Within the Nineteen Forties, New York Metropolis’s golf equipment overflowed with the sounds of cha cha, mambo, and rumba – and one label rapidly seized on all of those music developments, serving to to set the stage for salsa’s dominance within the mainstream years later. Tico Information was began by George Goldner, a garment producer turned document impresario who started his profession in music by working dance halls. On the time, the mambo craze was at its peak, and Goldner – an avid dancer and music aficionado – determined he needed to document a number of the sounds that captured the vitality of New York’s buzzing nightlife.
In 1948, Goldner teamed up with the radio DJ and persona Artwork “Pancho” Raymond, and so they launched Tico Information out of places of work at 659 Tenth Avenue. As a result of Goldner had a way of what was occurring in dance halls, Tico Information’ earliest label luminaries mirrored the very best of the “cuchifrito circuit,” the nickname for the gathering of after-hours golf equipment and underground spots the place aspiring Latin musicians carried out. Tito Rodríguez, Tito Puente, and Machito have been among the many first artists to launch albums on the label, with Puente, specifically, drawing extra expertise to the Tico umbrella. He started recording with each La Lupe and Celia Cruz within the Sixties, two powerhouse ladies at the moment make up a number of the most revered names in salsa music.
Whereas the expertise roster is plain, the label went by way of a sequence of adjustments and difficulties, morphing all through the many years. In 1957, with money owed piling up due to playing habits, Goldner offered shares of his labels, together with the Tico imprint, to Morris Levy. Goldner remained concerned creatively, however in 1974 Tico was offered to Fania Information. Tico was an early residence to artists that grew to become salsa icons, notably Afro-Cuban stars who function testomony to the importance of Latin music’s Black roots. Much less profitable, however intriguing recordings from later years embody Dominican merengues, South American tangos, and Mexican regional music, including as much as an expansive catalog that’s timeless and filled with gems to find many years later.
Take heed to highlights from Tico Information on Apple Music and Spotify.
The Mambo Kings
Tico Information signed its first artist, Tito Rodríguez, in 1948. Rodríguez, born in Santurce, Puerto Rico to a Dominican father and a Cuban mom, was a bandleader and veteran of the membership circuit. He additionally helped popularize mambo – which Tico Information would rapidly nook the market on. After Rodríguez gave Tico its very first launch, “Mambos, Volumen 1,” the label signed one other membership veteran with a factor for mambo and cha cha: the Harlem-born percussionist Tito Puente. Puente would supply Tico Information with its first hit when he launched 1949’s “Abaniquito,” a tune that blended mambo and Afro-Cuban rhythms in a method that foreshadowed what number of artists would strategy salsa rhythms.
Whereas the 2 Titos are sometimes remembered collectively, the Afro-Cuban legend Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo – in any other case generally known as Machito – additionally lives within the Mambo King lore. Machito, who was born in Cuba and arrived in New York Metropolis as a teen, was recognized within the membership circuit for performing along with his band, Machito and His Afro Cubans. They have been pioneers in some ways, incorporating congas, bongos, and timbales into advanced preparations, and so they typically experimented with jazz sounds. As frequent headliners on the Palladium Ballroom, Machito additionally grew to become recognized for mambo, which he dropped at his early information on Tico. Machito, nevertheless, was a flexible, dexterous musician who was by no means afraid to strive one thing new, like boogaloo and bossa nova.
The Queens of Soul And Salsa
Within the Sixties, the legendary percussionist Mongo Santamaría was studying the Cuban journal Bohemia when he got here throughout a chunk a few Cuban vocalist who was mentioned to get possessed by spirits when she was onstage. The singer was the electrifying performer La Lupe, who had simply arrived in New York Metropolis. She made a reputation for herself in New York Metropolis rapidly, performing with Santamaria at mainstays such because the Apollo Theatre, Membership Triton, and Palladium Ballroom, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Tito Puente fell beneath her spell and stole her away from Santamaria’s outfit.
Collectively, they recorded 1964’s “Que Te Pedi,” a tune that places the total energy of La Lupe’s registry on show. La Lupe appeared alongside him on a number of Tico Report releases, together with Tito Puente Swings/The Thrilling Lupe Sings, Tu Y Yo, and Homenaje a Rafael Hernandez, earlier than Tico Information gave her a platform as a soloist. Her solo debut was 1966’s La Lupe Y Su Alma Venezolana, a shocking recording made up primarily of acoustic folks songs resembling “El Piraguero” that allowed her to indicate off each the sheer belting energy and vulnerability that have been an inextricable a part of her artistry.
It’s frequent to pit La Lupe in opposition to Celia Cruz, the Cuban singer whose profession started budding within the Sixties as nicely, however each inimitable ladies deserve their very own place in salsa’s historical past. Cruz had already constructed a status performing with Sonora Matancera in Cuba, taking her place because the band’s first Black frontwoman. She left Cuba amid the revolution and was denied reentry onto the island, ultimately touchdown in New York Metropolis in 1962. There, she related with Puente and ultimately made her solo debut on Tico with Son Con Guaguancó, the basic document that put African and Afro-Latin traditions on the forefront, resembling on the charging “Bemba Colorá.”
The Wild Playing cards
Tico Information is full of many albums that really feel like spontaneous, thrilling experiments. After Goldner labored to signal Puente and Rodríguez to new contracts, he additionally found a brand new up and comer: the New York pianist Joe Estévez, Jr., also called Joe Loco, who added range to his preparations by enjoying with jazz and pop sounds on the energetic “Hallelujah” and “I Love Paris” from his document Joe Loco and His Quintet: Tremendo Cha Cha Cha.
In 1962, Tico Information additionally noticed success with “El Watusi,” a tune from the Tico debut of none apart from Ray Barretto. The Brooklyn-born conguero had made a reputation for himself enjoying in golf equipment and jam periods, fostering his curiosity in Latin sounds in addition to jazz and bebop. He shaped his personal band, Charanga La Moderna, in 1962, and the “El Watusi” grew to become his first hit. Although Barretto expressed ambivalence about it years later, it reached quantity 17 on the charts – and set Barretto on a path to change into probably the most famed and eclectic Fania legends.
Tico Information additionally signed Eddie Palmieri after his conjunto La Perfecta disbanded. His first few releases, together with 1968’s Champagne contained touches of boogaloo, a style the pianist later decried as “embarrassing.” Nonetheless, he confirmed off his penchant for risk-taking on the 1970 basic, Superimposition, the place he melded Puerto Rican conventional rhythms, resembling bomba, with jazz, pachanga, and extra. Different standouts on the label embody Bienvenido, a joint debut from Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera, the sadly short-lived duo who paid homage to their Afro-Puerto Rican roots on percussive songs resembling “Bomba Ae” and “Borinquén.”
Tico’s forays with artists from different elements of the Spanish-speaking world, together with Argentina, Mexico, and Spain, resulted in few business hits. Nonetheless, information such because the tango revivalist Astor Piazzolla’s Take Me Dancing and the Mexican ranchera singer Jose Alfredo Jimenez’s Down Mexican Approach are fascinating capsules of different genres of Latin music that enrich Tico’s legacy.
