The Speed Story, Part 2 of 3

As discussed in Part 1, the first three albums on Stan Lewis, Morty Craft and Bobby Marin’s Latin soul label Speed were either by “made up” bands, such as the Latin Blues Band and Moon People or the mysterious Dianne and Carole and the Latin Whatchamacallits. The label’s next four releases would be more conventionally built around young bandleaders in the New York Latin scene.

Herbie Oliveri was originally discovered by Bobby Marin as a singer; he recorded a ballad, “There’s No Other Girl” for Marin’s Latin Soul imprint before Speed signed him. However, on A Swingin’ Combination, Olivieri turns vocals duties over to Angelo Jiminez and Felix Pagan, both of whom can be heard on A Swingin’ Combination’s stand out song, the smoky “African Guajira” aka "The African Twist."

Frankie Nieves also came to Lewis’ attention and he sent Marin out to evaluate. When they signed Nieves, he was given the nickname that doubled for the album title: The Terrible Frankie Nieves but there’s contention over where that name came from. Marin recalled it was a nickname that Nieves’ wife gave him. Nieves himself claims Stan Lewis came up with the name; either way - the moniker stuck. His album was a strong balance between boogaloos, son montunos and guaguancos by one of my favorite songs on here is actually the vibe-flavored Latin soul ballad, “It’s Better To Cry,” which has become a cult classic in Northern Soul circles thanks to covers of it by Johnny Watson and the Appreciations.

Vocally, it’s hard to do better than Chuitio and the Latin Unqiues’ From the Street which boasts three different singers: Norberto Carrasquillo, Danny Agosto, and doo-wop star Tony Middleton who only appears on “Spanish Maiden” but that was enough to make it a hit tune from the album. Marin literally spotted Middleton across the street and approached him to sing on the album; it would be a fruitful collaboration as Middleton would return again to work with Bobby Matos (more on this in a moment). Jesus “Chuito” Santiago was another young bandleader (and timbalero) discovered by Marin and Lewis; Lewis even wrote a song for the album, called “Stan’s Stamina,” and as with many of the Speed albums, From the Street boasts excellent Latin soul moments amidst its uptempo dance tunes. “Wish I Could,” sung by Danny Agosto, easily ranks among the best ballads of the era.

The last official, original LP release for Speed was Milton Zapata’s Viva Zapata, another Marin find. Like Nieves and Santiago, Zapata wrote almost every song on his album and Marin remembers him as one bandleader who was “really, really involved” in contrast to those who let outside songwriters do the work. A concise album of only eight songs, Zapata’s Latin soul offerings are among the label’s weaker ones but he makes up the difference with some strong Afro-Cuban outings, especially the album’s closer (and title track), a fiery descarga.

In Part 3, we’ll talk about the label’s singles, latter day projects, and the missing-in-action recordings.

(Olivieri, Zapata and Chuito album scans courtesy Jonathan Bailey)

Herbie Oliveri “African Guajira”

Frankie Nieves “Better to cry”

Chuito and the Latin Uniques “Wish I could”

Milton Zapata “Viva Zapata”