Pacheco, Johnny
(Juan Azarías Pacheco Knipping), 1935-2021, Dominican-American salsa
musician, bandleader, and recording executive, b. Santiago de los
Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Pacheco’s father was already
established as a bandleader/clarinetist in the Dominican Republic when the
family relocated to New York City when Johnny was 11. He formed his first
band, Pacheco y Su Charanga, in 1960, introducing a new dance style,
pachanga, which combined elements of the Latin American dance the merengue
with Cuban rhythms. In 1964, Pacheco cofounded Fania Records, which helped
launch the careers of dozens of Latin dance-music stars, including Celia
Cruz, Willie
Colón, and Rubén Blades. Pacheco
formed the Fania All Stars in 1968 as a performing and recording band; the
group helped popularize the salsa musical style. Pacheco was awarded
the Presidential Medal of Honor by the Dominican Republic in 1996, inducted
into the Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1998, and awarded a Latin Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. The Fania All Star’s album
Live at Yankee Stadium (rec. 1973; rel. 1974) was added
to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2003. He
is said to have written over 150 tunes.
See studies by V. Boggs (1992), J. Flores (2016); Salsa: Latin Pop Music
in the Cities (video, 1988).
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