Hello and thank you for downloading Witness from the BBC World Service.

I'm Simon Watts and today I'm going back to the early 1970s

and a historic concert in New York by a group of Latino musicians. It was a night that helped spread the infectious

rhythms of salsa around the world.

We were like the Hispanic Rolling Stones. It was one of a kind night. The people were hungry for music. We must have put 40 some 1,000 people in Yankee Stadium.

It's August the 23rd, 1973 and some of the most famous names in Latin music are playing at New York's home of baseball. The name of the band The Fania All Stars.

It was the largest gathering of Puerto Ricans in any venue on Earth.

Finally, a music came out. in any venue on earth.

Finally, a music came out with our culture that related to our generation. So we were super excited. In 1973, Latin music was booming in New York, and it was largely thanks to the work of a local record label called

Fania Records. Fania had started nearly a decade earlier on a shoestring

budget. Funnier Records was owned by Johnny Pajeko and an Italian lawyer named Jerry Masucci.

He decided to start this record company with $3,000 and I was one of the first ones that appeared on the scene with him.

Pianist and producer Larry Harlow was one of the creative forces behind Fania Records.

I think I got $500 for my first album. They kept signing different young artists and the Spanish

kept migrating to New York City so they kept buying new records and all these little clubs

kept popping up in the barrio.

Everything was changing.

Don't forget, the 60s were a very radical time in the history of the United States.

The Puerto Rican were looking for something to identify with and they identified with salsa music.

Puerto Rican DJ Ray Coyeso was an early salsa fan.

It was a new generation of Puerto Ricans, Cubans.

We put our own little funk into it.

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