Help wanted (Fania-related)
DocMcCoy
"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
One of my boys works for Universal's catalogue marketing division here in London. Due to their recent acquisition of V2 Records, they now find themselves with the rights to the Fania back catalogue. These rights had recently been picked up by V2, who were in the midst of a pretty extensive reissue/remaster/remarket program that's now been put on hold. However, me and my boy were talking about it over a beer the other night, and he asked me if I had any ideas for it. Now, I know a little about Fania, but on the whole my knowledge is limited to the well-known acts/releases, and is generally kinda sketchy otherwise. I know that a few people on here are much more knowledgeable, so I would like to offer those people, and others, the opportunity to flex their "big dude" muscles in return for a little of their wisdom.Bear in mind that several of the big Fania albums you might expect to have been reissued, such as Riot, Afroindio, Acid, La Voz, Hard Hands and La Perfecta, have recently had the treatment, so I would be very grateful to know what the collective Soul Strut brain feels are some of the great lost pieces on Fania or its imprints - rare, extraordinary, or even extraordinarily rare; if it's something you feel deserves a wider audience, speak on it. Likewise on the essentials/key pieces - there may be some of those they haven't got to yet. Also, if there are any DJs that have always wanted to see a particular certified dancefloor bomb available on 12", feel free to chip in. I think they want to continue the 12" series they started last year as well.Thank you in advance for your input. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
Comments
if not i would enjoy some justo betancourt re-releases...
pete bonet & louie ramirez - the beautiful people
ralfi pagan - i can see
grupo folklorico y experimental nuevayorquino - concepts in unity (thx magroman!)
The Fania catalogue is pretty deep, which isnt strange when you consider they were the leading latin label for a number of years.
re: the v2 reissues: if theres one thing Fania doesnt need in my opinion is another compilation of over-obvious stuff like Barretto's "soul drummers". The comps the "new" Fania put out in the last 12 months came across as hastily-assembled in the sense that all tracks on them have featured on pretty recent (4 years) comps on labels like Harmless and Soul Jazz.
what i would like to see:
* 12's without remixes trying to update tracks
* not using the label for stuff that wasnt originally on fania (eg the 12's by the moon people and ricardo marrero)
* high-quality reissues of the Bataan albums that have been booted and / or cheaply done the last few years.
my 0.02,
RC
Thanks! This is exactly the kind of response I was hoping for.
ralfi pagan
the latinaires
george guzman -in line/intro
joe bataan-riot,subway,gypsy woman,singin soul,poor boy
harvey averne-brotherhood,s/t
mongo santamaria-hey sister,on top
grupo libertad de mexico-rarerest fania
also there are a bunch of 45s that are non lp cuts that are really scarce
This sounds like it would be a good idea for a stand-alone compilation.
What really deserves to see the light of day, that all people would be interested in, is the unreleased material. There is the lost Joe Bataan album for example. I've also heard rumors that Ronnie Marks (Monguito's english speaking singer) has an unreleased album too. And then most if not all of Fania's major artists have unreleased songs, apparently they recorded like crazy. These are the type of things I would most like to hear.
I'd like to see better-quality reissues of those w/ DVD extras, like commentaries from some of the people involved. Something like the jobs done on Wattstax and Soul to Soul.
Garcia Vega is right, though--most of the pieces that would be of interest to people on this board are already available, albeit often in very low quality.
What's the story on this?
major cosign on that!
I would also like to see some high quality reproductions of mono gold label titles. Along the line of what Classic Records does with Blue Note. These are generally geared to the audiophile market.
(I often wonder if vinyl sales are better these days for the audiophile vs the DJ/Producer markets re: microwave etc.)
I don't have a problem with Fania releasing Tico/Allegre stuff. Bottomline: they own those catalogs, those catalogs have great material, end of story.
I heartily agree that I'd like to see 12"s or 45s of original songs and none of this remix gimmickry.
Anybody seen this yet? Im watchin this tonight.
Saw it in the theater. Too much J.Lo/not enough music.
this is the truth...fania in africa and that symphony sid in the bronx movie would be great and good sellers
I agree withn all of red clays comments especially abouyt no gimmicky edits (worse for latin imo)
Reissuing classic albums needs to be done
they should runn them as a gold label series or something with estended liner notes and features on the main artists
honestly i would pray for a Fania Documentary in the quality/direction of the recent PBS Stax one that wuold be incredible
Should my boy be looking anywhere in particular?
I'll definitely mention this to him. I'm not sure exactly what's covered by the pre-existing V2 deal - I don't recall whether it's a long-term sub-licensing agreement, or whether they actually bought the masters. It'd be cool if he had access to the Fania vaults.
This sounds interesting. Again, it'd depend on how far-reaching the deal is, I guess. Did Fania produce a grip of movies, then? I recall a couple of documentaries, albeit very vaguely. Are you talking about concert movies? Anything specific?
Unfortunately, this is a major we're talking about
Appealing an idea as this sounds, the simple economics involved in putting out lavish vinyl reissues of what are fairly specialist titles may prevail here. Another interesting idea, though.
This is an interesting one, too. I presumed that the existing V2/Fania 12"s included these remixes in order to increase their appeal beyond those DJs who specialise in Latin music. Personally, I think they're cool so long as they're sympathetic and they don't mess with the musical integrity of the o.g.'s too much, but I do understand the purist argument. What's the feeling on re-edits?
This is what I meant when I mentioned Fania imprints, which I guess these are? Anything particularly noteworthy amongst the catalogues? I realise I'm doing a lot of brain-draining here, but I do plan on doing some extensive research of my own, and I really do appreciate the help I'm getting from you guys.
Was Our Latin Thing a Fania flick? And is it out properly?
Has Ralfi Pagan gotten extensive reissue treatment? He was one of the few Fania artists, if not the only one, to cross over to the pop and soul charts, and the only reissues I've seen are the CD repros from 10-11 years ago or so.
And if they do that, they can always hit up Don Cornelius for Pagan's 1971 appearance on Soul Train...
Yes, that and Salsa--both are available as very low quality DVDs from Vampisoul.
Honestly I'm not too familiar with the later part of the Fania catalouge as the music they made in those years is not to my liking. I do know that older salsa collectors go crazy for it, and a lot of those dudes buy the remastered cds. The 80s were a time when LP's on Fania were hardly produced or distributed so there is a lot of records from that time which are really rare. Sorry I can't point out anything more concrete.
Ismael Miranda with Orquesta Harlow. I know they re-issued the psychdelic Harlow one but the others are really good as well, oportunidad and some others.
Funny you should say that...when I first started getting into Latin music (particularly the bugalu era), for years the ONLY Fania albums I saw were the late-period albums. And it was already 1989-91 by then. Nothing but Ruben Blades for days; no Acid or The Hustler or nothing. I was always hesitant to buy them, 'cause I figured disco took the edge off of the salsa sound the same way it diminished black music, so I let that stuff slide.
Exactly when did Fania go out of business, anyway?
I don't think its Vampi Soul's fault that they are low quality. Fania used shitty film stock and low budget crews to shoot these movies.
As much as I love "Our Latin Thing" as a cultural document, the editing is horrendous and Geraldo makes me cringe. The commentary on latino presentations in US popular culture was so amature and poorly produced that they make the film an embarrassment.
A PBS style doc on Fania would be incredible, but I doubt it would ever come to fruitition, and if it did it would miss a very key player in Jerry Masuchi. From what I understand his estate wants nothing to do with the music business anymore, and rightly so, that fucked so many artists over that he had to move to Argentina to keep his head. I could be wrong, but I doubt they would agree to talk or to agree to publishing interviews and the like even though Jerry was a very private person.
Yeah, it may well be that nothing can be done about the quality of the print, but I'd still like to see some extras. Commentaries, definitely, and maybe there's some unutilized footage out there. I mean, I own all of them--I'll take what I can get--but I think that more could be done with that material.
Yeah, I should've said that apart from some of their major artists (Willie Colon, Ruben Blades, Cheo Feliciano, Hector Lavoe, Ismael Miranda, etc) there were some albums that fell through the cracks. And it wasn't so much disco that influenced the salsa from that period as it was the money. Things got really overproduced, glossy, and formulaic that salsa lost its edge as you say. Also the market changed, people were more interested in ballads and songs about relationships than anything else, they call that era "salsa romantica" (romantic salsa). It sold well so those songs were pushed more than anything else. That's all good and all, but not my bag. I say its the "modern soul" period of salsa.
In regards to going out of business, they never really went under I think. They just got bogged down by lawsuits, and stuck their resources to their big name artists, instead of developing new talent. Masucci became tired of the business and tried to sell his share, but he was tied to the debt and court cases. Eventually the label got sold off a few times and was in limbo, rereleasing old records on cd, until it was bought out again recently and here we are now. Take all this with a grain of salt because there is a lot of rumor floating around about what really happened with Masucci and Fania's legal woes.
True. It seemed like music throughout the film never evolved yet it spaned 15+ years.
Anyone Recommend which Hector Lavoe album i should start with? Do I start w/ his Colon collabos first?
Seconded... never seen or heard of it?
I half-suspect that it's not a Fania release at all but, rather, a record that one of Fania's international licensees threw a Fania logo on.
Apparently released in 1977.
Salsa Sensual
Horrible and most repetitive genre ever
BATMON satrting with that boxset will be good for you cause you will get all the classics
seriously get a translation of the lyricks to really understand why these songs are great