José Fajardo

Born José Antonio Fajardo on 18 October 1919 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, the multi-talented band leader, arranger, composer and producer died on 11 December 2001 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Among Cuba’s supreme flute virtuosos, Fajardo assembled a charanga outfit that combined flute, strings, rhythm section and voices, which he named his All-Stars. Across decades of activity he figured centrally in the cha cha chá vogue of the 1950s, the charanga/pachanga excitement that peaked in the early 1960s, and the charanga resurgence of the 1970s. Before launching his own ensemble he worked with the female singer and band leader Paulina Alvarez (b. 1912, d. 1965) and with Arcaño Y Sus Maravillas.

Fajardo’s 1956 Tico Records album Cuba (also issued as Cuban Cha Cha Chá) showcased the esteemed conga specialist Tata Güines (b. Federico Arístides Soto, 1926, Güines, Cuba). After signing with Panart Records he delivered multiple albums on that imprint in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Those initial Panart efforts spotlighted the cha cha chá rhythm first shaped by violinist-composer-arranger-band leader Enrique Jorrín during his tenure with Orquesta América. The band performed at Havana’s celebrated Tropicana nightclub. In 1959 the US Democratic Party engaged Fajardo to appear at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel during John Kennedy’s presidential campaign; his All-Stars generated greater excitement among Latino audiences than among party members, prompting an immediate booking at New York’s renowned Palladium Ballroom.

Following the Cuban revolution, Fajardo departed Cuba in 1960 and established residence in Miami, USA. Violinist/composer/arranger Félix Reina assumed leadership of the original group, rebranded as the Estrellas Cubanas, while Eddy Zervigón took the flute chair and later co-founded Orquesta Broadway in 1962. Also in 1960, Charlie Palmieri’s Charanga ‘La Duboney’ featuring Johnny Pacheco on flute ignited a charanga surge propelled by the rapid pachanga rhythm invented by Cuban composer Eduardo Davidson. The pachanga wave originated in New York after Afro-Cuban singer Rolando La Serie’s recording of Davidson’s ‘La Pachanga’ from the album Sabor A Mi, backed by Bebo Valdés’ brass-and-saxophone big band; the track held the top spot on the Farándula chart for several months in 1960. Numerous additional pachanga numbers followed over the ensuing years. Fajardo addressed the trend directly by placing his own renditions of the widely interpreted ‘La Pachanga’ and Davidson’s pachanga ‘Pancho Calma’ on the 1961 Panart album Fajardo & His All-Stars Vol. 6. Columbia Records subsequently signed him, issuing Mister Pachanga in 1962 along with the album Sabor Guajiro. By 1964 the charanga/pachanga phenomenon had subsided.

Longtime Fajardo sideman Osvaldo ‘Chi Hua Hua’ Martínez (b. c.1920, Cuba, d. early 80s, New York, USA; güiro/timbales) later collaborated with Mongo Santamaría, Félix ‘Pupi’ Legarreta, Sonny Stitt, Ray Barretto, Kako, the Alegre All-Stars, Johnny Pacheco, Willie Bobo, Don Gonzalo Fernández, Mike Pérez, Israel ‘Cachao’ López, Julito Collazo, Lou Pérez and Javier Vázquez; he participated in the classic Latin jam sessions Descarga Cubana Vol. 1 (1966) and Latin Cuban Session Vol. 2 (c.1967) on Fonseca Records, later compiled on the 1991 CD Descarga Cubana, and co-led Orquesta Metropolitana on New Horizons (1980). In 1963 Fajardo maintained separate charangas, one based in New York and one in Miami. Eventually ending the commute, he dissolved the Miami unit yet retained pianist/arranger Sonny Bravo (b. Elio Osacar Jnr., 7 October 1936, New York, USA, of Cuban parentage) for the New York group. He released the fifth and final installment of Panart’s Cuban Jam Session series in 1964. The following year Fajardo relocated to San Juan, Puerto Rico; Bravo departed at that time and subsequently helped establish Típica 73. Fajardo engaged the young classically trained Cuban violinist Alfredo De La Fé in 1966 and, in 1974, brought Afro-Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez into the Miami quintet he then fronted.

Signing with Harvey Averne’s Coco Records, Fajardo issued four albums on the label between 1975 and 1978. Although the cover of the first, Fajardo Y Sus Estrellas Del 75, depicted his quintet, the Miami-recorded set actually employed a 14-piece charanga that included five violins, among them brother Alberto. Fajardo participated in the charanga revival that flourished during the second half of the 1970s. After Rodríguez exited, Sonny Bravo returned for session work on 1977’s Selecciones Clasicas, which revisited earlier successes; Ray Barretto co-produced that album and took sole production responsibility for El Talento Total in 1978. Fajardo moved to Fania Records for four releases issued between 1980 and 1984, two of them joint projects with Johnny Pacheco. Rodríguez likened the Fajardo–Pacheco connection to that of mentor and protégé: ‘Everybody knows Pacheco because of the selling of albums, and because of the Fania thing, but Fajardo is the master and Pacheco is the student’. De La Fé contributed to every Fajardo recording from 1977 through 1980, while Chi Hua Hua appeared on Las Tres Flautas and Pacheco Y Fajardo. Beyond his own band-leading output, Fajardo recorded as a sideman with Israel ‘Cachao’ López, Louie Ramírez, Fania All Stars, Alfredo Valdés Jnr. and José Mangual Jnr.