With the February 14 release Fania Records: The Latin Sound of New York (1964–1978), Craft Recordings offers an outstanding primer into what is almost certainly the greatest of all Latin record companies. It’s an essentially flawless party soundtrack, but with ensemble playing so elevated that one could just collapse into the sofa to soak it all up. These 16 tracks aren’t the last word in salsa; indeed, the four sides of vinyl aren’t even the last word in Fania’s back catalog, but for anybody who’s been tempted to take the Latin vinyl plunge, if this set doesn’t whet an appetite for heightened groove science, then nothing will.
As is so often the case with the great record labels, nobody else was doing it, so musician Johnny Pacheco and lawyer Jerry Masucci stepped in to fill a void. Fania Records wasn’t the first Latin record label, and had Fania never existed it’s very likely that many of these bandleaders and vocalists would have cut records for other companies, but what’s uncertain is the level of quality that hypothetical output would have attained.
Fania didn’t just intermittently hit high points, the enterprise sustained a level of inspired mastery, and assuredly so across the 14 years covered by The Latin Sound of New York. The final track, “Pedro Navaja,” is from Siembra, a 1978 album by Willie Colón and Rubén Blades that just last year topped the Los 600 de Latinoamérica (The 600 from Latin America) list of the greatest Latin recordings from 1922–2020. Siembra also topped Rolling Stone magazine’s 2024 list of the greatest Salsa recordings.
In a nutshell, Fania thrived through a deep understanding of the music and a strong bond with the community. As “Pedro Navaja” makes clear, the sound of Fania grew in ambition over time but without diluting the essence in an attempt to cross over to broader commercial success. Instead, consumers have gravitated to Fania’s output over time through reputation and exposure.
And so it continues with The Latin Sound of New York. The set isn’t sequenced chronologically. Opening with “I Like It (I Like It Like That),” an enduring dose of boogaloo heat released in 1967 by the Alegre label, it plays a little loose with history, as the Alegre catalog was purchased by Fania in 1975. “Café” by Eddie Palmieri follows, a beautiful slow burner that dates from 1964, originally released by the Tico label (a catalog purchased by Fania in 1974).
But with “Gypsy Woman” by Joe Bataan, spirited but smooth with ripping trombones, and “Acid” by Ray Barretto, an aptly titled feast of rhythm, tracks released in 1967 and ’68 respectively, the focus shifts to proper Fania releases with a rise of intensity and ambition. On side two, attention is paid to the great vocalists, opening with Héctor Lavoe’s infectiously swinging “Mi Gente” from the singer’s 1975 masterpiece La Voz, and closing with Celia Cruz’s “Quimbara,” the powerhouse vocalist backed by the increasingly torrid motions of Pacheco’s band (the track opened the 1974 set Ceila & Johnny).
It’s Willie Colón who dominates The Latin Sound of New York’s second LP. Along with the finale with Blades, there’s two killer co-billings with Lavoe, “Che Che Colé” and “La Murga,” and he also impacts the grand sweep of “El Cantante” from Lavoe’s 1978 solo album Comedia. That’s half of the second disc’s tracks, but the others are right up to snuff, including “Indestructible,” another banger from Barretto, and “Estrellas de Fania,” a sheer talent showcase recorded live at the Cheetah Club in 1971 by the Fania All Stars.
Streamlined rather than exhaustive, Fania Records: The Latin Sound of New York (1964–1978) is an exceptional sampling of boogaloo and salsa at its very best.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
