Johnny Pacheco’s recent passing rocked the Latin music community. Without him, salsa would never have coalesced, been codified, and spread throughout the
Johnny Pacheco, musician whose Fania record label launched salsa music, dies at 85 Matt Schudel Johnny Pacheco, a Dominican-born musician who was the co-founder of Fania Records, often called the Motown of salsa music, an up-tempo, dance-driven style of Latin American music that he helped make a global sensation in the 1960s and 1970s, died Feb. 15 at a hospital in Teaneck, N.J. He was 85. The cause was pneumonia, said a son, Elis Pacheco. He also had Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Pacheco, who was dubbed the “godfather of salsa,” was a Juilliard-trained musician and bandleader, but his greatest contributions may have been as an impresario.
(Photo : Andrew H. Walker) L-R) Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentín, Johnny Pacheco and Ismael Miranda attend the 22nd annual ASCAP Latin Music Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom on March 18, 2014 in New York City.
Salsa music has lost one of its greatest pillars, Johnny Pacheco, as he waves his goodbye at 85. ABC7 reported that the co-founder of Fania records had been hospitalized in New York City a few days earlier due to pneumonia. His wife, Maria Elena Cuqui Pacheco, also shared this news on the artist s Facebook account.
In a Twitter post, Fania Records noted that the musician was the man most responsible for the genre of salsa music. The record company also said that Johnny Pacheco was a visionary and his music will live on eternally.
Johnny Pacheco, a seminal figure in Cuban-based dance music as it is played in New York City, died on Feb. 15 at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J. He was
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