Fania Records

Fania Records is a New York based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and Brooklyn born Italian-American ex New York City Police Officer turned lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964. The label took its name from a popular luncheonette frequented by musicians in Havana, Cuba that Masucci frequented when he worked for a public relations firm there during the pre-Castro era. Fania is known for its promotion of Salsa music.

Fania Records
Fania Records Logo
Parent companyConcord Music
Founded1964
FounderJohnny Pacheco, Jerry Masucci
Distributor(s)Universal Music Distribution
GenreSalsa, Latin
LocationNew York City, Miami, Florida
Official websitewww.fania.com

History

The label started out as a small venture, but gained popularity after the success of its first official record, Pacheco's "Cañonazo", leading to the expansion of its talent base.[1] Among Fania's signature stars are: Willie Colon, Celia Cruz, Larry Harlow, Ray Barretto, Ralfi Pagan, Luis "Perico" Ortiz, Bobby Valentín, Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, Cheo Feliciano, Adalberto Santiago, Ismael Miranda and many others.

The second album released under the Fania imprint was Larry Harlow's 1965 Heavy Smoking. The record's modern take on traditional Afro-Caribbean music served as the template for what soon would come to be known as the Fania Sound. In 1968, Pacheco created a supergroup known as the Fania All-Stars that brought together the elite of Salsa musicians and singers for joint performances and recording. The Fania All-Stars were Fania's best selling band, outlasting the label itself. They made their debut at the Red Garter club located in New York's Greenwich Village, but it was their 1971 performance at the Cheetah, a club in Midtown Manhattan, which became legendary. Larry Harlow was chosen by Jerry Masucci to produce the band's records while Pacheco acted as director on stage. The Fania All-Stars were filmed for the documentary Our Latin Thing released a year later.

The first vocalist that recorded as a soloist was Cuban sonero Monguito.

As of 2007 all that is left is "Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends of Fania". In 2003, the 1975 Fania release Live at Yankee Stadium was included in the second set of 50 recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry.[2] Masucci would eventually become sole owner of Fania Records and the numerous other labels and umbrella labels in South America that he acquired and created.

In September 2005, Fania's assets were sold to Miami-based label Emusica, and by early 2006, the new owners began to reissue material from Fania's backlog catalog (some of which has never appeared on CD before) with enhanced sound and liner notes.[3] In an effort to create additional content, Código Records, a subsidiary of the Emusica label, allowed DJs and producers to remix original material.[4]

As of July 27, 2018, Fania is owned by Concord Music, which acquired the label from Codigo Entertainment. Fania's catalogue included 19,000 master recordings and 8,000 compositions.[5]

gollark: Why do you *have* 11 copies of the same data on disks in the same place, anyway? Weird way to do backups.
gollark: Oh, the SSDs are probably sensible then.
gollark: It might be more if you buy enterprise ones instead of random consumer ones.
gollark: I don't think it works out in favour of SSDs unless you anticipate them saving you issues about three times.
gollark: You mentioned valuing your time at $200/hour earlier. This is about 44TB of storage, assuming it's all 4TB disks. That costs about $4400 (for flash) based on my rough knowledge of pricing.

References
  1. "Fania.com". Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  2. "The National Recording Registry 2003". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  3. http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1407697/emusica-acquires-fania-assets
  4. Contreras, Felix (2018-08-03). "Fania Records' Legacy Lives On With New Owners: 'It's The Culture'". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  5. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/concord-acquires-independent-latin-music-company-fania
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