If listening to this we go back in time to the early eighties. My friends and I used to visit a bar in Amsterdam called 'de Kroeg', it used to be at 'de Lijnbaansgracht'. We loved it because they played salsa until early in the morning. A lot of stuff from the great Fania label[...]

click on it From 1973 we've got this record with the funny title; 'Lo Mato Si No Compra este LP' (I'll kill him if you don't buy this LP). I didn't have it on lp myself but I do have the cd. Another great album with a great line-up .. Uit het jaar 1973 hebben[...]

01 - Ah-ah. o-no 02 - Piraña 03 - Seguire sin ti 04 - Timbalero 05 - Aguanile 06 - Soñando despierto 07 - Si las ves 08 - Pan y agua (bread & water)

click on it 01 - Ghana' e 02 - Pa'colombia 03 - No cambiaré 04 - Sigue feliz 05 - Barrunto 06 - Abuelita 07 - Panameña 08 - Canción para mi suegra

click on it Indeed I was taking a short break last week, visiting my brother in Copenhagen, Denmark. Fortunately the heavy rainfall and forthcoming damage was not in my part of the Netherlands. It occurred in a relative small area south of our country and in some parts of Belgium and Germany. The destruction was[...]

click on it Once I re-tasted the flavour of Willie's marvelous sound, it was a small and logical step to bring more of his splendid albums. This is solid black gold. With hector Lavoe's great voice and the rest of this, still very young, band you can't go wrong. Willies first album is also for[...]

Posting 'Buscando America', by Ruben Blades, I just discovered that another album with him has disappeared from the site. I am sure I have posted this record long time ago. It has vanished mysteriously somehow. before we became independent this occurred more often. Please let us know if there are others you know of so[...]

Ik moet echt eens wat meer salsa plaatsen, wat dacht je van deze ? Conga speler Ray Barretto heeft een enorme berg platen gemaakt. Dit krachtige album is uit 1972, op Fania en komt stevig uit de verf. Adalberto Santiago doet de vokalen, lekker hoor, luister.. I really should post more salsa, how about this[...]

Fania's great trombone player and composer Willie Colon is here with an album from 1974. Produced by Jerry Masucci and Willie Colon. Recording director Johnny Pacheco. Vocals Hector Lavoe. sorry it has a few pops, still love this, hope U do too. tracks; 1 Ah-ah/O-noAbuelita 2 3 Vo so 4 Piraña 5 La murga 6[...]

How sweet was the sound of Fania in the early seventies ? Larry Harlow produced this spicey slice of salsa vinyl and I think he did very well. Sparkling Fania recording with some great songs by Justo Betancourt, smooth voice. To break the routine it don't hurt to have us some salsa, I should do[...]

Here's an old time favourite I used to play very much. It contains the massive 'Quitate tu', a great number that takes you on a trip for more than 16 minutes. Back in the days, when I deejayed at party's, it always came in handy to take a break, toilet, beer at the bar, a[...]

A classic Johnny Pacheco from 1975, El Maestro, with Hector Casanova as vocalist. Fania Records was the leader in salsa in the seventies and Johnny Pacheco their orchestral leader. They were a source of inspiration to loads of salsa artists thru time. The slice of vinyl is very thin but the sound on it, fat[...]

After this weeks Fania post it seems a good idea to honour this remarkable salsa label a bit more. This LP brings us 11 superb Fania songs by 11 different artists, mixed for us by Richard Pampinella. An outstanding compilation of typical salsa brava. And how about the artwork by Jorge Vargas ? Stunning.. tracks;[...]

I received an e-mail of the people of Fania, they have something special coming out. A special release with old Joe Cuba recordings. They asked me if I want to use their videoclip, which is really super. As you can see I didn't want to let them down, au contraire, I am honoured to be[...]