Joe Quijano

Born on 27 September 1935 in Puerta De Tierra, San Juan, Puerto Rico, the adaptable Latin bandleader, singer, percussionist and composer Quijano reached the age of seven before his family relocated to the Bronx in New York City. During 1950 he contributed vocals and maracas to a teenage ensemble formed at school by Orlando Marín (b. 1934, the Bronx, New York City, of Puerto Rican parentage; timbales) and pianist Eddie Palmieri. Three trumpets were subsequently introduced, transforming the unit into the Orlando Marín Conjunto. Leadership passed to Marín once Palmieri moved on to Johnny Seguí’s group.

Versions of the band’s subsequent path diverge. Quijano maintains that he assumed control after Marín entered the US Army, while Orlando holds that Joe exited beforehand and another vocalist filled the role prior to the draft. Quijano visited Cuba in 1956, where he encountered many personal idols. He later remembered, ‘... I also heard a different sound - the Senen Suarez Group, that comprised one trumpet and a flute, as a free form... I returned with an idea for a new sound for the band. I worked with my friend Charlie Palmieri, and asked him if he could make musical arrangements using a combination of two trumpets, flute, and a rhythm section playing a charanga feel with the singers in unison... Charlie argued that since the two instruments tune differently, there would be a clash, but I insisted, and he persisted, and a few months later, he came up with the instrumental version of ‘Amor’. It was then that the sound of the Conjunto Cachana was born...’ (quote from sleeve notes to La Pachanga Se Baila Asi, 1990).

He chose the name ‘Cachana’ from his grandfather’s nickname. Persuading his employers at a wholesale record distributor to underwrite a single recorded with pianist Héctor Rivera, the release’s popularity yielded an album contract with Spanoramic Records. Conjunto Cachana’s two Spanoramic albums, A Cataño and Volvi A Cataña, became major successes throughout Latin America.

A Columbia Records agreement followed in 1960. Between 1961 and 1963 Quijano completed three albums for the label. The title track of the first, La Pachanga Se Baila Asi, whose lyrics Quijano co-wrote with Charlie Palmieri, sought to clarify dancers’ conflation of ‘pachanga’ and ‘charanga’: ‘There is a lot of discussion in the Latin communities that everyone is dancing the pachanga. There is talk that a charanga is the orchestra that plays it... that everyone is dancing the pachanga, the dance rage of the moment...’ (translated lyrics from the article ‘Remembering Charlie Palmieri’ by Max Salazar). Paquito Guzmán and Willie Torres served as lead vocalists at that time. Guzmán subsequently joined Tommy Olivencia’s band in Puerto Rico, where he also recorded with the Puerto Rico All Stars and later pursued a solo career.

Quijano took part in the Alegre All-Stars’ second descarga album in 1965. He established his own Cesta Records imprint, drawing the title from the basket employed in jai-alai. Two notable releases on the label were the Cesta All-Stars descarga sessions Live Jam Session and Salsa Festival, both directed by Charlie Palmieri and featuring Cheo Feliciano, Kako, Louie Ramírez, Willie Rosario, Orlando Marín, and others. Quijano also became the first artist to record a composition by the distinguished Puerto Rican composer Tite Curet Alonso. The piece, titled ‘Efectivamente’, received a later recording by Quijano on Cositas Sueltas in 1980.