Women of Fania Part 1: Aurora Flores and The Latin Sound of New York
Essential salsa; eyewitness liner notes.
“1960 saw a seismic shift in Latin New York’s music scene,” writes Aurora Flores Hostos in the opening paragraph of her liner notes for Fania Records: The Latin Sound of New York.
“From horn-blowing big band mambo to scaled down charanga conjuntos captivating dance clubs with silver-tongued flute and violin melodies. While America gyrated to the twist, enthralled Boricuas and Latinos twirled kerchiefs to Pachanga upbeats propelled by multi-instrumentalist Johnny Pacheco. After ten years as Mambo King, Tito Puente was overshadowed by Pacheco’s rising star. His debut LP quickly climbed the charts, signaling a sonic revolution. Pacheco’s ascent marked a new era with the creation of Fania Records, born from the rich cultural tapestry of civil rights protests, a Cuban embargo, and social justice marches where neighborhood nightclubs replaced downtown dance halls.”
In the liner notes for this essential no-frills set of salsa and Latin boogaloo hits on two albums, Flores repeats the off-told Fania origin story from an eye witness’ point of view: “Scraping $5k together in 1964, Pacheco and his lawyer Jerry Masucci stored records in a broom closet from his City Hall office, distributing them from the trunk of Pacheco’s Mercedes to a growing, younger market. Unlike other teens rejecting big band music, Nuyoricans embraced, modified and enhanced their parents’ music.
“With fists pumped in the air and Afros everywhere, in 1973 salsa was shouted from overflowing concerts, vest pocket parks, street corners and roof tops,” Flores recalls, and I can feel the moment.
As a young Nuyorican journalist, she was a witness to the birth of that shout, what soon became known by the catchy name salsa. In 1976, Flores was part of the small editorial team at Latin NY magazine, which served as the salsa bible. When a Daily News reporter stopped by the magazine’s offices, he found the 22-year-old Flores pretty much keeping things running behind Latin NY founder and Fania creative director Izzy Sanabria. “I do everything from secretarial work to editing the copy and answering the phones,” she is quoted as saying. The reporter referred to her, in the typical parlance of the time, as a “gal Friday.” (Grrr.) She would go on to write for the Daily News herself, as well as Billboard and other magazines and found her own band Zon del Barrio. (Flores is also a current Cuba on Record subscriber.)
Flores’ writing is the gospel of salsa. In what for me are the too-brief notes for this compilation by Craft Latino, the current guardians of the Fania catalogue, we get just a taste of her personal memories in succinct but colorful descriptions of the featured artists and songs.
As she recalls, Latino soul man Joe Bataan “ran the band like a gang;” the unifying force of Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe’s “Ché Ché Colé,” “drenched the dance floors with a sonic flood of African roots.”
Fania Records: The Latin Sound of New York is one of the many (many) reissue complications since the Fania label was first resurrected in 2006, after its downfall in the 1980s. (As the headline of a 1987 Daily News article written by Flores herself had put it, the “Once Hot Biz of Salsa Sound is a Cold Note.”) Last year, Craft Latino celebrated the label’s 60th anniversary with a flood of product.
This set came out at the tail end of that fiesta. It’s not a deep dig, no exclusives or rarities. But if you’re looking for an intro to old school salsa or want to revisit some guaranteed favorites, this compilation could well be the one to buy.
The Latin Sound of New York opens with Pete Rodríguez’s “I Like it Like That” and ends, on side four, with Rubén Blades and Willie Colon’s “Pedro Navaja.” It includes milestones by Ray Barretto, Larry Harlow, Ismael Rivera and the Fania All Stars. It’s a set of high points, bringing back the experimentation and glory of the years, as Larry Harlow is quoted as saying in the notes, “We played together as brothers. Before celebrity ran away with our egos.”
In her sentimental closure to her notes, Flores calls the Fania catalogue, “a treasure trove of memories, culture, and nostalgia..still heard, loved and danced to worldwide.”
What a Sunday surprise to read Judy Cantor Navas' take on the Fania Records liner notes I wrote for this commemorative double CD & Vinyle set. She got it on point, too. Although I think the actual year of the Daily News article cited is 1975, as I was 22 then, it brought back that memory of going to the New York Daily News editorial dept., LNY magazines in tow to pitch an article. They didn't want to do the story at first. The older white editor leaned forward from his desk, demanding, "Why should we write about this." He sent a reporter. Similar to Judy's reaction, I cringed when he wrote "gal Friday," a sexist term for girl reporters then, especially when the Latin NY masthead had me as editor. But hey, those were the days, my friend.