original relaese as live at the cheetah vol. 1&2
album rating: ★★★★☆
a) Genre
Salsa / Latin jazz / Afro-Cuban music. The Cheetah concert recordings stand as the most important single event in the history of salsa music: a live performance that coalesced the diverse stylistic and cultural strands of Afro-Caribbean music into a coherent artistic and commercial identity. The music moves through descarga (extended Latin jazz jam), son montuno, guaguancó, mambo, and other Afro-Cuban and Caribbean forms, performed by the full assembled Fania All-Stars lineup at the peak of their collective power. The documentary film Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa) (1972), directed by Leon Gast, has been described as 'the Woodstock of salsa' -- a comparison that captures both the historical significance of the concert and the centrality of the film to salsa's cultural mythology.
b) Release
The audio recordings from the 26 August 1971 Cheetah concert were released as two separate vinyl LPs by Fania Records: Live at the Cheetah, Vol. 1 (Fania Records, 1971; catalogue JM 00415) and Live at the Cheetah, Vol. 2 (Fania Records, 1972; catalogue Fania 416), both in gatefold format. Special guest stars on Vol. 2 appeared courtesy of VAYA Records: Bobby Cruz, José 'Cheo' Feliciano, and Ricardo Ray. The sleeve text for Vol. 2 was written by Fania art director Izzy Sanabria, who noted: 'On Thursday, Aug. 26, 1971, young Latins from all parts of New York gathered at Cheetah to witness history in the making.' The concert recordings also formed the audio basis of the film documentary Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa), whose soundtrack was released as Fania Records catalogue Fania 431 in 1972. A 40th Anniversary Limited Edition was released in 2011, comprising a remastered DVD of the film and two CDs of the music with bonus tracks, available through the Fania Bandcamp; this edition is identified as the best-sounding available version. Current streaming and digital editions are distributed by Craft Recordings (Concord Music Group), the successor to the Fania catalogue, with phonographic copyright ℗ 1972 Craft Recordings, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc.
c) Production
Produced by Jerry Masucci, co-founder and president of Fania Records. Masucci (Italian-American lawyer and music entrepreneur, d. December 1997) was the business architect of Fania's rise and maintained tight personal oversight of all major Fania productions. Johnny Pacheco served as musical director for the All-Stars ensemble, conducting and organising the musicians' contributions. The documentary film Our Latin Thing was directed and produced by Leon Gast -- later celebrated for When We Were Kings (1996, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), his film about the Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman 'Rumble in the Jungle' fight in Zaire, a connection that resonates with the All-Stars' own 1974 Zaire concert. The screenplay was by Izzy Sanabria, Fania's celebrated art director. The film also includes footage from street performances in Spanish Harlem, featuring Larry Harlow and Ismael Miranda, and a studio sequence showing Harlow at work -- providing a wider cultural context for the Cheetah concert.
d) Recording
Recorded live at The Cheetah Club, 1680 Broadway (at 52nd Street), Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, on the evening of Thursday, 26 August 1971. The Cheetah was a discotheque and Latin music venue in Midtown Manhattan that had become a central gathering place for New York's Latin music community. The Fania Records notes describe it as 'a capacity audience.' The concert was filmed and recorded simultaneously for both the audio releases and the documentary film.
e) Reception
The Cheetah concert and its documentary film are universally regarded as the defining document of salsa music as a genre and cultural phenomenon. The IMDB description calls the film 'Woodstock for salsa aficionados -- a canonical performance'; it carries an IMDB rating of 8.0. The Fania Records notes describe it as 'the New York salsa explosion in all its power and adrenaline.' The Discogs description calls it 'the ultimate salsa document', noting that it 'captures the New York salsa explosion of the 70s in all its power and adrenaline.' A Discogs reviewer highlights the highlight performance of 'Anacaona' by Cheo Feliciano 'at the top of his game', with backing vocalists including Héctor Lavoe, Ismael Miranda, Adalberto Santiago, and Pete El Conde Rodríguez. The concert was notable for occurring with very little rehearsal time, making its musical coherence all the more remarkable. The 40th anniversary remaster on Bandcamp is identified by specialist collectors as 'the best possible version', with complete songs beautifully remastered. The concert directly led to Fania booking the All-Stars for their 1973 Yankee Stadium concert (also filmed and recorded), which drew an enormous audience, and their 1974 concert in Zaire.
Fania All-Stars
The Fania All-Stars is a musical supergroup created in 1968 by Fania Records co-founders Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco as a showcase for the label's roster of artists. Fania Records was founded in New York City in 1964 by Masucci, an Italian-American lawyer with a passion for Cuban music, and Johnny Pacheco (born 25 March 1935, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic — died 15 February 2021, New York City), a flautist, percussionist, and bandleader raised in the South Bronx, who served as Fania's musical director. The All-Stars performed their first concert as 'Live at the Red Garter' in 1968. The rotating lineup for the Cheetah concert included the following bandleaders: Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Roberto Roena, and Bobby Valentín; and principal vocalists: Héctor Lavoe, Ismael Miranda, Adalberto Santiago, and Pete 'El Conde' Rodríguez; with special guests Cheo Feliciano, Ricardo Ray, and Bobby Cruz. Eddie Palmieri also participated. Over the course of the 1970s the All-Stars became the central institution of the New York salsa movement, performing at Yankee Stadium (1973), touring Africa (Zaire, 1974), releasing the acclaimed studio album Rhythm Machine (1977) and the crossover album Crossover (1979) for Columbia Records, and performing at the Havana Jam festival in Cuba (1979). They appeared in the PBS documentary series Latin Music USA (2009). In 2015 they received ASCAP's honorary Latin Heritage Award. Johnny Pacheco died in February 2021; his co-founder Masucci had died in December 1997. The All-Stars continue to perform in various configurations.
This text was generated by Claude (Anthropic). It may contain errors or inaccuracies.