Fania All Stars - Salsa (the film)

It’s the Seventies. It’s the start of a massive stadium gig. Bright spotlights zigzag wildly across the audience and zero in on the long-haired musicians who jog, one by one, out of the darkness onto the pitch. The fanfare is phenomenal. It’s thrilling. Dressed in white suits, silk shirts and jumpsuits, these men are feted like gods. They slap palms with nearby fans before reaching the stage. The crowd go crazy! It’s like Led Zep at Madison Square Garden or Aerosmith at the Hollywood Bowl. Then MC Izzy Sanabria, in matching gold lamé suit, screams, “Ladies and gentlemen, here they are! The world’s greatest Latin musicians - the Fania All Stars!”

This concert at Yankee Stadium on 24th August, 1973, was the next move in Fania boss Jerry Masucci’s scheme for world salsa domination. Yet, despite the amazing achievements of Fania’s 1972 film/concert, Our Latin Thing, when Masucci first broached the idea of the Yankee Stadium gig, everyone thought he was insane. But with Our Latin Thing smashing open the doors for a massive salsa revolution, plus some astute marketing tricks, afew gambles and, of course, great music, Masucci was - again - right on the money. He was creating Latin music super-heroes with the maxim: treat them like stars, they become stars - hence the outrageous overture at the start of the Yankee Stadium show. Nonetheless, the size of the salsa explosion was shocking, probably even to Masucci. The Cheetah, the principal New York location for Our Latin Thing, was a 4000-capacity ballroom, but a couple of years later on this hot August night, the Yankee Stadium bulged with over 40,000 fans. There was even a pitch invasion!

In fact, this concert was just one of the significant ingredients in the film, Salsa. Released in 1976 and directed by Masucci and Our Latin Thing’s Leon Gast, the movie combined live footage from another massive Fania All Stars show in 1974 at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Archive footage as well as reportage from television journalist, Geraldo Rivera, was also inter-cut with the performances. The strategy for Salsa was to deliberately break away from the ghetto-centric iconography of Our Latin Thing and attract a much bigger audience outside the traditional Latin market.

PAL/NTCS Zone Free / Dolby Digital / Scene Selection / Surround 2.0 / English subtitle: Spanish / Duration 83 min.

LICENSING ISSUE:
We were informed (directly from Fania, EMUSICA) on 12 Apr 06 that they (Fania) are in the process of contacting the producing company to question their License for this product. Eventhough MusicaBoricua.com purchases this product from Vampisoul's only authorized distributor in the U.S., MusicaBoricua.com voluntarily will not offer these DVD's until such conflict is resolved between the involved parties (Fania and Vampisoul). This is a Licensing issue and by no means this should be interpreted as if Vampisoul is violating Anti-Piracy laws.

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