^ I agree with most of that, to a limited extent due to the fact that I haven't seen the programmes for a few years now (and I'm no expert). However I still really enjoyed the shows, and would recommend them to others.
(As opposed to La Epocha, where there were a few great moments, but as a whole I found it torturous, and I would only recommend it to a masochist.)
Hey Yuca!
It's a tough uphill battle to get what I consider to be significant and important. This project was focusing on the "Latin Music" experience in the USA and 'Salsa' was merely one of several musical movements explored. They only had an hour or two to fit decades worth of personalities, music, events, etc. So I can understand why they would only devote SOME people, music and scenarios in the limited amount of time given to present a "story" about our music.
I just don't care for the revisionism surrounding that focus. Making it seem as if Fania records or Fania All Stars broke new ground in promoting the music around the world. For them to have even achieved reaching those countries they brought their act to, there had to have already been a market in place. People didn't just show up at some venue or stadium and audiences automatically gravitated to them. That market had already existed and was created years and years prior to Fania emerging in the 1970s as the recording company of note. They never discuss the other labels that existed prior to and during the period of "Salsa's" boom. All of whom had more critical acclaim via the mainstream music industry community than Fania did, whether people choose to believe that or not. You can count the amount of Grammy winners on one hand that recorded under Fania. And that's all time! Which is another dent in the whole Fania = Salsa mythology. Fania's claim to fame is being a promotional machine as they made clear in the documentary. They had great merchandising with the T-Shirts; Unorthodox, creative and hip album covers that were far different from the typical album covers of 'latin' albums from the 50s and 60s; The company filmed and released 3 films to further promote the label, their music and its artists. But that's it. LATIN MUSIC USA goes way too far citing Ruben Blades as somehow taking the music into a new direction where he contributed a new 'sophistication' to the lyrical content in the music. That is so disrespectful to every composer whose work contained social commentary or was written in a socio-political context. This was nothing new and Ruben did not create this new genre called Salsa con Conciencia or Salsa Politica. It simply was promoted as such by media and pro-Fania folk. Just like the claim that over 40,000 fans filled up Yankee Stadium. Yeah, I don't think so. More like 20K. While I can't prove that assertion and can only go by what actual concert goers contend, the Fania folk tale story tellers can't prove or are unwilling to prove more than 40K fans paid to see this concert. It just *sounds* more impressive to say over 40,000 people jam packed Yankee Stadium than to say 20,000 did. Simply because other previous concerts that featured other artists would fill up places like Madison Square Garden with that same amount of people [20K] or round about. They want to show Fania dominated. But the reality was they monopolized the airwaves via the DJs, several of whom like Paco Navarro and Polito Vega and others went to prison for, they dominated the downtown nightclub circuit in NYC because the club owners were part of their network. They purchased the catalogs of nearly every local label that was active and wound up creating a sort of embargo on Tito Puente, La Lupe, Jose Fajardo, Charlie Palmieri, Mon Rivera, Machito and so many others.
There's nothing that happened in the Fania era that hadn't happened before. Our music has been documented and captured on film before "Our Latin Thing." Many Bands/Orchestras/Artists have ben touring internationally and more consistently prior to the Fania All Stars going on these so-called global tours. And that's why I don't really care for these documentaries as 'educational' tools. That they're entertaining or nostalgic is one thing. But the fact that they're marketing themselves as presenting a definitive story of "something" is where I draw the line. It just isn't. You don't have to know the history of "Salsa" to realize this. It's pretty obvious they only focused on a small circle of artists. Johnny Colon, Joe Bataan, Pacheco, Harlow, LaVoe, Willie Colon, Ruben Blades, Tito Curet Alonso [w/ Cheo Feliciano giving insight on him and the exploitation my Masucci] and the Fania All Stars Orchestra. You're only being exposed to their perspective. How they viewed the culture and the industry. People ought to know the difference between individual stories and what the overall history of a culture is.
