Alegre Information will all the time be remembered as one of many pioneers. The trailblazing label was among the many first to gentle a path for salsa and even the broader Spanish-language music business. It was even an early stepping stone for Fania Information co-founder Johnny Pacheco, whose first orchestra’s debut album Johnny Pacheco y Su Charanga offered over 100,000 copies and solidified Alegre Information’ legacy. Many extra of the style’s legends can hint their careers again to encounters with Alegre Information founder Al Santiago, a gregarious, loquacious entrepreneur whose boundless power was obvious even at a younger age.
Born and raised in New York, Santiago performed the piano as a child, then stop to take up the saxophone as an alternative. (“I disliked piano so much that I used to play ‘The Minute Waltz’ in 30 seconds so I could get out to play softball,” he stated as soon as). He began taking part in in a band his father and uncle have been in, and when the uncle stop, Santiago took over, main your complete orchestra. Although he was barely 18, Santiago had an ear for up-and-coming expertise; he swapped out the older guys for newer musicians till fairly quickly, his father was the one member of the band. Nonetheless, performing finally wasn’t the place Santiago would land. After a fateful brush with the prodigiously gifted trumpeter Buck Clayton at a marriage gig, Santiago realized the restrictions he’d face as a musician, recalling, “I know I am not an exceptional instrumentalist, and the only way you are going to make bucks is you have to be a superstar performer/leader, not a sideman.”
Santiago went a special route, borrowing $1,800 from his household and opening a file retailer referred to as Casa Latina del Bronx in 1951 – all whereas going to varsity and finding out enterprise. Native demolition compelled Casa Latina del Bronx to briefly shutter, however Santiago finally put down a deposit on one other vacant retailer within the Bronx, this time calling it Casalegre Document Retailer. He welcomed patrons in November of 1955 and shortly, the shop grew right into a bustling middle for Latin music. But, even that was simply the beginning for one thing greater Santiago had in thoughts. In 1956, he and the garment entrepreneur Ben Perlman forayed into recording music by launching the Alegre Recording Corp, which drew on Santiago’s expertise as a tastemaker and a producer, in addition to the recognition of the shop he’d cultivated.
After years of recording guys who would change into main stars – Pacheco, Eddie and Charlie Palmieri, Francisco “Kako” Bastar, amongst others – Alegre Information was offered to Branston Music in 1966. Santiago stayed concerned in manufacturing after which, in 1975, Alegre was bought by Fania, its most important competitor. Fania’s different co-founder, Jerry Masucci, enlisted Santiago for a number of manufacturing classes, however some followers imagine even now that Masucci didn’t promote artists on the Alegre roster as a lot as they deserved. Alegre morphed and adjusted over almost 20 years. Each the shop and the label are lovingly remembered immediately as “The House That Al Built,” and little can dampen such a formidable discography. Selecting best hits among the many assortment is sort of unattainable, however a number of recordings stand out for the best way by which they spearheaded sounds, together with charanga, pachanga, and boogaloo, and foretold the story of salsa.
Take heed to highlights from Alegre Information on Apple Music and Spotify.
The Groundwork Al Laid
Santiago’s skill to establish expertise was uncanny. In 1959, on the urging of one among his staff at Casalegre, Santiago headed out to the Bronx’s Tritons nightclub, the place a 24-year-old Pacheco was taking part in along with his charanga outfit. They hadn’t made it by way of their first track when Santiago determined the band – and significantly, their clear star Pacheco – can be the primary to file with Alegre Information. Pacheco’s 1960 debut with Alegre Information, Johnny Pacheco y Su Charanga, Vol. 1 was a success that featured songs corresponding to “El Güiro De Macorina,” “La Melodía,” and “Tema De Pacheco,” every adorned with Pachecho’s charanga flutes and traces of mambo. Pacheco y Su Charanga Vol. II got here subsequent, adopted by Pacheco Y Su Charanga Vol. 3: Que Suene La Flauta, that includes the upbeat basic “Acuyuye,” impressed by an African kids’s chant. Pacheco’s fame bloomed, placing him in a main spot to kick off the pachanga craze in subsequent years—and to someday veer off on his personal.
However Pacheco wasn’t the one artist for whom Alegre Information supplied an early platform and basis. One evening, Santiago caught Charlie Palmieri taking part in along with his band Charanga “La Duboney.” Coincidentally, Palmieri had performed in Santiago’s uncle’s band as a child, and their households have been shut. Santiago reached out to see if the piano virtuoso was underneath contract and when he discovered he wasn’t, Santiago realized that he may primarily nook the market on town’s charanga greats, who additionally dabbled in pachanga. Charlie Palmieri And His Charanga “La Duboney” – Pachanga At The Caravana Membership got here out in 1961, sprinkled with agile songs corresponding to “El Baile Nuevo.” “Pachanga Sabrosa,” in addition to a couple of others, have been written by Charlie’s youthful brother, Eddie Palmieri, who would depart his personal stamp on Alegre, beginning with 1962’s Eddie Palmieri and his Conjunto La Perfecta. In that early period, Santiago additionally signed the legendary timbalero Francisco “Kako” Bastar, whose first recording with Alegre was 1961’s Kako Y Su Combo, and the merengue aficionado Sergeant Dioris Valladares, who made a splash with the cheekily titled album Vete Pa’l Colegio that very same yr.
The All-Star Achievements
In 1961, with Pacheco, Palmieri, Kako, and Valladares all underneath Alegre, Santiago borrowed a web page from the Cuban label Panart’s ebook and determined to assemble a supergroup along with his topliners. There was some delicate maneuvering concerned: Pacheco and Palmieri, specifically, supplied completely different musical propositions, however they got here collectively on 1961’s The Alegre All-Stars, usually thought-about one among Santiago’s best contributions. They strengthened their sound taking part in at Tritons social membership and whereas the ultimate product is harmonious, Pacheco would again away from the band, leaving Puchi Boulong to take his place on the 1964 follow-up The Alegre All-Stars: El Manicero. The Alegre All-Stars would proceed convening among the greatest rising musicians in all of Latin music. 1965’s The Alegre All Stars: Method Out featured Yayo El Indio and the beloved sonero Chamaco Ramírez, who appeared on one of many album’s most intense, percussive cuts, “Los Dandies.”
Fania would finally observe Santiago’s instance and type their very own All-Star set. Nonetheless, after absorbing Alegre within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, Masucci pulled Santiago again in and requested for his particular contact for Fania and for the 1976 Alegre revival The Alegre All Stars – They Simply Don’t Makim Like Us Any Extra. The album featured eight classics, together with “Manteca” and “Se Acabó Lo Qué Se Daba.” Santiago’s final Alegre All-Stars effort got here in 1977, when he organized Louie Ramirez, José Madera, Chivirico Dávila, Boulong, Kako and extra for Alegre All Stars – Perdido. The nearer, “Alegre Te Invita,” serves as a closing celebration, pushed by chants, kinetic Afro-Cuban percussion, and the squeals of relentless horns.
The Boogaloo Years
The pachanga wave lasted some time, however quickly, musicians grew to become taken with boogaloo – famously referred to by Pucho Brown as “cha-cha with a backbeat.” Strains of boogaloo had slipped into some entries on Alegre Information early on, however it was Ricardo Ray’s Se Soltó: On The Unfastened in 1966 that actually noticed the label transfer within the course of the musical fashion. Songs corresponding to “Danzon Boogaloo” melded varieties and helped carry boogaloo to extra mainstream consideration. Later that yr, Pete Rodriguez launched Latin Boogaloo, and he’d double down on boogaloo simply months afterward with I Like It Like That/A Mi Me Gusta Asi, a compendium stuffed with notable boogaloo favorites, corresponding to “Micaela.” It, after all, additionally included the smash hit “I Like It Like That,” which continues to resonate immediately.
The Experiments
Santiago was a risk-taker – a advantage that had it downsides. After Pacheco’s best-selling debut, the Alegre founder took a raffle with Sabu Martínez, who’d had a short stint with Dizzy Gillespie. Martínez’s album Sabu’s Jazz Espagnole solely offered about 400 copies; nonetheless, critics have redeemed it lately for its hermetic instrumentation and its easy mixture of jazz and Latin rhythms. A few years after Sabu’s Jazz Espagnole, Santiago’s determination to signal Eddie Palmieri was thought-about wild: Eddie had changed the strings typical of charanga teams with two trombones, a element that made his band La Perfecta often called the one “with the crazy roaring elephants.” Nonetheless, it was one other instance of insanity that paid off.
Alegre Information additionally embraced its style for the unconventional with extra obscure entries into its catalogue, amongst them 1966’s Vladimir And His Orchestra – New Sound In Latin Jazz, led by a Belgian pianist named Vladimir Vassilieff. Ways to thrill listeners and encourage intrigue weren’t simply sonic. One of many final artists to file on Alegre Information was Tito Allen, often called a singer for Ray Barretto’s band. When he dropped his 1975 launch Maldades, the album’s art work sought to fire up rivalry with a picture of Allen destroying a Superman figurine right into a neon-green puddle of kryptonite – a transparent dig at Barretto and his file Indestructible, which featured Barretto carrying a Clark Kent costume. It was a playful rib, but additionally a bit audacious, which in some methods mirrored the daring, forward-thinking spirit of Alegre Information itself.
Take heed to the Alegre All Stars on Apple Music and Spotify.
