The following history of FANIA is taken directly from the FANIA website.
Like many American stories, the tale of Fania comes from the boroughs and inner city barrios of New York City. In the early 60’s young Latin musicians brought the music from their homelands into the Great Apple and thus began a great period of musical reinvention and free cooperation amongst the melting pot of cultures living in the city.
During that time of cultural change, musical life in New York was exciting and unpredictable. One could visit Greenwich Village and listen to the topical folk of Bob Dylan, or take that A train to Harlem and watch James Brown shred his R&B all over the Apollo Theater. Fania would evolve, out of this diverse and dynamic mix of ideas, into one of the most influential and beloved Latin musical institutions of our times.
The new sounds coming from Spanish Harlem and the Bronx were sometimes rough and dangerous but always real and immediate, like the New York streets that inspired them. Along the way, Fania artists mixed a cornucopia of styles that transcended the boundaries of traditional Latin music and set the path for the genres of salsa, boogalu, Latin R&B, and afro-Cuban jazz.
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