Johnny Pacheco

And his name is Cheetah.

Along with his human sidekick, a musician named Noah Moranis, aka Good Boy Noah, he makes musical cooking videos.

Now, I found these videos a few years ago, and to be honest, I was so delighted by them.

And part of my excitement about this episode, in addition to talking about animals, which, you know, I obviously love, was being able to talk about these genius videos online.

Yeah.

Cheetah was definitely a scene, but what set Cheetah apart from other nightclubs of the era was its impact on music, specifically New York salsa.

The connection to salsa actually came thanks to a New York record label called Fania, which was founded by the Juilliard-trained Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco.

People have referred to Fania as the Latin Motown, and that just kind of gives you a sense of the significance of it.

We got into the studio.

Johnny Pacheco was the music director.

And he said, okay, you guys ready? I said, yeah.

He said, okay, we'll do the piano and this first, and then we'll do this.

Her collaborations are some of her best work, especially with Willie Colon.

And Joe, I haven't listened to that episode yet, but if I understand this correctly, the way Fania did it is they just kind of kept pairing Celia with different producers, right? Like she gets Ray Barreto and Johnny Pacheco at one point.

And then the Willie Colon records are the ones I think that really take off for her.

And she's older at this point, right? Because she's been putting out records since the mid-60s, late

With

Johnny Pacheco.

Yeah, the founder of Fania Records.

He and Celia make an album called Celia y Johnny.

Salsa was a return and a discovery of the music of their grandparents.

And they were returning to that.

But why did it become salsa? It was never salsa until Johnny Pacheco called it that.

And I'll tell you why.

Me that pain on me.

I feel bad at the fact that the legacy of Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Hector Lavo, Willie Colón, may he rest in peace, Johnny Pacheco, all these amazing legends have dedicated their life to this genre.

Not only the legends, but also the musicians and the booking agents and the managers.

We've dedicated our life to this genre and there's no place to really like honor them in a grandiose way in New York City, out of all cities where Salsa was born here in New York.

You know what I mean? They kind of came of age, same place.

And I think one of the things you've talked about, also the beginning of salsa, it was an amalgam of different Latinos.

You have Puerto Ricans, you have Johnny Pacheco, who was the man.

He was Dominican, you know what I mean? It was a pan-Latin kind of thing, you know what I mean? But talk about the similarities between salsa and hip-hop.