VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino proudly announces a special 50th anniversary reissue of one of salsa music’s most important albums, Celia & Johnny. The 1974 Vaya Records release, which pairs legendary Cuban singer Celia Cruz with bandleader/producer/Fania co-founder Johnny Pacheco, established Cruz as a salsa icon, thanks to such enduring hits as “Toro mata” and “Quimbara.”
In stores October 11 and available for pre-order today, Celia & Johnny features all-analog mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, 180-gram vinyl and is housed in an old-school style tip-on jacket, replicating its original artwork. A 180-gram “Azul Real (Royal Blue)” color vinyl variant (limited to 300 copies), with a bundle option that includes a Vaya Records T-shirt, is available for pre-order at Fania.com. Additionally, the album will make its debut in 192/24 hi-res audio on select digital platforms on street date.
Celia & Johnny arrives as Craft Latino celebrates the 60th anniversary of Fania Records. Throughout the year, Craft Latino will honor the iconic label’s enduring legacy—as well as its foundational contributions to salsa music—through reissues such as this one, new releases, plus a host of exclusive content.
A special tribute event dedicated to Celia Cruz and Fania 60th anniversary celebration will be held on Saturday, August 3, at Grand Performances in Los Angeles. The free event begins at 6pm and features a live performance by Havana Secret led by maestros Luis Eric Gonzalez and Sean Billings, former members of Celia’s backing band in the West Coast; a DJ set by Gia Fu and dance lessons by the dance theater company Contra-Tiempo.
“The Guarachera of Cuba,” Celia Cruz (1925 – 2003) rose to fame in the ’50s with the vocal group Sonora Matancera. After a decade of hit records, film roles, and international tours, however, the singer was forced to flee, following the Cuban Revolution. Settling in New York City, Cruz embarked on a solo career, which found her collaborating with some of the era’s biggest Latin stars, including Tito Puente and Memo Salamanca. But by the turn of the ’70s, Cruz was struggling to find her niche in the evolving scene. Fears of flying (amid a series of hijacked flights to Cuba) and disagreements with her label further hampered her ambitions. Her fortunes were about to change, however, thanks to Johnny Pacheco and his label, Fania Records.
The Dominican-born Pacheco (1935 – 2021) began his career as a percussionist in bands led by Tito Puente and Xavier Cugat, among others, before finding fame with his own group, Pacheco Y Su Charanga (with whom he created his signature “Pacheco Groove”). In 1964, he co-founded Fania Records, which allowed him greater opportunities to expand his career, while championing his fellow Latin artists, including Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Monguito el Único, and Ray Barretto. Pacheco also had his eyes on Celia Cruz, as Juan Moreno Velázquez recalls in his liner notes.
The bandleader, he writes, “had noticed that Cruz’s early recordings…with the Tito Puente Orchestra tended to limit her impressive voice, which he felt was not reaching its potential against the enormous sound of Puente’s big band. Pacheco once told me, ‘Let me put it to you this way: Celia sounded good with a stick banging against a can. She didn’t need all those instruments.’”
And so, in 1974, Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz joined forces on their first record, Celia & Johnny. Serving as producer Pacheco selected material and arrangements that would allow Cruz’s voice to take center stage. Among the highlights are two songs that would become some of Cruz’s biggest hits: the Junior Cepeda-penned “Quimbara” and a salsa version of the traditional Afro-Peruvian song, “Toro mata.” Cruz’s talents as an interpreter also shine on tracks like the Pacheco-penned “El tumbao y Celia,” as well as on favorites like “Lo tuyo es mental” (written by Anam Munar), “El pregón del pescador” (traditional), and the Orlando de La Rosa standard, “Vieja luna.”
Pacheco’s instincts proved to be right: Celia & Johnny was the vehicle that catapulted Cruz to international stardom, introducing her to a new generation and cementing her status as “The Queen of Salsa.” Long documented as one of Cruz’s favorite projects, the album quickly became a Gold-certified best-seller and would soon be regarded as one of the genre’s most significant albums. Velázquez adds, “It was at Pacheco’s side that Celia changed the course of her musical future, and on this album, her charm, versatility, and integrity confirmed that her moment had arrived.”
In the years following the success of Celia & Johnny, Cruz’s star only continued to rise, as she joined the legendary Fania All-Stars supergroup and released dozens of acclaimed albums, including a series of projects with Pacheco. Among them were the GRAMMY®-nominated Eternos (1978) and De nuevo (1985), as well as the popular 1980 collaboration, Celia, Johnny and Pete (with Pete Rodriguez). Today, Celia & Johnny endures as a centerpiece of salsa’s Golden Age. In 2014, the album was recognized by the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” while a year later, Billboard included the record in its “50 Essential Latin Albums of the Last 50 Years” roundup.
