01 GLORIA A BENNY MORE
02 CHA CHA CHA DEL DIABLO
03 FAJARDO Y SU FLAUTA
04 ERES ASI
05 MIRA QUE LOS TIEMPOS CAMBIAN
06 SOL RE DO
07 DOS PERLAS
08 YO TE ENSEÑARE
09 AÑO 1963
10 FLOR DE AMOR
11 BARCO SIN PUERTO
José Antonio Fajardo, 18 October 1919, Cuba. Band leader, arranger,
composer and producer Fajardo is one of the greatest Cuban flute
players. He organized a flute, strings, rhythm section and voices
charanga band which he called his All-Stars. In the course of his long
career, he played a prominent role in the 50s’ cha cha chá fad, early
60s’ charanga/pachanga craze and 70s’ charanga revival. Prior to
forming his own band, Fajardo did stints with female singer/band leader
Paulina Alvarez (b. 1912, d. 1965) and Arcaño Y Sus Maravillas.
In 1956, Fajardo released Cuba (aka Cuban Cha Cha Chá) on the Tico
Records label, which featured revered conga player Tata Güines (b.
Federico Arístides Soto, 1926, Güines, Cuba). He signed with Panart
Records and issued a string of albums on the label during the late 50s
and early 60s. His early Panart releases emphasized the popular cha cha
chá rhythm, which was developed by violinist-composer-arranger-band
leader Enrique Jorrín while he was a member of Orquesta América.
Fajardo and his band appeared at the prestigious Tropicana nightclub in
Havana. In 1959 he was invited by the US Democratic Party to play at
New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel for John Kennedy’s presidential
campaign. His All-Stars caused more commotion with the Latino community
than with the Democrats and an engagement at New York’s famous
Palladium Ballroom quickly followed.
After the Cuban revolution, Fajardo left Cuba in 1960 to settle in
Miami, USA. Violinist/composer/arranger Félix Reina inherited his band,
which was renamed the Estrellas Cubanas, and the flautist’s position
was filled by Eddy Zervigón, who went on to co-found Orquesta Broadway
in 1962. Meanwhile in 1960, the massive popularity of Charlie
Palmieri’s Charanga ‘La Duboney’, featuring Johnny Pacheco on flute,
sparked off a charanga boom which was dominated by the fast pachanga
rhythm created by Cuban composer Eduardo Davidson. Pachanga fever
started in New York with the success of Afro-Cuban singer Rolando La
Serie’s version of Davidson’s ‘La Pachanga’ from his Sabor A Mi, on
which he was accompanied by the brass and saxophone-led big band of
Bebo Valdés. The song topped the Farándula chart for a couple of months
in 1960. In its wake, a string of other pachanga compositions appeared
over the next few years. Fajardo promptly responded to this new trend
by including an interpretation of the much covered ‘La Pachanga’ and
Davidson’s pachanga ‘Pancho Calma’ on his 1961 Panart release Fajardo
And His All-Stars Vol. 6. The major label Columbia Records eventually
picked-up on the fad and signed him for Mister Pachanga in 1962. He
also recorded Sabor Guajiro for them. However, by 1964 the
charanga/pachanga craze had run out of steam.
A Fajardo accompanist for many years, Osvaldo ‘Chi Hua Hua’ Martínez
(b. c.1920, Cuba, d. early 80s, New York, USA; güiro/timbales) went on
to work with Mongo Santamaría, Félix ‘Pupi’ Legarreta, Sonny Stitt, Ray
Barretto, Kako, the Alegre All-Stars, Johnny Pacheco, Willie Bobo, Don
Gonzalo Fernández, Mike Pérez, Israel ‘Cachao’ López, Julito Collazo,
Lou Pérez, Javier Vázquez, among others; he recorded the classic Latin
jam sets Descarga Cubana Vol. 1 (1966) and Latin Cuban Session Vol. 2
(c.1967) on Fonseca Records (which were both collected on the CD
Descarga Cubana in 1991); and co-led Orquesta Metropolitana on New
Horizons (1980). Fajardo maintained two charangas in 1963, one in New
York and the other in Miami. He eventually tired of commuting and
disbanded his Miami band, but retained Sonny Bravo (b. Elio Osacar
Jnr., 7 October 1936, New York, USA, of Cuban parentage;
pianist/arranger) for his New York outfit. In 1964, he issued the fifth
and final volume in Panart’s legendary Cuban Jam Session series. In
1965, Fajardo decided to relocate to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bravo left
at this point and later became a founder member of Típica 73. In 1966,
Fajardo hired the young classically trained Cuban violinist Alfredo De
La Fé and in 1974 recruited Afro-Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez to the
quintet he was leading in Miami.
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Fajardo signed with Harvey Averne’s Coco Records and released a series
of four albums on the label between 1975 and 1978. Although his quintet
was pictured on the sleeve of the first, Fajardo Y Sus Estrellas Del
75, the Miami recorded album featured a 14-piece charanga with five
violins, including brother Alberto. Fajardo found himself amid a
resurgence of the charanga sound which occurred in the second half of
the 70s. Rodríguez departed and Sonny Bravo returned to session on
1977’s Selecciones Clasicas, which contained remakes of earlier hits.
Ray Barretto co-produced this album and handled the entire production
of El Talento Total in 1978. Fajardo switched to Fania Records for four
releases between 1980 and 1984, which included two collaborations with
Johnny Pacheco. Rodríguez regards the relationship between Fajardo and
Pacheco as being akin to teacher and pupil: ‘Everybody knows Pacheco
because of the selling of albums, and because of the Fania thing, but
Fajardo is the master and Pacheco is the student’. De La Fé sessioned
on all of Fajardo’s releases between 1977 and 1980, and Chi Hua Hua
appeared on Las Tres Flautas and Pacheco Y Fajardo. In addition to
recording as a band leader, Fajardo sessioned with an impressive list
of Latin names, including Israel ‘Cachao’ López, Louie Ramírez, Fania
All Stars, Alfredo Valdés Jnr. and José Mangual Jnr.
Tomado de Oldies.com
Jose Fajardo
flautista y director de orquesta cubano, José Fajardo,
falleció en Nueva Jersey, víctima de un ataque cardiaco. Su última
presentación en Puerto Rico fue en febrero de 1999, como atracción
estelar del espectáculo “La pachanga se baila así” que produjo Joe
Quijano. EL RECONOCIDO flautista y director de orquesta cubano, José
Fajardo, falleció en Nueva Jersey, víctima de un ataque cardiaco. Su
última presentación en Puerto Rico fue en febrero de 1999, como
atracción estelar del espectáculo “La pachanga se baila así” que
produjo Joe Quijano.
(Extracto de www.salsajazz.com por Jaime Torres
Torres)
