Fania All-Stars

Fania All-Stars, musical representative of Fania Records, popularized New York salsa during the seventies by organizing concerts in ever bigger halls, from Red Garter in Greenwich Village to the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Some of the biggest stars of salsa were part of this stellar band: Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, Johnny Pacheco, Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Bobby Cruz, Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez, and guest artists such as Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and Eddie Palmieri.

Fania Records was created in March 1964 by Johny Pacheco and his lawyer Jerry Masucci. Originally a small, independent label, the label’s recordings were distributed to local stores from Pacheco’s car trunk. In 1967, the Masucci management had begun to pay dividends. After various records by Ray Barreto, Willie Colón, Joe Bataan, and Pacheco himself became popular within the New York salsa community, Masucci promoted a jamming session at the Red Garter.

Fania All-Stars’ first two records " Live from Red Garter, Vols. 1-2" were recorded that night, with guest stars including Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. As sales were slow outside of New York, Masucci fired them up by putting on another live show and filming it. After negotiations to book Fillmore East failed, Fania All-Stars appeared at the Cheetah in the centre of Manhattan on August 26, 1971.

The film was the initial starting point that the salsa scene needed. In 1974, they traveled to Zaire and performed before "Rumble in the Jungle", the famous fight between heavyweights Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Another appearance in the Yankee Stadium in 1975 was also recorded and filmed, resulting in two other records (Live at Yankee Stadium) and the movie "Salsa", released in 1976 by Columbia Pictures.

That same year, Fania All-Stars made its studio debut with "A tribute to Tito Rodríguez". This meant the beginning of a contract with Columbia, for whom they recorded 4 records. Unfortunately, the freedom and improvisation of their first live recordings were sacrificed in favor of a studio effect that placed greater emphasis on the producers and sound engineers, as well as on jazz-fusion high profile guests such as Bob James, David Sanborn, Maynard Ferguson and Hubert Laws.

Although albums like Rhythm Machine 1977 worked well with consumers not accustomed to buying salsa, they failed to go down with their usual fans. Fania Record’s luck began to run out in the early eighties, not only due to the public in general but also due to the fact that Latinos were moving on from salsa to the newer sounds of the Dominican merengue.

Fania All-Stars recorded eight studio albums during the eighties, moving gradually away from the sound of the late seventies toward a more organic Latin jazz. In 1994 the group celebrated Fania Record’s thirtieth anniversary with a concert in San Juan, Miami and New York. Fania All-Stars continued performing occasionally during the rest of the nineties.

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