The history of the Fania All Stars, Fania Records’ flagship supergroup comprising of the label’s bandleaders, top sidemen and vocalists, represents the rise and promulgation of salsa as a marketing tag for Latin music.

Italian-American lawyer Jerry Masucci (1934-1997), who co-founded Fania in 1964 with Dominican Republic-born bandleader Johnny Pacheco, explained the genesis and early development of the band in a 1973 piece entitled The Story of the Fania All Stars. “In December 1967, I was vacationing in Acapulco. I was out fishing and when I got back I received a phone call from New York from two promoters Jack Hooke (1916-1999) and Ralph Mercado of Cheetah fame (a club on the southwest corner of 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, which Mercado co-managed in the ‘60s, promoting R&B acts like James Brown and Aretha Franklin). At that time they were holding concerts at the Red Garter (in Greenwich Village) Monday nights and were interested in getting the Fania All Stars together to do a jam session with invited guests Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri of Tico Records and Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz of Alegre Records. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I flew back and got in touch with Johnny Pacheco. We put some material together and packed the place with 800 people. We also made the first two recordings of the Fania All Stars: Live At The Red GarterVols. 1 & 2 (1968).”

This anthology opens with a track from the first Red Garter volume, “Me Gusta El Son” featuring Pacheco’s ex-vocalist Monguito (died: May 26, 2006), who was just beginning his solo career at the time, and solos from piano maestro Eddie Palmieri and trombonist Barry Rogers (1935-1991), with whom Palmieri developed the two trombone and flute sound of his seminal Conjunto La Perfecta at the beginning of the ’60s. “At that concert,” continued Masucci, “I got the idea to make a movie. In 1971, I was ready to begin production of the second Fania All Stars concert, which would be recorded and filmed live. My first idea was to hold it at the Fillmore East for exposure to both rock and black audiences. However, we were unable to get the Fillmore, so we contacted different promoters about various places, but they turned us down, saying that a concert by the Fania All Stars was a bad idea and that it wouldn’t draw. I called Ralph Mercado who thought it might work, but would make no deals. I was to give him the act free, make a record, film the concert and he would promote and take the door. Since no one else wanted it, I made the deal according to his terms. We held the concert on (August 26, 1971) a Thursday night (Ralph wouldn’t give us Friday or Saturday). The Cheetah held 2,000 people and no one thought we would sell-out. But the night of the concert 4,000 people squeezed into the Cheetah and the lines outside stretched around the block. Volumes 1 and 2 of the Live At The Cheetah, which were recorded that night, became the biggest selling Latin albums ever produced by one group from one concert.”

The Cheetah concert formed the backbone of the electrifying documentary Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa), which premiered in New York on July 19, 1972 and played a key role in launching salsa on the worldwide stage. It is fitting therefore that this collection features three Cheetah cuts, “Descarga Fania”, a springboard for an array of solos, “Anacaona” and “Quítate Tú,” all taken from Volume 1. 

By 1973, the Fania All Stars were on a roll. Despite advice to the contrary, Masucci took the bold step of booking New York’s massive Yankee Stadium for a salsa concert on Friday August 24, 1973. “They thought we were crazy,” said Masucci. “But I rented the place for one night for $180,000 cash.” Before the event, he ambitiously predicted in The Story of the Fania All Stars that: “this concert will revolutionize the music business like the Beatles in the early ‘60s and Woodstock in 1969.” His gamble paid off, because the event attracted a crowd of about 45,000 and demonstrated that the All Stars had literally become Latin music’s first stadium band. They went on to debut in San Juan, Puerto Rico, opening the new Roberto Clemente Coliseum, and toured Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Panama and Mexico.