ALEGRE ALL-STARS1966 Alegre # 810: A CLASSIC HEAR

$

26

ARTIST : THE ALEGRE ALL-STARS

TITLE: THE ALEGRE ALL-STARS

REMARKS:....SORRY FOR INCLUDING THIS SHORT STORY!

• The year: 1961 (the original pressing was with the black label, When Al Santiago 1st sold the label to Branston they reissued the LP with the blue label)

• The date: Who the hell remembers?

• The location: Mastertone Studios,
West 42nd Street, NY, NY

• The song: “Buscando a Kako”

Eleven of New York’s busiest sidemen and bandleaders are in a highly unlikely location: the same studio, on the same day, at the same time. During the session another unlikely event happens. The beginning of an instrumental number by multi-instrumentalist Don Elliott flows out of pianist Charlie Palmieri’s stream of musical consciousness. The first seven or so notes are cannibalized by a pack of musical omnivores and, fitted with lyrics, instantly approved for recording by producer Al Santiago. These lyrics consist of an imaginary search for all of the immensely talented musicians in the studio; most of these musicians have bisyllabic names or nicknames, which very conveniently fit into the rhythm of what remains of Don Elliott’s tune.

Can the evolution of a song and the progress of a recording session be detailed so neatly and precisely. Occasionally. Regardless of how accurate the above account may actually be, “Buscando a Kako” isn’t a bad metaphor for the Alegre All Stars, their history and the achievements of their founder. It’s likely that Kako wasn’t so hard to find if you knew where to look.

It’s well known that the inspiration for the Alegre All Stars was provided by several Panart issues of leading Cuban musicians who were surreptitiously recorded while they were jamming at a party. The phenomenon of New York Puerto Ricans being inspired by Cuban musicians goes back at least to the early 1940s. It is, therefore, no surprise that the first “Cuban All Stars” records elicited the following reactions from Al Santiago. “It was obvious that they were having a great time, and when I heard that record, there was no record previous to that one that impressed me so much. The first time I went to Puerto Rico as an adult, which was in 1959, I took the Cuban Jam Sessions, Volume One with me, the only LP that I ever carried to and from Puerto Rico, and I played it for my mother-in-law and even SHE liked it. I decided, ‘Well, if the Cuban guys can do it, the New York guys can do it’”.

Alegre’s first major commercial success was his 1960 release Pacheco Y Su Charanga, both Pacheco’s and Santiago’s first LP production and a 120,000 seller. The sales of this album put Alegre far into the black and encouraged Santiago to follow the promptings of his own tastes rather than the normal dictates of the Hispanic record business.

Artists showcased in the ensuing eight albums included the following bandleaders: pianist Charlie Palmieri, timbalero Francisco “Kako” Bastar, conguero Luis “Sabu” Martinez, merenguero Dioris Valladares and, of course, the mega-selling Pacheco. Santiago recalls, “Now I had put out nine albums and I decided ‘Why don’t I get the leaders from these albums and/or the top musicians in these bands that I have under contract and form a band?’ “Santiago approached all of the above bandleaders except Sabu, a player whose instrumental gifts and showmanship were not matched by reliability. Chombo Silva was persuaded to come in on saxophone. For the trombone chair, Pacheco recommended a fellow Gompers High School graduate from the Bronx named Barry Rogers. Vocalist and composer Rudy Calzado was another Pacheco alumnus who was enlisted (a similar double threat was eventually provided by Willie Torres). Added to this arsenal of vocalists was Eladio Peguero, better known as “Yayo el Indio,” famed both as a great vocal soloist and possibly the most recorded corista in Latin music history. The rhythm section was rounded out by Puente and Machito veteran Bobby Rodriguez on bass, Marcelino Valdés (a highly underrated percussionist) on congas, and guiro maven Julian Cabrera.

These musicians performed together at the Tritons, a second story nightclub on Southern Boulevard between 163rd Street and Westchester Avenue. After a series of ten Tuesday night shows, they were ready to record. As Al remembers, “When we went to the studio, we had the easiest All Star session we ever had. We never did that again, we just used to go to the studio and, right there, bing, bang, improvise.”
Between advertising, word of mouth and the retailing clout of Casalegre, the Alegre All Stars albums sold between five and ten thousand copies apiece. Santiago claims that after paying musicians, arrangers, recording studios and manufacturers, it usually took a mere couple of thousand albums to break even. Recording the Alegre All Stars demonstrated some of the tensions between improvising and composing, made modest profits for the owner, and provided considerable entertainment for all concerned.

Al Santiago could be as spontaneous as his players. For one thing, recording sessions were sometimes conceived, booked and carried out on less than twenty-four hours notice. When timbalero Orlando Marin was called to record with the All Stars, he had no idea that he would be a featured soloist on “Manteca” until Al pointed a finger at him in the studio. Orlando found the Alegre system a little different from what he was used to in the studio. “I’m more regimented,” he says, “I like to rehearse things until they’re really, really down. But the Alegre All Stars were very, very fast and you had to be very quick and sharp to stay up with them. Because the rhythm section never was reading music, they were always playing by ear. Sometimes there was music, they had some music for breaks and things, but we had to memorize everything, we weren’t usually counting bars.” For Orlando and his colleagues, this tension was more than made up for by the exhilaration of creation. This kind of freewheeling approach was considerably enhanced by the modern miracles of magnetized oxide and razor blades.
By 1966, Al Santiago had overextended himself with recording projects and the label was sold to Branston Music to enable Al to pay off various debts. The All Star’s recordings were continued under different names to avoid contractual problems (e.g., Salsa All Stars, Cesta All Stars). By the late 1960s the balance between improvisation and arrangements was becoming an issue, especially as the All Star groups grew in size. As long as Willie Torres and Al Santiago have been friends, they’ve “agreed to disagree” on certain topics and particularly on how much written music should be used. Willie has always advocated none. The Alegre All Stars have weathered a lot. Not surprisingly, Pacheco quit (and went ahead to form the small FANIA label). This deprived the All Stars of Pacheco’s flute playing after Volume One, and the label of its most financially productive artist. The biggest setbacks have been the deaths of the majority of the artists since the early 1960s. It is a tribute to Al Santiago’s vitality, creativity and optimism that in the face of these losses, he’s keeping this concept alive. A 1996 version of the All Stars performed at S.O.B.’s in New York City on June 17 and a recording and concerts outside the New York area are in the works. The surviving All Stars will no doubt miss their original bandmates; the current group plays more instrumentals than that of thirty-five years ago. There’s no more Kako to look for, but looking for that elusive balance of spontaneity and planning and looking for new musical worlds to conquer are keys to alegría.

1- Almendra En Descarga
2- Al Carnaval
3- Para Ti

THE ALL-STARS:

Bass - Bobby Rodriguez
Congas - Marcelino Valdes
Flute - Johnny Pacheco
Guiro - Julian Cabrera
Other [Booze Getter] - Juanchu Feliciano Merceron
Piano - Charlie Palmieri
Producer - Al Santiago
Saxophone [Tenor] - Chombo Silva*
Timbales - Kako (2)
Trombone - Barry Rogers
Vocals - Dioris Valladares , Rudy Calzado , Yayo "El Indio" Pequero

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