The World Wide Salsa Explosion

The work presented here is utilized in non-commercial class presentation Academic Study-Doctoral Studies of Luis Chaluisan "Latino Pop Culture 1898-2014"
THE WORLDWIDE SALSA EXPLOSION
Al Santiago: SALSA TRAILBLAZER
Record producer Al Santiago used Salsa as part of the Alegre Record Marketing lexicon as early as 1962. The ubiquitous “Uncle Alegre”.
He’s Uncle Al to all of us who buy his Alegre records and seek him out at the original Casalegre Music Shop.
In the 1930's Puerto Rican record producer Gabriel Oller makes a living selling acetates of hot Latin bands to labels like RCA Victor.
During that time while the Hispanic community was sprouting in Spanish Harlem, Gabriel Oller, proprietor of Tatay’s Spanish Music Center on the corner of 110th Street and 5th Avenue remembers shouts of “échale pique, caliéntalo, menealo que se empelota…” used to describe the thrilling Afro-Cuban dance rhythms of rumbas and guarachas.
Salsa remained dormant until 1962.
In the late fifties/early sixties, Al Santiago creates a company that handles the product from top to bottom.
I meet him at various east/west village rehearsals and recording studios.
Salsa was already part of Santiago's Alegre Records Lingo by 1962.
Eddie Palmieri and Ismael Quintana use the term during 4 opening choruses in the song "RITMO CALIENTE" to describe the style of music La Perfecta is playing on Palmieri's first Alegre release in 1962 Produced by Al Santiago.
In 1963 Alegre Records released Charlie Palmieri’s charanga LP Salsa Na Ma. In the Henny Alvarez tune Salsa Na Ma, the chorus of Victor Velasquez and Willie Torres suggest that when they dance with their partners it is Salsa na ma…Que cosa rica (a joy).”
Al Santiago’s liner notes described the music as salsa when he wrote “La Duboney (Charlie Palmieri’s band) is a musical aggregation that functions as an individual unit and possesses that all important ‘sauce’ necessary for satisfying the most demanding of musical tastes. It is for this reason that this LP album offering is titled Salsa Na Ma.
Latin NY Interview 1978 WAMH FM
How did you become a producer?
“I wanted to play top of the line saxophone so I studied real hard. At 16, I went to see a movie … The Benny Goodman Story and the next night at a church dance one of Goodman's sax players is in the orchestra playing for ten bucks that gig. I decided right there that there had to be a better position in the business and I found that as a producer."
This is the man who creates the prototype for today's mainstream salsa industry with his Bronx based Alegre label in the '60's. (Fania Records under Johnny Pacheco -- an Alegre Alumnus - Fania owner Jerry Massucci and alleged Tico Record mobster/record distributor-producer-kingpin Morris Levy take this formula to the next level. More on the Mob connections to the spread of Salsa later.)
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