1. Fania Takes Nueva York
5/26/202639 min
The 1960s brings social and political change to the world and to New York City, where a young Johnny Pacheco keeps people dancing with his orchestra and charanga music. The Dominican musician is also going through a divorce and his lawyer, Jerry Masucci, happens to be a fan of Johnny’s music. The two form a music partnership that will forever change music. They call their music label Fania Records.
Listen to the Music Behind Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York playlist here.
Archival courtesy of The Bronx County Archives at The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library, Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA, Craft Recordings, a Concord company, Mary Kent’s Salsa Talks interviews, Aurora Flores Hostos Interview, and Martin Cohen Congahead Archives. This episode also utilizes fair use clips from Prelinger Archives and WBAI Radio.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRosie Perez· Host0:00
Before we get started, I wanna let you know that you can listen to the entire season of Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York right now ad-free, plus exclusive episodes on Futuro Plus. Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York was made possible by the Mellon Foundation, which seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Heads up, this episode contains some explicit language. [upbeat music] There's a pretty legendary concert from 1973, a concert that the day after it happened, everyone was sitting on our stoop in Brooklyn talking about it. People still talk about it to this day. [singing] It was at a venue you had to have cojones to think you could play.
Bernie Fox· Guest1:08
Yankee Stadium at that time could hold 55,000, as I remember.
Rosie Perez· Host1:11
Yankee Stadium. Initially, this concert was supposed to attract a modest crowd.
Bernie Fox· Guest1:20
I said, "How many people you expect?" He said, "Eh, we'll get, uh, 8,000 people."
Alex Masucci· Guest1:25
Everybody said we're crazy for doing Yankee Stadium.