June 11, 2026 • 35 mins
The 1960s brings social and political change to the world and to New York City, where a young Johnny Pacheco keeps people dancing with his orchestra and charanga music. The Dominican musician is also going through a divorce and his lawyer, Jerry Masucci, happens to be a fan of Johnny’s music. The two form a music partnership that will forever change music. They call their music label Fania Records.
Hosted by Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress and Brooklyn native Rosie Perez and produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning Futuro Media. “Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York,” is the most comprehensive audio narrative yet made about the birth and wild heights of salsa, a genre that continues to shape global culture today.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin power thing. The birth of salsa in Nueva York
was made possible by the Melon Foundation, which seeks to
build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking,
where ideas and imagination can thrive heads up. This episode
(00:35):
contained some explicit language. There's a pretty legendary concert from
nineteen seventy three, a concert that the day after it happened,
everyone was sitting on our stoop in Brooklyn talking about it.
(00:59):
People still talk about it to this day. It was
at a venue you have to have Kohona to think
you could play.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yankee Stadium at that time could hold fifty five thousands.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yankee Stadium. Initially this concert was supposed to attract a
modest crowd.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I said, how many people you expect? He said, I
will get eight thousand people.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Everybody sowed crazy for doing Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Crazy because who the hell reserves a fifty thousand seed
a venue for eight thousand people. Stadiums were reserved for big,
big shows. I mean only a few years before the
the Beatles played Shea Stadium beer. But there was a
(01:53):
boutique music label in New York City, and well they
had cohons These were underdogs from a forgotten corner of
the city, El Barrio and the Bronx, making a new
kind of explosive news. There's confusion this genre they were
calling SASA and that little boutique label it was called
(02:18):
Fania Records Records.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's not your Fania Records, Fania Records.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
I was sitting down with Jerry at five point thirty
and there was nobody.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
There at first. It's seen Fania Records sped on Yankee Stadium.
Wouldn't pay off.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
And we didn't have great ticket sales, and we put
a lot of money into that.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
But they had something in their corner, or someone or
several someones, the Justice League of Salsa. I was nine
years old at the time, but that was old enough
to know the means of these legends. The sounds of
(02:59):
Willie Cologne and he were lasting at my family parties
before this show ever hoppied. These were the supers of SISA.
You really think only eight thousand people were going to
show up to watch them when the Latinos in the
city had grown exponentially.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I please, little did he or I know that there
was going to be forty two thousand people that.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
The Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The vibe was explosive.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
It was so nuts that I saw the impending craziness
coming on.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
On stage that night, the best percussion players of that time, Mungo,
Santa Maria and Ray boret battling it out on the hugas.
(04:11):
And if you hadn't seen this video, Fanni, you have homework.
These motherfuckers were wailing on the drums like they don't
even look human. At times. Ray Barretto was in a
white button up shirt open just enough to show off
his chest. At one point he takes the conga drum
and starts banging it on the ground. Johnny Pacheco, want
(04:36):
to Fani, A car owners and director is dancing while
he's conducting. He can't contain himself. Like every person on
that stage is dancing. It's electric, as if the drums
possessed the people, and the crowd who was sitting in
the stadium seats wanted to see their superheroes up close.
(04:57):
They wanted to be on stage, Nan Bialero. Nikki Morrero
remembers that moment, you.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Know, sudden, I saw the public that were seating in
the bleaches coming down with like ants coming into the
grounds and comings in close and closing.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Fanio Records co owner Jerry Masucci had made a deal
with the stadium that prohibited the crowds from getting on
the field or the label would lose their deposit. But
the crowd didn't give a fuck about any agreement.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I could see them coming down from the lows, down
and down.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Thousands of people swarmed the field.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
The groundskeeper goes over to the AC distribution panel and
he's pulling out the power to the stage.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The sound guy, Bernie Fox, did his best to keep
the concert going as the groundskeepers threatened to shut it down.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
This is all life and the thing is flashing, you know.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
There is the sparks, and the sound system goes and
it turns into what sounds like a kazoo.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
The show no one thought would draw a crowd took
over Yankee Stadium. Not only did the fans rush the field,
they jumped on the stage and took whatever was it
nailed to the ground. Someone waved a giant Puerto Rican flag.
It was nuts. Fania Mania, the little record label that
(06:45):
people called crazy for booking Yankee Stadium, proved everyone wrong.
Nikki Marito recalls it was the first time in my
life that I felt Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Where can you go up to?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
This from Pututro Studios. I'm Rosie Perenz and this is
our thing, The Birth of Salsa Nuevao a podcast about
the legends behind the music and the label who defined it,
Bania Records. My work has always lived at the intersection
(07:31):
of movement, film, and cultural storytelling. From my choreography days
that earned me Emmy nominations to my life on screen
with Golden Globe and Asconauts, it has all been about
expression for me. But before the recognitions or other titles,
I was just a girl in Brooklyn listening to salsa music.
(07:54):
As a Eurekan, I sometimes questioned if I was Puerto
Rican enough for the motherland. Salsa reminded me that identity
is not just inherited. It is created, lived, celebrated, and
it was born and raised right here on the streets
of New York City. So that's where we're gonna start.
(08:21):
Episode one, Faniac takes whoever your from Brookland to the Bronx.
Music has always been a part of New York City's heartbeat,
coming from windows, people's cars, family parties, check check and check.
The high files up and bumping the latest tune. People
(08:44):
would bring over their favorite records and share their latest
fines for our family. That usually included artists from Fania Records,
the Motel of Latin music. You know them, Willie Colon,
the Level, Celia.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
Couls, Raby.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Baby Red Old Reuben Blade.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Tell you these artists were the soundtrack to our lives.
And they were here in New York City because if
you wanted to make music, New York was where you
(09:29):
came to make.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And the sixties was a time of change, changing music,
change in politics, change in culture.
Speaker 7 (09:41):
We're taking over schools to ask for black and Puerto
Rican studies. The civil rights is going on. We're watching
people a crossing the bridge in the South.
Speaker 8 (09:51):
And equal freedom for all about citizens regardless of race
or regardless of color.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
And getting shot with poses from fire and being sick
down with German shepherds.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
As is a Puerto Rican journalist and writer who once
worked for Fanio Records and grew up in New York City.
She remembers Puerto Rican activists mobilizing in the sixties.
Speaker 7 (10:14):
They were advocating for the liberation of Puerto Ricos and
we're marching you know, against the Vietnam War.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
The war in Vietnam is the world and perilous depression
against the colored people.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
In East Harlem. When more into civil rights, when more
integrated with the black community, we went into a bottom genius,
you know, and torn off T shirts and no.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Bra The Sneaker generation, as they were nicknamed, were going
against the grain, changing things up from what the parents
used to do. Their parents who used to hit the
big ballrooms and big mambo numbers, you know, the big
bands and the boleros and marengez.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
The sixties was a big shift from big band, from mambo,
from rumba and medinge chaanga to bachanga. In nineteen sixty,
when the whole world was doing twists, New York Latinos
were doing bachanga.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And don't forget rock and roll was also taking over.
In the sixties, young people in the US used rock
and roll to rebel.
Speaker 7 (11:28):
American kids rejected the big band music of their parents.
They out and out rejected it and embraced rock and roll.
Then by the time sixty four came in, the Beatles
that took over.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
We were listening to rock and roll and soul too.
But many Latino teenagers didn't see the need to completely
reject their parents' music.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
We didn't do that. We respected our parents' Puerto Rican music.
We respected the Cuban music. But then we mixed it
up with our music, our influences, with jazz, with rock,
with what was going on with English, and we called
it Sansa.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Latinos were adapting the music of the past to vibe
what they were feeling at the time, and at that time,
it was all about a new kind of dance, the bachanga.
It's kind of like salasta to the naked eye, but
more funky, more street. Often involves a banuelo and some
(12:36):
jumping whipper. This is musician Johnny Pacheco speaking to author
Mary Kent for her book Salsa Talks.
Speaker 9 (12:47):
I started the dance of the jananger.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Praise Tcharanga was a late feeling Cuban music, the music
dance the bachanga to get it. The name Pachanga is
actually a fusion of his name bah for bajaco and
Changa for tcharanga, because Johnny is the one who started
(13:10):
the dance craze and he was literally bringing down the
house as shows. As he told Ura Flores in an interview.
Speaker 9 (13:17):
When I opened up palladium that seeing fell down and
there was a car dealer and a drugstore. All the
medication went on the floor and they had to put
still being in order for me to come in with
a pachanda.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Johnny was like my big brother, you know, just a
very lovable guy.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Is really not a bad bone in his body.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
This is Alex Basucci, who worked alongside Johnny Alfanio Records.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Always had a smile on his face, cigar in his hand,
you know, and a joke on his tongue.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
He was always telling jokes.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Let me tell you more about Johnny because he's one
of the main characters in this whole story. Juan Asarias
Pacheco Nipping aka Johnny Pacheco was born in the Dominican
Republic and was exposed to music young.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Thank father was the bandleader used to have Oeta Tantacilia,
which was the number one orchestra in that era.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
His father, renowned band leader and clarinetis, gifted him a
harmonica one year and that was that.
Speaker 9 (14:22):
The first systeman that I got was a harmonica that
was given to her. By the time I was about seven,
I was playing marangas a writer.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Johnny's family fled the Dominic Kim Republic because of the
infamous dictator, Fafio Throuillo. The Pacheco family did not sympathize
with the dictator, and if you weren't down with Ruio,
it was very easy to turn up missing. So Johnny's
father worked tirelessly to get his family out of the country,
finally able to bring Johnny over to New York City
(14:54):
when he was eleven. After going through the public school system,
he eventually studied percussion at Juilliard, the world renowned music school.
By the late fifties, Johnny was gaining traction with his
orchestra Bajako Isu Taranga.
Speaker 9 (15:09):
I was trying to get the group recorded. I never
gave up, so I went in the studio and I
did a demo nobody wanted. They said that's the crap.
He's gonna die Forget about that.
Speaker 7 (15:21):
Then comes Allegi Records al Santiago.
Speaker 9 (15:25):
Al Santiago came man and he says, you want to
record kid, I'll give you a contract.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Al Santiago was a record producer who started Allegra Records
aka Out of the Bronx.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Al Santiago was the first one to record these guys
when nobody else would record them.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Johnny also trusted Al Santiago. Al had grown up enthralled
with loud music, even as a kid hanging out at
the Palladium, the legendary New York City Council Hall. Here
is El speaking with journalist David Karp in the nineties
before he passed.
Speaker 10 (16:02):
I used to be the band boy to my uncle's
band who played the Palladium, and at least I was
on the penstine giving out the music. I remember going
up those long flight of stairs, those many many steps,
and hearing the brass section.
Speaker 8 (16:17):
Da da dada. That is my favorite Mumbo phrase, and
I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
The Palladium Bolvroom was one of the most famous establishments
of the time, a legend in the heart of Midtown.
The club was home to the biggest acts and best dancers.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
They wanted you to be dressed appropriately.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You had to have a jacket.
Speaker 10 (16:47):
You couldn't get in unless you were a tie, and
if you didn't have one, you were forced to runt
a real.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Ugly, wrinkled, horrible tie.
Speaker 10 (16:58):
And of course in those days, we didn't have jeez
and we didn't have sneakers and all would there.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Go like that.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
The big bands played at the clubs all over town,
but they all wanted top billing at a lady. The
players were dressed to the knives, the best dancers all
up front, absorbing the sounds of the percussion, fill in
the glave, ba ba ba ba.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
So all this has happened, and then clubs are happening,
not only its.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Harmm all over the Bronx.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
One of the reasons clubs came out was because the
factory is you know this the whole you know, industrial
revolution and the way it happened on the islands and
all of that. People needed a place on the weekends
to just relax. This was not farm work anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
The people needed this music. They craved it, and that
created competition all over the city because you had to
get out and dance at the best spots with the
best orchestras. You needed an outlet. And let me tell
you something, dancing does something to your brain. It changes you.
It makes you more confident. Let me be blood. You
(18:08):
may not be very good looking, but boy, if you
could dance, people waited in line for you. And the
dancing at these clubs it was hot, it was sensual
and man didn't make you sweat with your clothes on,
so without even meaning to it was a big outlet,
(18:29):
and packed clubs meant packed wallets for the owners, so
the music had to be top notch. So back to
our hero story. A young Johnny Pacheco had just signed
with Alegre Records and Al Santiago. His first album with
(18:54):
the label, Pacheco is Sucharanga was a hit. In one
of his early songs, he repeats a an African term
meaning joy or happiness. The percussion is the backbone, still
(19:15):
marking that glave ba ba ba ba ba with a
cowbll walking the mambo section. The whole song is a
party and mark my word, it made you want to
dance mucho swing. Johnny was a genius. He could play
(19:39):
everything well. He had refined playing percussion at Juilliard, but
thanks to that he also played clarinet, violin and one
of the signatures the flute.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Her Checko was incredibly knowledgeable about music.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's Bernie Fox, one of Fania's original sound engineers. You
heard him.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
If Pacheco had to overdub a Morocca part or a
Guido part on a live recording. He didn't have to
look at music if once he heard the music, once
he knew all the breaks, he knew all the everything,
and he would just go and play it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
There was nothing Johnny couldn't do. Johnny even worked on
The Tonight Show on NBC. So anyway back to Allegra.
After that initial honeymoon phase ended, Johnny realized something was
a miss at the label.
Speaker 11 (20:42):
We were selling records and the money wasn't coming in.
Speaker 9 (20:45):
They were spending money like it was going out of style,
and that really take me off.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So Johnny Butcheco decided he would leave Allegre for bigger dreams.
As he told Ura Flores in an interview.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
That I was to have the best orchestra ever, getting
all the best musicians, putting them together.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And by this time Johnny he was a star. His
record had been a hit.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
This record at that time sold over one hundred thousand copies.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Making sure you heard that right, one hundred thousand copies
in nineteen sixty one. This is not streaming sales or
digital downloads. This was pushing music on the radio and
physical album sold without any of the modern tools to
get your name out there. Think about that Johnny was huge,
(21:37):
but his personal life was suffering.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
He was getting divorced.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
At the time, Johnny needed a divorce lawyer.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
His divorce lawyer was Jerry Masucci.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
It's starting at a party.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
That's Jerry Masucci, the other central character of our story.
He speaks here to author Mary Kent for her book
Salsa Talks.
Speaker 9 (22:00):
He was worth a leg record.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
He was unhappy.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Johnny met Jerry about the divorce, but soon the two
hit it off when they talked about their mutual love
for Latin music.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
He's very charming guy, Jerry, you know, very charming.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
This is Alex Masucci, who you heard from earlier, who
is also Jerry's younger brother.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And he was really a jock, you know, he was
always playing ball.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Jerry and Alex grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Their
parents were immigrants from Italy, and Alex remembers that even
as a kid, Jerry loved Latin music.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
When I was a.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Kid, we shared a bed, so he would come home
and he put on Latin music and I'd say to myself,
you know, what the come I don't.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Understand how does he understand this?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
What is the is this guy?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Before he was a divorce lawyer or a cop. Jerry
was in the Navy, and the Navy sent him to Cuba.
Speaker 12 (23:01):
I worked in Havana, so I went to school in Mexico.
I was always sort of had a feeling for lat things.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Jerry's time in Cuba really left a mark on him.
Before the revolution, Havana was ultimately a US playground, filled
with casinos and clubs and everything that was prohibited or
taboo in the US at the time.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Imagine leaving you lived behind the candy store in Brooklyn,
and you know you're a jock, and you know the
biggest experience has gone on a corner bar, you know,
and all of a sudden, he's in Havana. Would sell
your cruz singing on the corner and a cafe and
all these girls dancing to Latin music and all these clubs,
(23:45):
and then they would race, you know, cooker roches between
the track. You know, it's just action town. You know.
The richest people say that, and a cab driver who
went there with no money would say the same thing.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And it was a wild town, Havanah.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Jerry got back to New York and tried to find
his way.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
He was the youngest cop on the force. He became
a cop on his twenty first birthday. Jerry was always
trying to start businesses. You know. One time he started
to see you know, the electric carts that they use now.
He had it years ago, and I believe he was
traveling around the country with Mario and Dretti trying to
sell these carts. You know, he was always trying something.
(24:26):
And then Jerry met Johnny.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Johnny Pacheco, who happened to need a divorce and who
also happened to be one of the hardest Latin musicians
of the time. Soon Jerry invited Johnny to dinner at
the Masucci's one weekend.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
My mother she worked eight hours a day in a
factory selling pockets.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You know what that is, just go.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And then she would cook.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
She'd make antipasta that was like it was like a
piece of art.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
She'd row all the salami up, put it in certain
spots and it was amazing. And then she'd make pasta,
sausages meet for bra Joel, and then she made chicken cutlets.
So one day Johnny comes over. I was sitting outside
my mother was coming for a Sunday dinner, and all
(25:19):
of a sudden, this Mercedes pulls up, you know, and
they were no Mercedes in my neighborhood. I didn't know
if I knew what a Mercedes was. And Johnny gets
out and Mona gets out, his second wife.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
And she was gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I mean really, I'll never forget when she got out
of that car.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
And then it became official. Here's Jerry again.
Speaker 12 (25:46):
John I said, start a rek, so we came far.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Jerry had teamed up with Johnny to create Bania Records,
a new label that they said would be favorable to musicians,
one that would be like a family.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
My mother and father gave him the money to do
the album, which was a lot of money for them
to give. You know, they were making twenty eight dollars
a week.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
The Masucci's mom gave them twenty five hundred dollars and
they were off. Johnny would serve as musical director and
Jerry would handle the business side, even if at first
that was a work in progress.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
He didn't know anything about the music business.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
They opened up a phone book and I got.
Speaker 12 (26:31):
The yellow pages out and called up a recording studio,
Jacket Place, Label Place, and we made a record together.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Johnny and Jerry. Jerry and Johnny a real dynamic tool.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Johnny is probably one of the most talented showmen in
the history of the business. An incredible songwriter, fabulous food
player and a wonderful guy. You know. I mean, I
don't think either one of that could have done it
without each other period.
Speaker 11 (27:02):
Jerry was a true fan of the music. He really
got into the music big time.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Javi at Byrne popular music producer, a musician.
Speaker 11 (27:11):
Fania the name Fania is a coffee shop in Cuba
where a lot of guys want to hang out.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
There's some debate about that name. Johnny is stuck by
his version in many interviews that the name came from
a Cuban song called Aania Boonche, originally written by Rinaldo Bolanos.
He also said that there was a Cuban group called Fania.
Speaker 9 (27:36):
It was a group of individuals in Cuba that they
had this club and was from good players only, and
the name attracted me so much. I put Fania instead
of Pania Fania and I said, this will sounding not
only good to the Spanish, but to Americans they would
say Funnie Records.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Whatever the reason the name Fania stuck, I'll take it.
Harvey got involved right from the onset through a mutual bandmate,
one of Fania's first artists, Larry Harlow.
Speaker 11 (28:07):
Mike bookkeeper was Larry hollow mother. Okay, Larry see his
mother during the day and tell her about that he
just signed a contract with his new record company, owned
by an Italian lawyer and Pacheco. He said, Oh, you
wouldn't meet this guy, Jerry Masucci. I think you too
would get along. As Jerry said, I want to continue
my law practice and put all the money I make
(28:30):
into Fania. I believe in Faia.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So the two co founders now have a name, some
producers and a couple of artists. Fania Records was up
and running sort of.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
There were so many record labels on Tenth Avenue, you know,
just in storefronts, and we were in a basically in
a broom closet in Jerry's law office.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
You know, you know, we didn't sell a lot of records.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Daniel Nassel was the first of Pacheco's album's release on
the new Fania label, with eleven dance tunes. This marked
the beginning of an era. They didn't even have space
to store the LPs. Remember we're talking about physical products,
giant heavy boxes. A team of two. They would deliver
(29:22):
the records, sometimes out of the back of Johnny's own car.
One person to watch the car and want to deliver
the merchandise. If you know New York City, you know
parking was a bitch even back then. Here's Johnny Pacheco again.
Speaker 9 (29:37):
I used to do Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Jerry
used to do Tuesday Furdiesday. On Saturday, we used to
get in my car and put all the records. We
used to go to every store delivered on own records.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Despite Johnny already being a pretty big deal. Here he
was in the middle of winter distributing records himself, and
people got a kick out of me.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It was scroll like hell, my nose was running.
Speaker 9 (30:05):
And one guy then look up a check a lane
that bay making delivery and he took out a dollar
billion into.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And every then that came in, we put it back
into the business.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
All of that paid off because the public took notice.
Here's Jerry and.
Speaker 12 (30:22):
Just came together. Second recond Now he found no guide,
and all of a sudden thing of.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Jerry and Johnny were able to get it played on
the radio because Jerry was well connected through his day
job as a lawyer and a cop, and Johnny knew
all the DJs. Between the two of them, they knew everyone.
The public was into what they were selling because it
was different, because, like we said earlier, the demographics were changing.
(30:56):
Auror remembers the first time she noticed the change.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
So I'm listening to Symphony sid one night and I
hear a gonga. I hear a lot of music, but
I'm hearing this guy. But I'm saying, wait a minute.
He's not singing about the farm. He's not singing about.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
The chicken and the rooster.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
He's singing about the projects. He's singing about riots. He's
singing about us.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
This new generation of kids, the sneaker generation, was ready
for change in society and in music, but with the
flavor they grew up listening to at home. By nineteen
sixty six, the Palladium shuttered its doors and Fanio Recas
was poised to take the city by storm. But as
(31:41):
the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with
good intentions coming up this season.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
That night Da Cheetah, they just played un fucking believable
or slabe.
Speaker 12 (31:53):
It's somebody you didn't mess with, you know, one of
things his way, if they were legal or not.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Our rhythm is directly African.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
We cannot continue to act as if this is just
Latin music. This is African music now.
Speaker 7 (32:05):
Lupe was the queen of Latin soul, different from Celia.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Why is it, Jerry that you promote the commercial bands.
Why aren't you promoting the black bands?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Banya is making money in every direction.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
Johnny was sorry hard because Johnny trusted him.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
If you sold one hundred, that was unheard of. We
sold millions.
Speaker 11 (32:25):
Didn't make a nickel, a fucking penny.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I never made nothing of that. I said, Holy shit,
I'm Joe Batan.
Speaker 11 (32:32):
I ain't got the money to pay for the flat tire.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I can't wait for the next episode. Joined puturo Plus
for early access to the whole season at free listening
and exclusive bonus content. For our Thing, The Birth of
Salasa in UEV, York. Go to Puturomediagroup dot org slash
joint plus to get access today our thing, The Birth
(33:03):
of Salsa in Uever York is an original podcast from
Puturo Studios. It was made possible by the Mellon Foundation.
Our senior producer is Genie Muntalvo. Our episodes were written, reported,
and produced by her and Mark Pagan. The episodes were
edited by Maria Garcia, additional editing by Marlon Bishop. Our
(33:27):
post producer is Joaquing Cutler. He and Genie Montalvo sound
designed our episodes. Our associated producer is Juliana Luis. Our
production managers are Francis Poon, Jessica Ellis and Victoria Estrada.
Mixing by Stephanie LAbau, Julia Caruso and jj Corubin, back
(33:48):
checking by Tatiana Diaz and additional booking by jabiir Rejas.
Editorial consultation by Ernesto Lechner. Special thanks to Aroa Flores,
Martin Cohen, Alex Masucci, Mariso Negron, Mary Kent and Annsto Nukar.
Special thanks to Craft Recordings, a con Company theme Swung
(34:11):
and original music by Ella Brick. Additional music courtesy of
David Frankel and Avanida bay Yours Truly recorded at Bridge
Studios in Brooklyn by you Ros Giovanovitch and at full
English post by Charles at Tangana and Ben Steiner. Special
thanks to my manager Tarkanafari a Strand Entertainment and my
(34:35):
glam Squad here Johnny Levoy and make up Karen Dupiche.
Executive produced for Uturo Studios by Marlon Bishop and Maria
Garcia from Concord Records. Executive producers are Bruce McIntosh and
Wesley Adams. Show art by jose ostol OSTOLASA original show
(34:58):
concept by Marlon Bishop and Genie Montalvo. Legal review by
Neil Rossini, Michael Martin, Linn Hoist and Jonathan Bishop of
Legal Arts. A marketing team includes Annello Reyes and Luis Luna.
Futuro Media was founded by Maria Inajosa. I'm your host
(35:19):
and resident Luregan Rosie Perez. You can hear all the
music featured in this episode and this season on our
Spotify music playlist. We've got links in our show notes,
and don't forget to tap the heart to save it
to your library because we'll be adding to it each week.
And make sure you follow our thing, The Birth of
(35:41):
Salta in Nueva York on your favorite podcast app. Thanks
for listening.
Pushkin power thing. The birth of salsa in Nueva York
was made possible by the Melon Foundation, which seeks to
build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking,
where ideas and imagination can thrive heads up. This episode
(00:35):
contained some explicit language. There's a pretty legendary concert from
nineteen seventy three, a concert that the day after it happened,
everyone was sitting on our stoop in Brooklyn talking about it.
(00:59):
People still talk about it to this day. It was
at a venue you have to have Kohona to think
you could play.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yankee Stadium at that time could hold fifty five thousands.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yankee Stadium. Initially this concert was supposed to attract a
modest crowd.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I said, how many people you expect? He said, I
will get eight thousand people.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Everybody sowed crazy for doing Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Crazy because who the hell reserves a fifty thousand seed
a venue for eight thousand people. Stadiums were reserved for big,
big shows. I mean only a few years before the
the Beatles played Shea Stadium beer. But there was a
(01:53):
boutique music label in New York City, and well they
had cohons These were underdogs from a forgotten corner of
the city, El Barrio and the Bronx, making a new
kind of explosive news. There's confusion this genre they were
calling SASA and that little boutique label it was called
(02:18):
Fania Records Records.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's not your Fania Records, Fania Records.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
I was sitting down with Jerry at five point thirty
and there was nobody.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
There at first. It's seen Fania Records sped on Yankee Stadium.
Wouldn't pay off.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
And we didn't have great ticket sales, and we put
a lot of money into that.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
But they had something in their corner, or someone or
several someones, the Justice League of Salsa. I was nine
years old at the time, but that was old enough
to know the means of these legends. The sounds of
(02:59):
Willie Cologne and he were lasting at my family parties
before this show ever hoppied. These were the supers of SISA.
You really think only eight thousand people were going to
show up to watch them when the Latinos in the
city had grown exponentially.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I please, little did he or I know that there
was going to be forty two thousand people that.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
The Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The vibe was explosive.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
It was so nuts that I saw the impending craziness
coming on.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
On stage that night, the best percussion players of that time, Mungo,
Santa Maria and Ray boret battling it out on the hugas.
(04:11):
And if you hadn't seen this video, Fanni, you have homework.
These motherfuckers were wailing on the drums like they don't
even look human. At times. Ray Barretto was in a
white button up shirt open just enough to show off
his chest. At one point he takes the conga drum
and starts banging it on the ground. Johnny Pacheco, want
(04:36):
to Fani, A car owners and director is dancing while
he's conducting. He can't contain himself. Like every person on
that stage is dancing. It's electric, as if the drums
possessed the people, and the crowd who was sitting in
the stadium seats wanted to see their superheroes up close.
(04:57):
They wanted to be on stage, Nan Bialero. Nikki Morrero
remembers that moment, you.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Know, sudden, I saw the public that were seating in
the bleaches coming down with like ants coming into the
grounds and comings in close and closing.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Fanio Records co owner Jerry Masucci had made a deal
with the stadium that prohibited the crowds from getting on
the field or the label would lose their deposit. But
the crowd didn't give a fuck about any agreement.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I could see them coming down from the lows, down
and down.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Thousands of people swarmed the field.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
The groundskeeper goes over to the AC distribution panel and
he's pulling out the power to the stage.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The sound guy, Bernie Fox, did his best to keep
the concert going as the groundskeepers threatened to shut it down.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
This is all life and the thing is flashing, you know.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
There is the sparks, and the sound system goes and
it turns into what sounds like a kazoo.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
The show no one thought would draw a crowd took
over Yankee Stadium. Not only did the fans rush the field,
they jumped on the stage and took whatever was it
nailed to the ground. Someone waved a giant Puerto Rican flag.
It was nuts. Fania Mania, the little record label that
(06:45):
people called crazy for booking Yankee Stadium, proved everyone wrong.
Nikki Marito recalls it was the first time in my
life that I felt Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Where can you go up to?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
This from Pututro Studios. I'm Rosie Perenz and this is
our thing, The Birth of Salsa Nuevao a podcast about
the legends behind the music and the label who defined it,
Bania Records. My work has always lived at the intersection
(07:31):
of movement, film, and cultural storytelling. From my choreography days
that earned me Emmy nominations to my life on screen
with Golden Globe and Asconauts, it has all been about
expression for me. But before the recognitions or other titles,
I was just a girl in Brooklyn listening to salsa music.
(07:54):
As a Eurekan, I sometimes questioned if I was Puerto
Rican enough for the motherland. Salsa reminded me that identity
is not just inherited. It is created, lived, celebrated, and
it was born and raised right here on the streets
of New York City. So that's where we're gonna start.
(08:21):
Episode one, Faniac takes whoever your from Brookland to the Bronx.
Music has always been a part of New York City's heartbeat,
coming from windows, people's cars, family parties, check check and check.
The high files up and bumping the latest tune. People
(08:44):
would bring over their favorite records and share their latest
fines for our family. That usually included artists from Fania Records,
the Motel of Latin music. You know them, Willie Colon,
the Level, Celia.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
Couls, Raby.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Baby Red Old Reuben Blade.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Tell you these artists were the soundtrack to our lives.
And they were here in New York City because if
you wanted to make music, New York was where you
(09:29):
came to make.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And the sixties was a time of change, changing music,
change in politics, change in culture.
Speaker 7 (09:41):
We're taking over schools to ask for black and Puerto
Rican studies. The civil rights is going on. We're watching
people a crossing the bridge in the South.
Speaker 8 (09:51):
And equal freedom for all about citizens regardless of race
or regardless of color.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
And getting shot with poses from fire and being sick
down with German shepherds.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
As is a Puerto Rican journalist and writer who once
worked for Fanio Records and grew up in New York City.
She remembers Puerto Rican activists mobilizing in the sixties.
Speaker 7 (10:14):
They were advocating for the liberation of Puerto Ricos and
we're marching you know, against the Vietnam War.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
The war in Vietnam is the world and perilous depression
against the colored people.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
In East Harlem. When more into civil rights, when more
integrated with the black community, we went into a bottom genius,
you know, and torn off T shirts and no.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Bra The Sneaker generation, as they were nicknamed, were going
against the grain, changing things up from what the parents
used to do. Their parents who used to hit the
big ballrooms and big mambo numbers, you know, the big
bands and the boleros and marengez.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
The sixties was a big shift from big band, from mambo,
from rumba and medinge chaanga to bachanga. In nineteen sixty,
when the whole world was doing twists, New York Latinos
were doing bachanga.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And don't forget rock and roll was also taking over.
In the sixties, young people in the US used rock
and roll to rebel.
Speaker 7 (11:28):
American kids rejected the big band music of their parents.
They out and out rejected it and embraced rock and roll.
Then by the time sixty four came in, the Beatles
that took over.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
We were listening to rock and roll and soul too.
But many Latino teenagers didn't see the need to completely
reject their parents' music.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
We didn't do that. We respected our parents' Puerto Rican music.
We respected the Cuban music. But then we mixed it
up with our music, our influences, with jazz, with rock,
with what was going on with English, and we called
it Sansa.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Latinos were adapting the music of the past to vibe
what they were feeling at the time, and at that time,
it was all about a new kind of dance, the bachanga.
It's kind of like salasta to the naked eye, but
more funky, more street. Often involves a banuelo and some
(12:36):
jumping whipper. This is musician Johnny Pacheco speaking to author
Mary Kent for her book Salsa Talks.
Speaker 9 (12:47):
I started the dance of the jananger.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Praise Tcharanga was a late feeling Cuban music, the music
dance the bachanga to get it. The name Pachanga is
actually a fusion of his name bah for bajaco and
Changa for tcharanga, because Johnny is the one who started
(13:10):
the dance craze and he was literally bringing down the
house as shows. As he told Ura Flores in an interview.
Speaker 9 (13:17):
When I opened up palladium that seeing fell down and
there was a car dealer and a drugstore. All the
medication went on the floor and they had to put
still being in order for me to come in with
a pachanda.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Johnny was like my big brother, you know, just a
very lovable guy.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Is really not a bad bone in his body.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
This is Alex Basucci, who worked alongside Johnny Alfanio Records.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Always had a smile on his face, cigar in his hand,
you know, and a joke on his tongue.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
He was always telling jokes.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Let me tell you more about Johnny because he's one
of the main characters in this whole story. Juan Asarias
Pacheco Nipping aka Johnny Pacheco was born in the Dominican
Republic and was exposed to music young.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
Thank father was the bandleader used to have Oeta Tantacilia,
which was the number one orchestra in that era.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
His father, renowned band leader and clarinetis, gifted him a
harmonica one year and that was that.
Speaker 9 (14:22):
The first systeman that I got was a harmonica that
was given to her. By the time I was about seven,
I was playing marangas a writer.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Johnny's family fled the Dominic Kim Republic because of the
infamous dictator, Fafio Throuillo. The Pacheco family did not sympathize
with the dictator, and if you weren't down with Ruio,
it was very easy to turn up missing. So Johnny's
father worked tirelessly to get his family out of the country,
finally able to bring Johnny over to New York City
(14:54):
when he was eleven. After going through the public school system,
he eventually studied percussion at Juilliard, the world renowned music school.
By the late fifties, Johnny was gaining traction with his
orchestra Bajako Isu Taranga.
Speaker 9 (15:09):
I was trying to get the group recorded. I never
gave up, so I went in the studio and I
did a demo nobody wanted. They said that's the crap.
He's gonna die Forget about that.
Speaker 7 (15:21):
Then comes Allegi Records al Santiago.
Speaker 9 (15:25):
Al Santiago came man and he says, you want to
record kid, I'll give you a contract.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Al Santiago was a record producer who started Allegra Records
aka Out of the Bronx.
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Al Santiago was the first one to record these guys
when nobody else would record them.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Johnny also trusted Al Santiago. Al had grown up enthralled
with loud music, even as a kid hanging out at
the Palladium, the legendary New York City Council Hall. Here
is El speaking with journalist David Karp in the nineties
before he passed.
Speaker 10 (16:02):
I used to be the band boy to my uncle's
band who played the Palladium, and at least I was
on the penstine giving out the music. I remember going
up those long flight of stairs, those many many steps,
and hearing the brass section.
Speaker 8 (16:17):
Da da dada. That is my favorite Mumbo phrase, and
I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
The Palladium Bolvroom was one of the most famous establishments
of the time, a legend in the heart of Midtown.
The club was home to the biggest acts and best dancers.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
They wanted you to be dressed appropriately.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You had to have a jacket.
Speaker 10 (16:47):
You couldn't get in unless you were a tie, and
if you didn't have one, you were forced to runt
a real.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Ugly, wrinkled, horrible tie.
Speaker 10 (16:58):
And of course in those days, we didn't have jeez
and we didn't have sneakers and all would there.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Go like that.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
The big bands played at the clubs all over town,
but they all wanted top billing at a lady. The
players were dressed to the knives, the best dancers all
up front, absorbing the sounds of the percussion, fill in
the glave, ba ba ba ba.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
So all this has happened, and then clubs are happening,
not only its.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Harmm all over the Bronx.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
One of the reasons clubs came out was because the
factory is you know this the whole you know, industrial
revolution and the way it happened on the islands and
all of that. People needed a place on the weekends
to just relax. This was not farm work anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
The people needed this music. They craved it, and that
created competition all over the city because you had to
get out and dance at the best spots with the
best orchestras. You needed an outlet. And let me tell
you something, dancing does something to your brain. It changes you.
It makes you more confident. Let me be blood. You
(18:08):
may not be very good looking, but boy, if you
could dance, people waited in line for you. And the
dancing at these clubs it was hot, it was sensual
and man didn't make you sweat with your clothes on,
so without even meaning to it was a big outlet,
(18:29):
and packed clubs meant packed wallets for the owners, so
the music had to be top notch. So back to
our hero story. A young Johnny Pacheco had just signed
with Alegre Records and Al Santiago. His first album with
(18:54):
the label, Pacheco is Sucharanga was a hit. In one
of his early songs, he repeats a an African term
meaning joy or happiness. The percussion is the backbone, still
(19:15):
marking that glave ba ba ba ba ba with a
cowbll walking the mambo section. The whole song is a
party and mark my word, it made you want to
dance mucho swing. Johnny was a genius. He could play
(19:39):
everything well. He had refined playing percussion at Juilliard, but
thanks to that he also played clarinet, violin and one
of the signatures the flute.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Her Checko was incredibly knowledgeable about music.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's Bernie Fox, one of Fania's original sound engineers. You
heard him.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
If Pacheco had to overdub a Morocca part or a
Guido part on a live recording. He didn't have to
look at music if once he heard the music, once
he knew all the breaks, he knew all the everything,
and he would just go and play it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
There was nothing Johnny couldn't do. Johnny even worked on
The Tonight Show on NBC. So anyway back to Allegra.
After that initial honeymoon phase ended, Johnny realized something was
a miss at the label.
Speaker 11 (20:42):
We were selling records and the money wasn't coming in.
Speaker 9 (20:45):
They were spending money like it was going out of style,
and that really take me off.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So Johnny Butcheco decided he would leave Allegre for bigger dreams.
As he told Ura Flores in an interview.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
That I was to have the best orchestra ever, getting
all the best musicians, putting them together.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And by this time Johnny he was a star. His
record had been a hit.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
This record at that time sold over one hundred thousand copies.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Making sure you heard that right, one hundred thousand copies
in nineteen sixty one. This is not streaming sales or
digital downloads. This was pushing music on the radio and
physical album sold without any of the modern tools to
get your name out there. Think about that Johnny was huge,
(21:37):
but his personal life was suffering.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
He was getting divorced.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
At the time, Johnny needed a divorce lawyer.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
His divorce lawyer was Jerry Masucci.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
It's starting at a party.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
That's Jerry Masucci, the other central character of our story.
He speaks here to author Mary Kent for her book
Salsa Talks.
Speaker 9 (22:00):
He was worth a leg record.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
He was unhappy.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Johnny met Jerry about the divorce, but soon the two
hit it off when they talked about their mutual love
for Latin music.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
He's very charming guy, Jerry, you know, very charming.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
This is Alex Masucci, who you heard from earlier, who
is also Jerry's younger brother.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And he was really a jock, you know, he was
always playing ball.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Jerry and Alex grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Their
parents were immigrants from Italy, and Alex remembers that even
as a kid, Jerry loved Latin music.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
When I was a.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Kid, we shared a bed, so he would come home
and he put on Latin music and I'd say to myself,
you know, what the come I don't.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Understand how does he understand this?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
What is the is this guy?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Before he was a divorce lawyer or a cop. Jerry
was in the Navy, and the Navy sent him to Cuba.
Speaker 12 (23:01):
I worked in Havana, so I went to school in Mexico.
I was always sort of had a feeling for lat things.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Jerry's time in Cuba really left a mark on him.
Before the revolution, Havana was ultimately a US playground, filled
with casinos and clubs and everything that was prohibited or
taboo in the US at the time.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Imagine leaving you lived behind the candy store in Brooklyn,
and you know you're a jock, and you know the
biggest experience has gone on a corner bar, you know,
and all of a sudden, he's in Havana. Would sell
your cruz singing on the corner and a cafe and
all these girls dancing to Latin music and all these clubs,
(23:45):
and then they would race, you know, cooker roches between
the track. You know, it's just action town. You know.
The richest people say that, and a cab driver who
went there with no money would say the same thing.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And it was a wild town, Havanah.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Jerry got back to New York and tried to find
his way.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
He was the youngest cop on the force. He became
a cop on his twenty first birthday. Jerry was always
trying to start businesses. You know. One time he started
to see you know, the electric carts that they use now.
He had it years ago, and I believe he was
traveling around the country with Mario and Dretti trying to
sell these carts. You know, he was always trying something.
(24:26):
And then Jerry met Johnny.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Johnny Pacheco, who happened to need a divorce and who
also happened to be one of the hardest Latin musicians
of the time. Soon Jerry invited Johnny to dinner at
the Masucci's one weekend.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
My mother she worked eight hours a day in a
factory selling pockets.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You know what that is, just go.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And then she would cook.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
She'd make antipasta that was like it was like a
piece of art.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
She'd row all the salami up, put it in certain
spots and it was amazing. And then she'd make pasta,
sausages meet for bra Joel, and then she made chicken cutlets.
So one day Johnny comes over. I was sitting outside
my mother was coming for a Sunday dinner, and all
(25:19):
of a sudden, this Mercedes pulls up, you know, and
they were no Mercedes in my neighborhood. I didn't know
if I knew what a Mercedes was. And Johnny gets
out and Mona gets out, his second wife.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
And she was gorgeous.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I mean really, I'll never forget when she got out
of that car.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
And then it became official. Here's Jerry again.
Speaker 12 (25:46):
John I said, start a rek, so we came far.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Jerry had teamed up with Johnny to create Bania Records,
a new label that they said would be favorable to musicians,
one that would be like a family.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
My mother and father gave him the money to do
the album, which was a lot of money for them
to give. You know, they were making twenty eight dollars
a week.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
The Masucci's mom gave them twenty five hundred dollars and
they were off. Johnny would serve as musical director and
Jerry would handle the business side, even if at first
that was a work in progress.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
He didn't know anything about the music business.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
They opened up a phone book and I got.
Speaker 12 (26:31):
The yellow pages out and called up a recording studio,
Jacket Place, Label Place, and we made a record together.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Johnny and Jerry. Jerry and Johnny a real dynamic tool.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Johnny is probably one of the most talented showmen in
the history of the business. An incredible songwriter, fabulous food
player and a wonderful guy. You know. I mean, I
don't think either one of that could have done it
without each other period.
Speaker 11 (27:02):
Jerry was a true fan of the music. He really
got into the music big time.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Javi at Byrne popular music producer, a musician.
Speaker 11 (27:11):
Fania the name Fania is a coffee shop in Cuba
where a lot of guys want to hang out.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
There's some debate about that name. Johnny is stuck by
his version in many interviews that the name came from
a Cuban song called Aania Boonche, originally written by Rinaldo Bolanos.
He also said that there was a Cuban group called Fania.
Speaker 9 (27:36):
It was a group of individuals in Cuba that they
had this club and was from good players only, and
the name attracted me so much. I put Fania instead
of Pania Fania and I said, this will sounding not
only good to the Spanish, but to Americans they would
say Funnie Records.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Whatever the reason the name Fania stuck, I'll take it.
Harvey got involved right from the onset through a mutual bandmate,
one of Fania's first artists, Larry Harlow.
Speaker 11 (28:07):
Mike bookkeeper was Larry hollow mother. Okay, Larry see his
mother during the day and tell her about that he
just signed a contract with his new record company, owned
by an Italian lawyer and Pacheco. He said, Oh, you
wouldn't meet this guy, Jerry Masucci. I think you too
would get along. As Jerry said, I want to continue
my law practice and put all the money I make
(28:30):
into Fania. I believe in Faia.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So the two co founders now have a name, some
producers and a couple of artists. Fania Records was up
and running sort of.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
There were so many record labels on Tenth Avenue, you know,
just in storefronts, and we were in a basically in
a broom closet in Jerry's law office.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
You know, you know, we didn't sell a lot of records.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Daniel Nassel was the first of Pacheco's album's release on
the new Fania label, with eleven dance tunes. This marked
the beginning of an era. They didn't even have space
to store the LPs. Remember we're talking about physical products,
giant heavy boxes. A team of two. They would deliver
(29:22):
the records, sometimes out of the back of Johnny's own car.
One person to watch the car and want to deliver
the merchandise. If you know New York City, you know
parking was a bitch even back then. Here's Johnny Pacheco again.
Speaker 9 (29:37):
I used to do Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Jerry
used to do Tuesday Furdiesday. On Saturday, we used to
get in my car and put all the records. We
used to go to every store delivered on own records.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Despite Johnny already being a pretty big deal. Here he
was in the middle of winter distributing records himself, and
people got a kick out of me.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It was scroll like hell, my nose was running.
Speaker 9 (30:05):
And one guy then look up a check a lane
that bay making delivery and he took out a dollar
billion into.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And every then that came in, we put it back
into the business.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
All of that paid off because the public took notice.
Here's Jerry and.
Speaker 12 (30:22):
Just came together. Second recond Now he found no guide,
and all of a sudden thing of.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Jerry and Johnny were able to get it played on
the radio because Jerry was well connected through his day
job as a lawyer and a cop, and Johnny knew
all the DJs. Between the two of them, they knew everyone.
The public was into what they were selling because it
was different, because, like we said earlier, the demographics were changing.
(30:56):
Auror remembers the first time she noticed the change.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
So I'm listening to Symphony sid one night and I
hear a gonga. I hear a lot of music, but
I'm hearing this guy. But I'm saying, wait a minute.
He's not singing about the farm. He's not singing about.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
The chicken and the rooster.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
He's singing about the projects. He's singing about riots. He's
singing about us.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
This new generation of kids, the sneaker generation, was ready
for change in society and in music, but with the
flavor they grew up listening to at home. By nineteen
sixty six, the Palladium shuttered its doors and Fanio Recas
was poised to take the city by storm. But as
(31:41):
the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with
good intentions coming up this season.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
That night Da Cheetah, they just played un fucking believable
or slabe.
Speaker 12 (31:53):
It's somebody you didn't mess with, you know, one of
things his way, if they were legal or not.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Our rhythm is directly African.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
We cannot continue to act as if this is just
Latin music. This is African music now.
Speaker 7 (32:05):
Lupe was the queen of Latin soul, different from Celia.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Why is it, Jerry that you promote the commercial bands.
Why aren't you promoting the black bands?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Banya is making money in every direction.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
Johnny was sorry hard because Johnny trusted him.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
If you sold one hundred, that was unheard of. We
sold millions.
Speaker 11 (32:25):
Didn't make a nickel, a fucking penny.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I never made nothing of that. I said, Holy shit,
I'm Joe Batan.
Speaker 11 (32:32):
I ain't got the money to pay for the flat tire.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I can't wait for the next episode. Joined puturo Plus
for early access to the whole season at free listening
and exclusive bonus content. For our Thing, The Birth of
Salasa in UEV, York. Go to Puturomediagroup dot org slash
joint plus to get access today our thing, The Birth
(33:03):
of Salsa in Uever York is an original podcast from
Puturo Studios. It was made possible by the Mellon Foundation.
Our senior producer is Genie Muntalvo. Our episodes were written, reported,
and produced by her and Mark Pagan. The episodes were
edited by Maria Garcia, additional editing by Marlon Bishop. Our
(33:27):
post producer is Joaquing Cutler. He and Genie Montalvo sound
designed our episodes. Our associated producer is Juliana Luis. Our
production managers are Francis Poon, Jessica Ellis and Victoria Estrada.
Mixing by Stephanie LAbau, Julia Caruso and jj Corubin, back
(33:48):
checking by Tatiana Diaz and additional booking by jabiir Rejas.
Editorial consultation by Ernesto Lechner. Special thanks to Aroa Flores,
Martin Cohen, Alex Masucci, Mariso Negron, Mary Kent and Annsto Nukar.
Special thanks to Craft Recordings, a con Company theme Swung
(34:11):
and original music by Ella Brick. Additional music courtesy of
David Frankel and Avanida bay Yours Truly recorded at Bridge
Studios in Brooklyn by you Ros Giovanovitch and at full
English post by Charles at Tangana and Ben Steiner. Special
thanks to my manager Tarkanafari a Strand Entertainment and my
(34:35):
glam Squad here Johnny Levoy and make up Karen Dupiche.
Executive produced for Uturo Studios by Marlon Bishop and Maria
Garcia from Concord Records. Executive producers are Bruce McIntosh and
Wesley Adams. Show art by jose ostol OSTOLASA original show
(34:58):
concept by Marlon Bishop and Genie Montalvo. Legal review by
Neil Rossini, Michael Martin, Linn Hoist and Jonathan Bishop of
Legal Arts. A marketing team includes Annello Reyes and Luis Luna.
Futuro Media was founded by Maria Inajosa. I'm your host
(35:19):
and resident Luregan Rosie Perez. You can hear all the
music featured in this episode and this season on our
Spotify music playlist. We've got links in our show notes,
and don't forget to tap the heart to save it
to your library because we'll be adding to it each week.
And make sure you follow our thing, The Birth of
(35:41):
Salta in Nueva York on your favorite podcast app. Thanks
for listening.
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