For those who have all the Joe Arroyo’s hits… and still want more

Barranquilla, Joe Arroyo’s adoptive city, is mourning today with deep sorrow the musician’s untimely departure in his first anniversary. Special events, including a mass at his memorial are arranged. Wilson Saoko, his longtime singing partner in Fruko y sus Tesos is scheduled for a concert at La Troja, a signature salsa bar of this city. It seems that everything has been said about the Colombian tropical and salsa music titan.

But for those Joemaniacs that want even more from his hero, here are a few musical suggestions. Those may be apart from his greatest hits, but that doesn’t diminish its quality and display of talent of the great, late Joe Arroyo.

Luz en la Inmensidad: recorded in 1977, it showcases a splendid salsa-funk fusion, whose ideas predated another Fruko y sus Tesos megahit: Palenque.

Nido de Amor: While in the 70's he was recognized as a huge salsa singer, Joe was really itching then to record in steady form Colombian tropical music. Here Joe covers a monster hit of Jorge Oñate, a legendary vallenato singer.

El Nativo: an obscure track, in which El Joe exalts his native country… in full rock’n’roll style.

Mundo Cruel/Somos Seres/Fuego en Mi Mente: for those who think that after Rebelión there are no more salsa compositions with deep meanings, they are completely mistaken. The aforementioned trilogy distils big humanitarian feelings and lyricism… not to mention romantic love.

La Sirena: a cover of a Nelson y sus Estrellas anthem, Fruko y sus Tesos manage to claim the composition with Joe’s peerless performance as theirs.

Caifaz: a mysterious throwaway of the 70’s, in which the late singer emulates Bobby Cruz’s singing with thrilling success.

Pan de Arroz: the groovy, sole foray of Joe Arroyo into Dominican merengue. A true rarity.

Traigo Bomba/La Murga: this one is one of his recorded earliest attempts to salsa singing, this time with the Supercombo los Tropicales, an orchestra with a popular format of the sixties/early seventies, full brass, precussion and electric guitar. In La Murga, a Willie Colón/Héctor Lavoe blockbuster, the Combo makes a successful medley surprisingly adding Fiesta en Corraleja, a Colombian classic fandango.

Most of these songs are available in YouTube. Now go and get’em.

Fruko y sus Tesos - Four Ages of Salsa

Although Perogoyo y su Combo, Sexteto Miramar and Michi y su Combo preceded them, Fruko y sus Tesos was THE Colombian salsa band of the 70s, and the point of reference for those who then build on what has been seen: Los Titanes, Niche, Guayacán, Raíces and other salsa bands that formed the second Colombian salsa boom of the 90s.

The emergence of a Colombian first – line salsa orchestra was, as we have seen, the desire of many applicants. Even tropical groups like the legendary Corraleros de Majagual (it is no coincidence that Fruko was a former member of this group) had experimented with the genre to the point that to these ears there has never been (or might never be) a salsa orchestra that has played harder than the Corraleros did. Just listen “El Mondongo” to check.

But the fortune would favor the project Julio Ernesto Estrada “Fruko” was developing thanks to several factors. Anyone who has heard the first original interpretations of the Tesos, can be amazed by the more conventional style that brought the band. “Tesura”, “Botando Corriente” and “Improvisando”, attest to an early era in the musical arrangements that recall in a way what would come later, but lack the tropical feel and folk elements that would end up being incorporated by the leader and the members the band in its heyday (Fruko acknowledged later in an interview that the main competition of the Tesos were Los Melódicos and the like with their "ella baila el pompo", not the New York and Puerto Rico salsa orchestras).

Most of the Colombian salsa music aficionados love salsa and dances to it, but doesn’t buy and much less collect it. When the orchestra enters Piper Pimienta, then Saoko and Joe Arroyo, the edges are smoothed and its particular style begins to emerge (cf. “Ahora Vengo Yo” both played by the Fania All Stars and Joe with Fruko, but with a faster tempo).

The Golden Age of the orchestra started with the LP “Ayunando” continues with “El Violento”, “El Caminante” to “El Grande”. These disks contain an avalanche of hits hard to believe, played by musicians in the prime of their game and giving an emotional warmth and interpretative quality impossible to emulate. While Los Melódicos and other tropical bands competed for the same market, the success of Fruko and y sus Tesos in Colombia hold them in the same place of the greats of the genre: Ricardo, Bobby, Willie, Héctor, Johnny and Celia.

After “El Grande”and the USA first tour, the original orchestra looses key members as the pianist and arranger Hernán Gutiérrez (RIP), which marks the beginning for me of the Silver Age of Fruko y sus Tesos with “El Bárbaro”, “El Patillero” “El Cocinero Mayor”, “El Teso” and “El Espectacular”, the one which the band records to celebrate its tenth anniversary.
While it is difficult to find two LPs that could make a higher point than “El Caminante” and “El Grande”, I'd take “El Cocinero Mayor” (including the first successful non-Saoko-non-Joe-non-Pimienta hit “La Borincana” — with nothing more and nothing less than a Celio González perfomance), I think the 1978 disc has the most even sound and has and the best perfomances in a decade, and the most salsa feel of all since the remote start of the Tesos, because in 1976 the tropical wave becomes more dominant in the sound of the orchestra, along with the strong influence of the percussive work that brings the work of Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz albums “Reconstrucción” and “Viven”. This influence permeates completely “El Espectacular”, an unexpected but pleasant divergence from previous work with haunting, original melodies, arrangements and lyrics themes, though somewhat with uneven results.

1981 represents the moment when the inevitable slump arrives, with a 45 RPM supersingle marking the unannounced departure of Joe Arroyo. The hit is "Vengo por tí" which, as described elsewhere, was a fusion of Dominican merengue and raspa cachaca that betrayed involuntarily the accumulated fatigue of ten years of non-stop success. The other themes "El que da lo que tiene" and a cover of “Toma Jabón Pa’ que Laves” simply can not stand.

Nor did “Danza y Congo”. Fruko’s Band used to release a single for the Carnival of Barranquilla (such as “Ayúdala Por Favor” and “La Distancia”), but the only song played in separate versions by Saoko and an up-and-coming Saulo Sánchez, if it became a hit in February '81, nobody can remember and the song is now a collector's curiosity.

The effect produced by Joe Arroyo's departure from the band to found La Verdad, was catastrophic. Although it is now recognized as daring, it was somewhat anticlimactic move at the time when he stopped to sing salsa exclusively to start singing the folklore of the Colombian Atlantic coast, although it was certainly a desire that Joe had to meet. However, he also would have to start dealing with his own personal difficulties.
Between '81 and '84, a group of singers ranging from May González and la India Meliyará (30 singers have passed through his orchestra, acknowledges Fruko) can not get the project to carry on. It is recognized that Joseíto Martinez's voice was the one that inaugurated the Bronze Age of Los Tesos. As in the Joe Arroyo era, Joseíto is the leading voice also with The Latin Brothers. From “El Magnífico” starts another avalanche of hits, and this time the LP to highlight belong to the Latin Brothers: "Para Bailar", an outstanding disc.

And with the decade of 2000 begins the New Age of Fruko, with a sound more faithful to the era of “Tesura” and “Botando Corriente” with an A-list of musicians (“Macabí” on piano) like Saoko and Gabino Pampini. I like “Power Salsa” and the concept album in which tropical hits from the '70s meet salsa such as “Tabaco y Ron”.

The only thing missing would be the reunion with Joe Arroyo and (maybe) the release of a hidden live from the 70’s album.

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• Salsa Night (475days.wordpress.com)
• Blades and Santa Rosa Call on Fans to Defend Salsa (repeatingislands.com)
• Fruko y sus Tesos - Four Ages of Salsa (sipmac.blogspot.com)
• cucumber salsa (backtoherroots.com)
• Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz - Tribute to Joe Arroyo: A Labor of Love (sipmac.blogspot.com)
• Salsa singer Joe Arroyo dies (cbc.ca)
• Colombian salsa singer Arroyo dies (seattletimes.nwsource.com)