Alegre Records
New York Latin label, first to record many great artists.
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Alegre Records · via Wikipedia: Alegre Records · Public domain
Alegre Records was a New York City record label founded in 1956 by Al Santiago, who owned a 1950s record store named Casa Alegre at 8522 Westchester Avenue in The Bronx, and co-founded by clothing businessman Ben Perlman. Specializing in Latin music, the label was significant for featuring artists such as Johnny Pacheco and Tito Puente, and was the first to record a series of great Latin artists, from Johnny Pacheco, Eddie Palmieri, through Willie Colón. It has been called the 'Blue Note' of Latin music.
Background
In 1961, Johnny Pacheco's first orchestra signed with Alegre Records, and their debut album 'Johnny Pacheco y Su Charanga' was released that year. In 1961, Al Santiago created the Alegre All Stars (also spelled Alegre All-Stars), inspired by the well-known Cuban Jam Sessions ('Descargas Cubanas') from the 1950s on the Panart Records label. Johnny Pacheco brought in his friend, trombonist Barry Rogers, to play with the group, which featured a unique instrumentation of flute, tenor sax, and trombone. Fred Weinberg was Santiago's and the label's favorite sound engineer, who also recorded many of the artists individually.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Alegre Records (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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