A major turning point arrived in 1964 when Johnny Pacheco teamed up with New York lawyer Jerry Masucci to launch Fania Records. Their idea sounded simple. Sign the best Latin musicians in the city and bring them together under one label. The results reshaped the industry. Fania gathered artists such as Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Celia Cruz, and Ray Barretto. Albums recorded in Manhattan studios soon spread across radio stations in the United States and Latin America. Colón and Lavoe helped define the bold, brass-heavy sound with records like Cosa Nuestra and Asalto Navideño. Around this time, the music also gained the name people still use today. Dominican broadcaster Fidias Danilo Escalona is often credited with popularizing the word “salsa” during his radio programs in Venezuela in the 1960s as a label for the spicy mix of Caribbean rhythms. The term caught on quickly, giving the movement a memorable identity.
…