Wave of Fania reissues about to crest
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-ca-fania15jan15,0,3996233.story?coll=cl-musicPOP MUSICSpicing up that beat*Releases from Fania Records, the label that set the world pulsing to salsa, are being reissued with refurbishments. By Agustin Gurza, Times Staff WriterOnce, a record label of the humblest beginnings turned into an international powerhouse by gambling on unknown talent in a minority community overlooked or underestimated by the industry at large. Its success was fueled by tirelessly promoting artists intent on asserting their cultural identity and seeking recognition within the U.S. mainstream.In the '60s, that label was Motown Records.ADVERTISEMENTIn the '70s, it was Fania Records, the barrio label once peddled from the back of a truck in the streets of New York that single-handedly set the whole world dancing to a salsa beat.Starting next month, Fania's extensive and vital music vaults will be rejuvenated with the first in a series of reissues, as well as box sets available for the first time. The label's catalog of salsa classics are being rereleased on CD with refurbished sound and fresh liner notes after its recent purchase by Miami-based Emusica Entertainment Group.Just as Motown shaped soul and R&B, Fania created its own sound in Latin dance music. It was based on traditional Afro-Caribbean styles with an array of rhythms ??? son, guaguanco, bomba, plena, rumba, merengue, mambo. But Fania's savvy promoters were the first to market the modernized versions under a single catch-all expression that became a readily recognizable brand in any language: salsa.The music was so influential that it inspired Carlos Santana to create Latin rock, turning Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" into a crossover smash. At its peak, salsa became so popular that the Fania All Stars, the label's supergroup, went from playing small Latin clubs to selling out Yankee Stadium. Their concerts, many recorded for live albums, were electrifying events that drew wild fan followings from the Congo to Tokyo."It's almost like every release they had, small or large, had artistic value," says veteran music executive Bill Marin, Fania's West Coast promoter in the mid-'70s. "The music made a difference. It gave you the pulse of something fresh and new."Fania's catalog includes many historic recordings and several musical milestones. Among the notables:The very first albums made by a then-beardless Eddie Palmieri with his groundbreaking 1960s band, La Perfecta.The early works of singer-songwriter Rub??n Blades, including 1977's "Siembra," his second album with bandleader Willie Col??n, considered the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" of salsa music for its fresh sound and complex songs.The first collaboration between Dominican bandleader and Fania co-founder Johnny Pacheco with singer Celia Cruz, 1974's "Celia & Johnny," one of the bestselling salsa albums of all time.The career work of the late Hector Lavoe, a brash but beloved street singer specializing in quick-witted improvisations and exquisitely soulful boleros. This revered folk figure's tragic life is the subject of a new movie to star Marc Anthony, now in production.The early live recordings of the Fania All Stars, especially 1971's "Live at the Cheetah" (Volumes 1 and 2), which was featured in the documentary "Our Latin Thing," helping spark the '70s salsa explosion.It began with ambitionThe label was launched in 1964 by Pacheco and his Brooklyn-born attorney, Jerry Masucci, a former New York cop who had handled the bandleader's divorce. The pair set about signing unknown bands led by artists who would later become salsa superstars, including trombonist Willie Col??n, pianist Larry Harlow, bongocero Roberto Roena, conguero Ray Barretto and bassist Bobby Valentin. Their company became so powerful it soon gobbled up the catalogs of older Latin labels, such as Tico and Alegre, bringing into the fold almost every significant salsa artist from that era, outside of Cuba.The long-awaited purchase of Fania comes at a time when sales of new salsa CDs are down dramatically. Still, it's a testament to Fania's strength that it was able to survive exclusively on catalog sales long after its heyday faded in the early '80s and its stable of artists scattered to other record companies. Until the recent sale of its assets, the label was shrouded in a web of lawsuits from aggrieved artists and a confusing trail of ownership after Masucci's mysterious move to Argentina, where he died in 1997.The corporate and probate entanglements stalled previous acquisition efforts even by the most eager and resourceful of suitors, such as Zach Horowitz, president of Universal Music Group."I'm just happy as a fan that this stuff is going to come out again," says Horowitz, who settled for a distribution deal with Fania's new owners. "It's the first time in 30 years, maybe ever, that somebody has done the historic treatment this catalog deserves."Music executive Giora Breil had been trying for five years to acquire Fania. But only after sealing the deal last summer did he realize he may have unearthed previously unreleased gems in the bargain.In trying to match paperwork to some 13,000 tracks on 1,300 albums, Breil was led to a storage facility in upstate New York, near a farm once owned by Masucci. But instead of files, the new owner found a stash of original, multitrack tapes, used to mix and master the original releases.Some of the studio tapes were too old and unstable to play without risking damage. Thus began the process of actually baking the salsa tapes to loosen the old emulsion and perhaps liberate a trove of forgotten or discarded songs from one of the great Latin music eras of all time."We haven't been able to hear everything," said Breil, a former advertising and Spanish television executive. "It's quite possible we are sitting on stuff we don't even know yet, because it's kind of hard to put your arms around 40 years of recording."The first batch of 30 Emusica reissues is scheduled for Feb. 28. They are all being remastered and repackaged with original art, new liner notes and lower prices. (The old Fania rarely discounted.) The new owners (Breil and partners Stuart Livingston, Bob Grever and David Good) also recently acquired the Kubaney label, respected primarily for Dominican merengue.No ordinary restorationAlthough much of the Fania catalog has been issued previously on CD, many of those digital versions suffer from poor sound quality, far inferior to the original vinyl releases. Many were digitized without being remastered, sometimes transferred from vinyl copies rather than original master tapes.Much of the work to prepare the old recordings for a digital rebirth is being done by Grammy-winning mastering engineer Bob Katz at his Digital Domain studio outside Orlando, Fla. Though the quality of the old masters varies widely, Katz said, state-of-the-art mastering equipment can fill in sound gaps, called dropouts, and reveal even richer detail than the originals."This is more than a restoration," said Katz, who is married to salsa author Mary Kent. "It's what I would call a renovation."The discovery of the multitrack studio tapes opens even more tantalizing possibilities. It means new mixes would be possible, using separate tracks that hold discrete elements ??? Cruz's voice, Barretto's congas, Puente's timbales.The thought tempts veteran sound engineer Jon Fausty, credited with raising recording standards on scores of Fania productions."I'd love to get my hands on those multitracks," says Fausty, who worked with Wilson Pickett, Gene Pitney and others before becoming staff engineer at Fania in 1971. "They're m
y recordings, and it would be very exciting to take part in the reprocessing of this wonderful old music to make it sound as good as we did back then."So far, however, there are no plans for making remixes. Breil, a German immigrant who moved to New York the year Fania was founded, says the first reissues will remain true to the originals."We inherited a cultural responsibility here," he says. "Fania is part of the patrimonio latino, the wealth of Latin culture."
y recordings, and it would be very exciting to take part in the reprocessing of this wonderful old music to make it sound as good as we did back then."So far, however, there are no plans for making remixes. Breil, a German immigrant who moved to New York the year Fania was founded, says the first reissues will remain true to the originals."We inherited a cultural responsibility here," he says. "Fania is part of the patrimonio latino, the wealth of Latin culture."
Comments
Even though Fania was around in the '60s, too?
Read the rest of the story, dun.
I did read the rest of the story. Fania was definitely the salsa Motown, but they broke ground in the sixties as well, which is why I questioned the fact that the writer affiliated Fania with the 70s.
I think it was just a case of the writer employing a bad device--a lot of people would say that the sixties were Fania's best years artistically.
Wrong. These were on Alegre.
Not that this harshes my buzz in any way toward the reish of the catalog...
Of course, I also know a few folks planning to sue Emusica to get back $$$ owed them by Fania. Old history never dies.
I think the author meant the catalog controlled by Fania as opposed to records released on the Fania label, since Celia & Johnny was a Vaya release... bad writing, though.
okay, now i understand...i was wondering why the writer made a point of mentioning tito puente's "oye como va" when it was recorded for another label...i guess fania now controls tico, too?
hahaha, hence the "Jerry Masuci mysteriously dissappearing to Argentina" claim.
Industry rule #4080...
It has since the mid-seventies, I think.
Do it or you're soft.
???
File under Soulstrut Haiku....
I'm just feeling "then-beardless" as a synonym for "young," is all. Though the very antipode of what people in the Lower East Village might call "good" writing, it has a certain clunk appeal, like those Russian watches from the late 80s (the tank-proof jernts with the screw-on crowns? the white belt of its day--real heads know), and--next to the t-shirt on dude clerking the bodega ("TOO SMITH-&-WESS'ED TO BE STRESSED")--it's the best/worst thing I've read in a minute. You need to cool it with the "???" slack-jawing and, as I told miss lady at the kielbasa spot, "get on my hype."
Wasn't there an attempt during the '70's to market Fania to a white audience, though? I seem to remember Chris Blackwell doing a deal to release Fania albums through Island in the mid/late-70's, at least in the UK - big articles in the music weeklies, all that kind of thing. They put out a grip of stuff, although I don't recall exactly what. There was a budget-price sampler that one of my boys had, though. It was the first time I ever heard the term "salsa".
More like to a non-Latin audience, since it seemed like they were targeting the black audiences just as much. In the US, Scepter/Wand went first with a Fania distribution deal and had a soul hit in 1971 with Ralfi Pagan's "Make It With You" (Pagan even appeared on one of the first national episodes of Soul Train.) Then when disco came along a few years later, Columbia made a similar attempt at a crossover.