Johnny Pacheco, the band leader, songwriter, producer, arranger and co-founder of the Fania Records label that helped popularize the sauce internationally, has died, NPR reports. He was recently hospitalized, according to Fania co-founder Jerry Masucci’s brother Alex Masucci. No cause of death has been revealed. Pacheco was 85 years old.
Pacheco was born in the Dominican Republic and moved with his family to New York in the 1940s to escape the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. He taught various instruments before studying percussion at Julliard. He became a working studio musician and in the early sixties his band Pacheco Y Su Charanga popularized pachanga music.
In 1963, Pacheco founded Fania Records with Jerry Masucci. The label would soon become synonymous with sauce and Pacheco was the house producer. Pacheco and Fania helped start the careers of Celia Cruz, Willie Columbus, Ruben Blades, Hector Lavoe and so many others. He wrote dozens of iconic songs, including “Mi Gente” (popularized by Lavoe). He was also a prolific member of the label’s roster from the 1960s to the 1980s, releasing several albums as a band leader, as well as collaborations with artists such as Cruz.
He often performed and recorded with a supergroup of artists from the label called Fania All-Stars. One of the group’s most notable performances was the 1974 Zaire music festival which coincided with the struggle of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. In 2005, Pacheco was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.