Alegre Records was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

specialized in

latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...

. It was founded in 1956 by Al Santiago who owned a 1950s record store at 8522 Westchester Avenue in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

named ''Casalegre'' and co-founded by clothing businessman Ben Perlman. It specialized in

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...

and was significant for featuring artists such as

Johnny Pacheco Juan Pablo Knipping Pacheco (25 March 1935 – 15 February 2021), known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer who in the 1970s became one of the leading exponents of salsa as well in t ...

and

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz c ...

and was the first to record a series of great Latin artists, from

Eddie Palmieri Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive. Early life Pal ...

, through

Willie Colón William Anthony Colón Román (born April 28, 1950) is an American salsa musician and social activist. He began his career as a trombonist and also sings, writes, produces and acts. He is also involved in the politics of New York City. Colón ...

. It has been called the "

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

" of Latin music.''Salsa Rising: New York Latin Music of the Sixties Generation''
pg.62
/ref> In 1960, Johnny Pacheco's first orchestra had signed with Alegre Records and their first album titled “Johnny Pacheco y Su Charanga” sold over 100,000 copies within the first year and was the biggest selling album in Latin music history up to that point. In 1961, Al Santiago created the ''Alegre All Stars'' (also spelled ''Alegre All-Stars''), remembering the well-known Cuban Jam Sessions ("Descargas Cubanas") in the 1950s on the

Panart Records Panart was one of the first and most successful independent record labels in Cuba, founded in 1944 by engineer Ramón Sabat. In 1961, its studios were seized by Fidel Castro's communist regime and the label was nationalized, becoming "Panart Naci ...

label. Johnny Pacheco got his friend, the trombonist

Barry Rogers Barron W. "Barry" Rogers (May 22, 1935 – April 18, 1991) was an American jazz and salsa trombonist. Career Born in The Bronx, he descended from Polish Jews and was raised in Spanish Harlem. His family (original name: Rogenstein) possessed a ...

, to play with the Alegre All-Stars which featured a unique instrumentation of flute, tenor sax, and trombone. Fred Weinberg was Santiago's and the labels favorite sound engineer who also recorded many of the artists individually. In

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Alegre Records was sold to

Fania Records Fania Records is a New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his Brooklyn-born Italian-American ex-New York City Police Officer turned lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964. The label took its nam ...

References

External links

The House that Al Built
- review of historical CD set at The Descarga Review. {{Authority control American record labels Record labels established in 1956 Record labels disestablished in 1975 Latin American music record labels Companies based in the Bronx Fania Records 1956 establishments in New York City 1975 disestablishments in New York (state)

See also

References

Further reading

External links