“¡Salsa Divina!” 1975 – “Fotos y Recuerdos”: Serendipity…The beginning of “¡Con Salsa!” “Identity keeps you grounded and purpose keeps you going.” I have written and told the story of that unforgettable Friday night on July 20th, 1973 at the Bradford Hotel when I played the role of master of ceremonies and one of the Four Amigos promoters for two outstanding bands and the beginning of new relationships and friendships that I have enjoyed for the past forty-one years. The dance featuring Ralphy Leavitt and La Selecta with Sammy Marrero and Andy Harlow and his band, wasn’t an overwhelming success in regards to the numbers of ticket sold that I and my other three amigos, James Richards, Sonia Marrero and Jovita Fontanez had hoped for, but much better than expected considering that there were some influential people working against us wanting us to fail. At the end of the night we each made $75.00 after expenses. Late that night as I walked back to my apartment on Montgomery Street in the South End I thought abut a song I had been playing on my record player over and over again…”Puerto Rico” by Eddie Palmieri from his album “Sentido” on Mango records. I had bought it at Vitin’s Record Shop on Tremont Street, around the corner from my apartment. When I first heard it I immediately fell in love with it and thought that it would be a great theme song for a radio program. I thought that if ever I would have the chance to do a radio show I would remember the lessons learned from the experience in dealing with the powers that be. I would aspire to be different. It was a night that would transform my role and purpose as an active stakeholder in the Puerto Rican community and beyond. Two years later on June 22nd 1975 I would welcome listeners to the first airing of “¡Con Salsa!” on WBUR90.9FM. Since then, nearly thirty nine years later, every time I’m about to start my show, during my meditation and prayer, I give thanks to those who without knowing it inspired me to do what I do and be who I am. “Los ricos, los pobres, los buenos, los malos, los valientes, los cobardes, los lindos, los feos, los inocentes, y los culpables” - I thank them with much love, respect and admiration. I especially thank the late Lonnie Stephens, a college friend from Antioch who was the person who opened the door for me at WBUR spring of 1975. Lonnie was working as an announcer/producer at the station and one night as I drove down Commonwealth Avenue towards Kenmore Square I saw him waving for a taxi with some recording equipment on his shoulder. I immediately recognized the tall, lanky figure with the big Afro and pulled over to offer him a ride. We drove to his apartment in the South End, shared a cup of coffee as we caught up with each other and he casually mentioned that the station was looking to do a Latino themed radio program on weekends. Without missing a beat I told him I had an idea for a bilingual program in English and Spanish that would feature Afro-Latin music as the connection between the African Diaspora throughout the new world and that of the musical tinge from Cuba, and Puerto Rico into New Orleans up to New York City. I already had a name for it I told him…“¡Con Salsa!” Serendipitous! He smiled his broad glowing white teeth as he responded with enthusiasm, inviting me to join him at the station later that week for a recording of a pilot program for him to submit. I remember riding the elevator at 630 Commonwealth Avenue with a shopping cart loaded with 33.3 rpms vinyl LP (Long Play) records. When he met meet on the top floor he was surprised to see the number of albums I brought with me, suggesting that the recording wouldn’t be for more than 10 minutes or so. I just wanted to have as many options to play depending on my mood although I knew that “Puerto Rico” by Palmieri would take up 7:00 minutes. So as they say the rest is history! Within a few weeks I was invited to meet Bonnie Cronin who was the General Manager at the time and I was given a slot as a community volunteer from 8:30 to 10:30pm on Sunday nights. I was developing my radio voice, highly influenced in style by the great and legendary Felipe Luciano and Terry Denizard from “La Hora del Feeling” in San Juan and within a year, because of it’s acceptance and the support of a new diverse audience, the show was expanded to Saturday and Sunday nights from 8:00 – 10:30pm and I was hired as a professional announcer producer. The list of those who I thank every weekend include Bonnie, the late James Bonney, Jane Christo, Steve Slade, Ted Boccelli, Rob Batteles, Dennis Boyer, the late great Tony Cennamo, Steve Elman, Ronda Hamilton, David Letterman, Charles Perkins, Wylie Rollins, and all of the other great community and student volunteers. I especially thank my dear friends, Angel Medina, who was with me from the very beginning and Bruno Rodriguez, my faithful colleague. There are many others that I will thank in subsequent essays. Shortly after the beginning of “¡Con Salsa!” I spent that July 4th summer week of 1975 in New York City interviewing musicians, singers, record producers, journalist at Latin Beat Magazine and others to learn about their contribution to our music. I spent time at every Latin Music Company, and record store; checking out music jam’s at Central Park, live gigs with Héctor LaVoe, Corporación Latina, El Sabor de Nacho, Roberto Roena, Tipica ’73 and at the Fania All-Stars concert celebrating the fourth anniversary of “Our Latin Thing” at Madison Square Garden. The renowned music historian and folklorist René López introduced me to the González brothers (Andy and Jerry) over the telephone from his office, insisting that I visit them at their home on Gildersleeve Avenue in the Bronx. I remember the first time I had seen Jerry and Andy play; it was at a dance with Eddie Palmieri at Club Ocho Mil in San Juan. Christmas holidays 1973, my mother had picked my girlfriend and I at the airport and on the drive home I noticed a banner hanging across the street announcing a dance that night with Palmieri, Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz, Santos Colón and Roberto y su Nuevo Montuno. Eddie’s band that night had Barry Rogers and José Rodríguez on trombones, Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros and Vitín Paz on trumpets, Mario Rivera on saxophone, Alfredo De la Fe on violin, Nicky Marrero on timbales, Tommy “Chucki” López on bongo, Eladio Pérez and Jerry on congas, Andy on bass and Ismael Quintana on vocals. Unlike the other bands they weren’t dressed in uniforms, played song after song without reading music charts, and featured solos by everyone at an energy that blew the other bands off the stage. Visiting with them at their home was a “real time” musical education through our conversations, a number of musicians stopping by, listening to tapes of their gigs with Palmieri, Barretto, Libre, Conjunto Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorkino and many, many others. I will always be indebted to them for their time and generosity for a fledgling radio host/producer. I would see them perform with El Grupo Folklórico that fall at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, meet the legendary Nancy Luciano and see them later with Manny Oquendo’s Libre. That summer, back in Boston, I would also receive a telephone call from John S. Gail, from the Carlton Hotel Corporation regarding a concert/dance with Tito Puente at the their Harbour House Hotel on the Lynnway in Lynn. It was there that I met Tito for the first time, (and my dear friend Bobby Sanabria who later sat in with TP), conducted my first interview with him and formed the beginning of a friendship until his death in 2000. I was fortunate to either promote, produce or MC many of his performances in Boston and at the Newport Jazz Festival. And I had the honor of producing his last concert in Boston at Northeastern University’s Blackman Auditorium on Friday, May 5th, 1999. Tito and his band had flown on the red eye from Hawaii to New Jersey the night before in route to Boston. I was at Logan airport waiting for him when I was informed that he missed his flight to Boston. My first concern was for his health since he had recently celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday and continued to work a very gruelinig schedule of one-nighters after fifty years of performing throughout the world. I was relieved to hear that he was fine and on his way via bus with the rest of the band. The concert was scheduled for seven thirty pm and Tito and his musicians arrived at seven pm. The sellout crowd of 1,116 had grown inpatient outside the auditorium waiting to be seated as I kept them informed of his whereabouts and estimated time of arrival. An hour later they were on their feet giving him a standing ovation before the first note was played. That night Tito Puente showed us all once again that he truly was the King of Latin Music. He played the sound and rhythms of the big band mambo era, the cha-cha-cha’s, guaguancos, montunos and Latin-jazz that he and the other two Mambo Kings, Tito Rodríguez and Machito had popularized at the historic home of the Mambo, the Palladium Ballroom in New York City. By the end of the night everyone was dancing in the aisles, young and old, Latino, black and white, a night never to be forgotten. The next morning, on the same stage, he conducted a workshop with the Boston All City High School Jazz Band. The youngsters had rehearsed a few of his charts and even though they weren’t totally aware of whom he was, seeing him perform the night before made the morning clinic extra special. For more than two hours, Tito played his timbales with the young musicians, answered questions, offered advice, signed autographs and posed for pictures. He was charming, engaging and truly grateful for the opportunity to share time with these talented young high school musicians. Summer of ’75 led to fall and I continued traveling to NYC as often as possible immersing myself in everything that was Salsa…concerts and dances, sometimes just for the night and back. The powerful draw of the line up of Salsa stars and legends was irresistible as you can see by the accompanying flyers to this essay. By the end of the year I was a bonafide Eddie Palmieri fan…catching him live wherever and whenever I could. If I was going to talk about it on radio, I needed to live it in the streets. As we did on so many occasions, my good friend Angel Medina and I drove down from Boston right after work for a benefit Latin Salsa Concert to Save Jazz Radio at the Village Gate on October 20, 1975. WRVR Jazz Radio in New York City served as the home for Felipe Luciano’s extremely popular weekend programs, “Third Bridge” and “Latin Roots” until May 8th of that year when he was dismissed after airing two programs dealing with a controversy in the lower East Side’s School District 1. Roger Dawson then occupied the 1:00 – 6:00pm slot with his “Sunday Salsa Show” but in October it was announced that WRVR had been sold and the night at the Gate was the Latino contribution to the effort of the Citizens Committee to Save Jazz Radio. Nancy Rodríguez, the former Nancy Luciano, from Mothers Latino a booking, artist management and Production Company and Pablo “Yoruba” Guzmán, the former Minister of Information for the Young Lords and host of his own radio program “El Barrio Nuevo” on WQIV FM, were the producers of the benefit concert. Nancy was the co-producer of “Latin Roots” with her then husband Felipe Luciano, is the mother of Felipe Luciano, Jr. and broadcast her own radio program on WBAI “Con Sabor Latino” from 1987 and “Ritmo y Aché” into the early 2000’s. It was a great night of memorable music that included Raices, the late Bobby Rodríguez y La Compañia, El Conjunto Candela with the late Nestor Sánchez on vocals, Seguida a Latin Rock band, El Grupo Folklorico Experimental Nuevayorquino, Celia Cruz, Ricardo Marrero and the Group (with Dave Valentin on flute), and the grand finale Eddie Palmieri and his band with Lalo Rodríguez on vocals. Machito, Rubén Blades and Ismael Quintana were among a number of singers and musicians in the audience lending their support in solidarity. Back in Boston, in October I would work with Willie Alonso on a dance featuring the great and legendary Charlie Palmieri and his Ochestra along with Orquesta Clave as the opening act. Willie was a recent Puerto Rican transplant to Boston at the time that, among other things, distributed Latin New York Magazine in the Boston area. It was another one of those memorable nights thanks to Lonnie recording two hours worth of the music live including a jam at the end of Mambo Show with members of Mongo Santamaria’s band that were playing that night at Paul’s Mall/Jazz Workshop. After the gig we went to Willie’s girlfriend’s apartment in Jamaica Plain for some down-home cooking of “asopao de camarones” (Shrimp stew) with Charlie and some the band. But during that memorable summer week in New York City, Alex Massucci at Fania records suggested that I just sit in the lobby of their offices at 888 7th Avenue and interview who ever walked in through the door. Ray Barretto was one. He had a new album soon to be released featuring the late Puerto Rican singer Tito Gómez and a new vocalist from Panamá that he wanted me to wait around for, suggesting that it would be worth my while. Late that afternoon, early evening, Ray introduced me to Rubén Blades. As we started the interview he asked “¿de donde tú eres? ¿Puerto Rico?” Emphatically he said, “¡Nunca te olvide o deje de tocar la música de Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, Mon Rivera, El Gran Combo, Tito Rodríguez o Joe Cuba y Cheo Feliciano! ¡Esa son la gente que llevaron esta música a Panamá y yo siempre me voy a recordar de eso!” “Where are you from? Puerto Rico? Don’t ever forget or stop playing the music of Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, Mon Rivera, El Gran Combo, Tito Rodríguez, or Joe Cuba and Cheo Feliciano! They were the ones who brought this music to Panamá and I’m always going to remember that!” Prophetic words that would serve as a core value of “¡Con Salsa!” paying tribute to all who have contributed to our music, culture, history and quality of life. Little did I know how much that week would play a role in the following 39 years of my life. I am truly blessed. © José C. Massó III 3.5.14
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 00:01:17 +0000
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