Disco’s boom and how Salsa survived it:

In my next blog, I’ll cover the boom of Rock and Disco music, and how Salsa survived this by going mainstream. Both musical genres had put out some of their best material, with MTV giving Rock and Disco a huge public relations boost that translated to a high commercial success. I’ll comment on how Salsa’s continued evolution into a more “mainstream’ style, saved the day.

Any comments so far? Feel free to write them below or send them to my email at hector@latinowebcafe.com.

Tags: El Gran Combo, Fania All Stars, hector lavoe, Ismael Miranda, willie colon