Vinicio Franco

Artist: Vinicio Franco y su Conjunto Tipico Cibaeño

LP: Merengues — El Principe del Merengue

Song: "Tocame La Campana, Maria"
[ listen ]

Song: "La Chiva Blanca"
[ listen ]

Huntsville, Alabama is one of the friendliest cities in the South! I found Vertical House Records online while researching stores to visit on my trip. It looked amazing (it's located in part of the old Lowe Mill building), but to my chagrin, the store is only open Wednesday through Saturday, and I was going to be driving through northern Alabama on Monday and Tuesday. About a week before leaving Seattle, I called and left a message on the store's answering machine to let them know of my predicament and to see if there was any way I could browse through Vertical House Records on a day they're usually closed. I wasn't really expecting a reply, but thought it was worth a shot. I figured that if I did hear from anyone, it would probably be along the lines of: "Sorry to hear we'll miss you. Hope you'll come back through our neck of the woods sometime when we're open. We'd love to meet you!" Instead, within an hour I received a text message from the store's owners, Andy and Ashley. They were currently on vacation on Italy! They said they would be returning to Huntsville on the Monday during my trip and would be happy to meet me at their store on Tuesday afternoon! 

I arrived in Huntsville at about 6pm on that Tuesday, and Andy and Ashley were both there at Vertical House Records to meet me. Andy gave me a quick tour of the place, then let me dig through the bins while they were hanging out with a friend at the front of the store, drinking beer and listening to music. I joked with them about how awful it would be if, after everything, I browsed for two hours and then sauntered out the door saying, "Thanks, but I didn't really see anything here that caught my eye." But anyone who knows me will know that there wasn't any danger of that happening. In fact, I was only able to browse through the "International" section as well as the A—G part of the "General" section before hunger overtook me (and before I began to worry that I was going to keep Andy and Ashley there until midnight). Though I definitely feel the need to return to Vertical House to browse through H—Z, I found lots of wonderful stuff in the time I was there—like this merengue album by Vinicio Franco.

Born in September of 1933 in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, Vinicio first began singing in nightclubs to entertain tourists in the mid-to-late 1950s; his first recording was made in 1957, titled either "Shut Me Sail" or "Shut Me Off the Candle," depending on which language translation tool you use. In a career spanning 60 years and counting, Vinicio Franco has performed in places like New York City and Miami in the USA, as well as throughout South America and Europe. Vinicio's "Merengue" LP, his first, was released in 1960. My copy, though not sealed, is in mint condition and was still in shrink-wrap, with a purple "Dominican Republic" ink stamp on the back! I especially like "La Chiva Blanca" ["The White Goat"], where Vinicio makes animal sounds. You can read more about Vinicio "El Principe del Merengue" Franco in Spanish here and here, and you'll find English-ish translation of the Wikipedia page here. There's a relatively recent video clip of Vinicio Franco performing here:

Vinicio Franco on YouTube:

[ "Los Algodones" ] 

 [ Vinicio Franco ]

[ Vertical House Records — Huntsville, Alabama ]

Wilfrido Vargas

Artist: Wilfrido Vargas

LP: El Funcionario

Song: "El Hombre Divertido"

[ listen ]

I finally replaced my stolen camera! Now I can photograph my LPs without having to use the rinky-dink camera inside my cell phone. The energy of this song from Wilfrido Vargas' 1983 "El Funcionario" LP, picked up for $4 Friday night on Capitol Hill just two blocks from Jimi Hendrix, accurately reflects my excitement about owning a new camera—it's a Nikon. You can read about Wilfido Vargas here.

Johnny Pacheco/Charlie Palmieri/Jose Fajardo

LP: Las Charangas: Pacheco, Palmieri, Fajardo

Artist: Johnny Pacheco y su Charanga

Song: "Verano de Amor"

[ listen ]
Artist: Charlie Palmieri y su Charanga

Song: "Lloraras"

[ listen ]
Artist: Jose Fajardo y su Charanga

Song: "El Silver Star"

[ listen ]

I thought the Charanga was a sandwich until I found this terrific 1963 Alegre Records compilation at Rooky Ricardo's Records on my trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago. The record features three Latin bandleaders who spearheaded the Pachanga dance craze in New York in the early 1960s. Johnny Pacheco, from the Dominican Republic, actually played with Charlie Palmieri's Latin orchestra before forming his own band in 1959. His was the first Latin band to headline at The Apollo, in 1962, and then in 1964 Pacheco created the Fania Records label with lawyer Jerry Masucci. You can read more about Johnny Pacheco here, and visit his official website here to find out what he's up to nowadays and to see where you can catch his next performance. Charlie Palmieri, known as "The Giant of the Keyboards," was born in the South Bronx in 1927 after his parents immigrated to the USA from Puerto Rico in 1926. Palmieri started playing piano by ear at an early age and was a member of Tito Puente's band by the time he was 20. Palmieri played with Puente's group from 1947-1953 after which he continued performing on his own and with artists like Celia Cruz, Herbie Mann, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaría and others until his death from a heart attack in 1988. Cuban flutist Jose Fajardo worked as a policeman in Havana before taking over flute duties from Antonio Arcaño of Arcaño y sus Maravillas in the late 1940s. After forming his own group, Fajardo y sus Estrellas, by the end of that decade, Fajardo's music took him around the globe during the 1950s. He was touring Japan in 1961 when Fidel Castro's government ordered him to steer his tour into Communist territories. Fajardo refused and settled in the United States rather than returning to Cuba. He continued to perform in New York City and Puerto Rico until his death from an aneurysm in 2001. You can read more about Jose Fajardo in his New York Times obituary here. The LP liner notes, written by Tom Rosado, are included below; LP cover art is by Abel G. Navarro and the record was produced by Al Santiago.

[ Johnny Pacheco, b. March 24, 1935 ]

 [ Charlie Palmieri: November 21, 1927 — September 12, 1988 ]

[ Jose Fajardo: 1919 — December 11, 2001 ]

Bullumba Landestoy

Artist: Bullumba Landestoy

LP: 7" single
Song: "Cuban Nightingale"
[ listen ]

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1925, Rafael "Bullumba" Landestoy is one of three artists featured on this 4-track single I picked up a while ago. Xavier Cugat and Noro Morales are already favorites, but I hadn't heard of this Landestoy fellow, so I decided to post his track here and then try to find some info on the guy, which I found here and here. While searching for pictures of Rafael Landestoy online, was pretty sure my primary results turned up the wrong guy. The piano-playing Rafael "Bullumba" Landestoy is pictured below.