A Refresher Course in Salsa Standards

Five years ago, Mario Rincon had a problem on his hands.

The musical director of Colombia’s Discos Fuentes, one of the most renowned Latin record labels in the world, Rincon is an avid fan of the tropical genre, with a weakness for the New York sound of the ‘70s.

Rincon’s problem was that he couldn’t quite enjoy his favorite vintage releases. By today’s standards, the sound quality of those LPs is poor at best. And the badly remastered CD versions are even worse.

“The songs were phenomenal,” Rincon says. “But the sound was so terrible that it really ruined your enjoyment of the music.”

Rincon’s solution? He created a band whose mission would be to rerecord the old standards with state-of-the-art equipment, safeguarding salsa history for a new generation of fans.

In five years and with four albums, the group, Sonora Carruseles, has become one of the best outfits in the genre. Its combination of agile, supple rhythms with aggressive, sensuous melodies boasts a rootsy authenticity that separates it from most groups of its kind.

The band was supposed to make its Los Angeles debut last month at the Conga Room, but its members’ visa problems forced the club to postpone the shows until the issues are resolved. For now, Carruseles’ new album, the hyperkinetic “Con Todos Los Hierros,” will have to do.

At a time when tropical music is dominated by rampant commercialism, Carruseles rejects the pop influences that have become the genre’s trademark. Reflecting musical director Rincon’s devotion to the past, its repertoire includes a number of tunes made famous by singer Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez. The band also revisits forgotten subgenres such as the boogaloo, a sweetly infectious dance that caused a commotion in late ‘60s New York. And because it does hail from Colombia, this Sonora performs its own brand of cumbias, the country’s most popular dance.

That Carruseles is the brainchild of Discos Fuentes is no surprise. For decades now, the people behind the label have been obsessed with emulating the sound of classic salsa as created by the legendary Fania label.

Founded in 1964 by flutist Johnny Pacheco and attorney Jerry Masucci, New York-based Fania was the most formidable record company in the history of Afro-Cuban music. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was home to superstars Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri and countless others.

Discos Fuentes, on the other hand, was created in 1934 by Antonio Fuentes Lopez in Cartagena, Colombia. But it wasn’t until the ‘60s that the company became an international sensation through La Sonora Dinamita, an ensemble that charted new territory performing poppy versions of traditional Afro-Caribbean dances.

Salsa became an important influence for the label when Fuentes began to distribute the Fania catalog in Colombia.

“As soon as we got those first Fania albums in the mid- to late ‘60s, Mario [Rincon] fell in love with salsa,” recalls Jose Maria Fuentes, one of the founder’s sons and a key player in the company. “We immediately decided to create a band that would copy the Fania sound.”

Fuentes, Rincon and percussionist Julio Ernesto Estrada spent years listening to the Fania albums, studying every nuance in the performances of such artists as Pacheco, Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe.

“We studied the bass lines, the bongos, the things they did with cowbells,” Fuentes recalls. “We went to New York specifically to meet the Fania bands and see them play in concert.”

A band was formed in 1970 with Rincon as musical director and Estrada as the leader and timbale player. The band, which signified the birth of Colombian salsa, was baptized Fruko y Sus Tesos, and its success led to a whole generation of Discos Fuentes salsa artists, including the Latin Brothers, Los Titanes and singer-songwriter Joe Arroyo.

When the Fania label folded in the mid-’80s, Fuentes took its place as the foremost provider of quality tropical music.

Although Carruseles is the most impressive act in the Fuentes roster, many of its vintage names continue to record on a regular basis. Fruko y Sus Tesos released a new product in 1999 after years of inactivity. The Latin Brothers’ last two albums are superb, vital efforts.

With a new office in Miami, an amazingly rich catalog of classic material to reissue and the ripples of last year’s Latin explosion still affecting the U.S. music industry, the label might find itself at the crossroads of mainstream success.

“Our stuff has nothing to do with commercialized, romantic tropical music,” Fuentes insists. “We’re not at all like [Colombia’s competing band] Grupo Niche. Our specialty is the brand of salsa known as hard salsa, the one that dancers love.”