VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino announces a special reissue of 1969’s Guisando: Doing a Job, the third collaboration from pioneering salsa duo Willie Colón featuring Héctor Lavoe. With such classic tracks as “No Me Den Candela,” the instrumental “I Wish I Had a Watermelon” (Colón’s response to Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man”) and “Guisando,” the album is a must-have for fans of classic salsa.
Returning to wax for the first time in over half a century, Guisando was mastered from its original analog tapes by Dave Polster and Clint Holley at Well Made Music and pressed on 180-gram vinyl for an optimal listening experience. The album, which arrives May 30th, will also make its debut in hi-res digital. A limited-edition “Candela Orange” color vinyl variant (limited to 300 copies), with an exclusive bundle option that includes a Fania T-shirt, is available at Fania.com. Click here to pre-order Guisando: Doing a Job.
In 1967, Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe were just 16 and 21, respectively, when Fania Records co-founder and musical director, Johnny Pacheco, paired them in the studio. Before long, the talented young men would become one of Latin music’s most formidable duos. Known as “El Cantante,” Lavoe (1946–1993) was one of the great interpreters of salsa music, revered for his bright vocals, seamless phrasing, and witty, ad-libbed anecdotes.
Colón (b. 1950), meanwhile, quickly became a key figure in the scene, who shaped the sound of salsa on and off stage as a trombonist, composer, producer, and leader of his namesake orchestra. Together, Colón and Lavoe defined one of Latin music’s most exciting eras through 11 legendary albums, beginning with two classics: 1967’s El Malo and 1968’s The Hustler.
While those first two titles were billed under Colón’s name, it became clear that audiences loved the rising stars as a package deal. That partnership was solidified with their third album, 1969’s Guisando: Doing a Job, which featured Lavoe alongside Colón on the album cover, as baby-faced bank robbers—continuing The Hustler’s gangster theme (a common thread throughout their collaborative LPs).
The album also marked a significant stylistic shift for the duo, as they moved beyond the boogaloo trend and towards the vibrant, diverse sound that would soon become known widely as “salsa.” Writer Jaime Torres Torres once declared that Guisando was “the first salsa album by a duo,” adding that Colón and Lavoe “Present a rebellious, aggressive and irreverent style of making music.”
Guisando (slang for earning a quick buck, but literally translating to “cooking up a stew”) finds the band serving a bold blend of sonic flavors—from Latin jazz and the Puerto Rican bomba to the guaguancó, the guaracha, the guajira, and the son. The result is a refreshing and irresistible line-up of seven original tracks, including such favorites as “No Me Den Candela,” the lively “Guisando,” and “El Títan,” plus the popular “Te Estan Buscando,” penned by pianist Mark Diamond. The album also features the instrumental “I Wish I Had a Watermelon,” which was Colón’s musical response to Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man.”
Lavoe, meanwhile, can be heard developing his legendary storytelling skills as he sings tales of urban life. Despite the album’s cover art, Torres Torres explains, “Willie and Héctor never incited the youth to rob banks, to traffic in drugs [or] to murder people. As exponents of urban salsa, their sociocultural discourse was strengthened by their observations of life in the neighborhoods and communities with the greatest concentration of Latins in New York. Their lyrics tackle, sometimes with humor, the stories of the purse-snatchers or thieves who…do not escape justice.”
Praised by Allmusic for its “Exuberance, humor, [and] innovation,” Guisando—and the pair behind the record—certainly resonated with fans in New York and beyond. In the years that followed, Colón and Lavoe skyrocketed to fame, releasing a string of best-selling titles, including Cosa Nuestra (1969), La Gran Fuga (The Big Break) (1970), Lo Mato (1973), and the classic holiday albums Asalto Navideño Vols. 1 & 2 (1971 and 1973, respectively) with Yomo Toro. While they would each embark on solo projects in the mid-’70s, Colón served as producer for many of Lavoe’s most successful releases.
Lavoe, who passed away in 1993 at the age of 46, is still remembered as one of salsa music’s greatest vocalists. Posthumously, he was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame, among other honors, while his life inspired an off-Broadway play, a tribute album, and two feature films, including the Marc Anthony/Jennifer Lopez-led El Cantante (2006). Colón, meanwhile, continues to stay active in the industry, and in 2004, he received the coveted Latin GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award.
