Fania Records
| Fania Records | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Founded | 1964 |
| Founder | Johnny Pacheco Jerry Masucci |
| Genre | Salsa |
| Country of origin | US |
| Location | |
| Official website | www.faniarecords.com |
Fania Records was a New York based record label founded by Johnny Pacheco (a musician) and Jerry Masucci (a lawyer) in 1964. It is known for its promotion of what has become known as Salsa music. Fania launched the careers of many Salsa stars. One of the first artist signed to Fania was Larry Harlow (musician) who was very important to Fania's structure.
In 1968 Pacheco invented a "superband" called Fania All-Stars that brought together the elite of Salsa musicians and singers for joint performances and recording. Fania All-Stars were Fania's best selling band, outlasting the label itself. They made their debut at the Red Garter club located in the Village of NYC, but it was their performance at the Cheetah a midtown manhattan club in 1971 which became legendary, Larry Harlow (musician) was chosen by Jerry Masucci to be the recording producer of the superband while Pacheco was the director on stage only. The Fania All-Stars was filmed for the documentary "Our Latin Thing" released a year later. (Leon Gast, who directed the film, is an Academy Award winning director of the documentary of Ali's days in Africa prior to the "Rumble in the Jungle". Gast was there to film the concert associated with the performance, which included the Fania All-Stars.) Many did not know that Jerry Masucci structure Fania after Motown even the logo became similar in design. In 1993 Chino Rodriguez manager of many of the Fania artist suggested to Jerry Masucci to bring back the Fania All-Stars in the form of Live concerts, now in 2007 all that is left is "Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends of Fania".
Among Fania's signature stars are Celia Cruz, Larry Harlow (musician), Ray Barretto,
Due to Fania's dominance by the early 1970s, most of the Latin music luminaries of the salsa "boom" of that period came under the umbrella of Fania. These included Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon, and Ray Barretto among many others.
Masucci would eventually become sole owner of Fania Records and the numerous other labels and umbrella labels in South America that he acquired and created. In September 2005, Fania's assets were sold to Emusica and by early 2006, the new owners began to reissue material from Fania's backlog catalog (some of which have never appeared on CD before) with enhanced sound and liner notes. Fania is releasing approx 30 New Mastered CDs every 60 days. [citation needed] The new president and CEO have plans to launch a New phase of Fania All-Stars with Larry Harlow (musician) at the Helm and Chino Rodriguez as the agent for the Latin Legends of Fania. [citation needed]
Jerry Masucci died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Sunday, December 21st 1997. He was 62 years old. Mr. Jerry Masucci is survived by his three daughters Darlene, Misty and Corrine, and his brother, Alex. It was said that when Jerry passed away so an era came to the end.
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