Premio Lo Nuestro rindió tribute to the career of the musician and composer dominating this week, the king of salsa Johnny Pacheco, creator of the legendary orchestra Fania All Stars, donde hicieron su qurera estrellas como Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavén, Willie Ruboe, Willie Coloe Blades, entre otros.
Gilberto Santarosa and José Alberto “El Canario” sing the songs of Pacheco “Quítate tú”, “Mi gente”, “Los compadres” and “Guaguanco pa’l que sabe”, accompanied by Sergio George on piano and Nestor Torres on flute .
“Sin ti, sin Fania Records no existiría la salsa y sin la salsa no sé qué seria yo, tu música fue el soundtrack de mi vida”, uitdrukking Marc Anthony al decir adiós a Johnny Pacheco, uno de los pioneros de la salsa.
Pacheco consists of more than 150 songs, many of which are converted into classics, such as “La Dicha Mía”, “Quítate Tú Pa’Ponerme Yo”, “Acuyuye”, “El Faisán” and “El Rey De La Puntualidad”, y together with the Cuban singer Celia Cruz also formed one of the great binomials of the salsa.
Juan Zacarías Pacheco Knnipping, the name of Johnny Pacheco’s pianist, inherited the passion that his father, Rafael Azarías Pacheco – leader and clarinetist of the orchestra Santa Cecilia-, played for music.
Over the course of 11 years, he moved with his family to New York, where he continued his percussion studies at the Juilliard School and became the most popular percussionist of his time.
In 1960, the young musician organized his first orchestra, the legendary “Pacheco y Su Charanga”, and his first album sold more than 100,000 units in less than a year, converting as well as the Latin production of Mayor Venta.
In the finals of 1963, his career led to a historic turning point, along with Italian-American lawyer Jerry Masucci, founded the fanographic company Fania Records, which for decades has agglutinated the most important Latin musicians of the moment.