Salsa – Orchestra Harlow, 1974

🎹🇺🇸🇨🇺🎶💃 Originally a rock and jazz pianist, American Larry Harlow discovered Latin music in Cuba. In 1966, Johnny Pacheco signed him to Fania, where he became one of the firm favourites. In 1974, with his Orchestra Harlow, he released Salsa, the first album of its kind to officially use the term. It fused Cuban son (notably La Cartera by Arsenio Rodriguez) and charanga(El Paso de Encarnacion by Richard Egües, the leading flutist of Orquesta Aragon), with the addition of violins (Lewis Kahn, impeccable). The album made its mark on the history of the genre, and remains a firm favourite with dancers. Despite the decline of New York salsa, Harlow continued to collaborate and produce. In 1994, he co-founded the Latin Legends Band with Ray Barretto. He died in Brooklyn in 2021. To illustrate all this, a small Peruvian pressing on the Dinsa label, not the most common…