More on “Celia & Johnny”: The Musicians
As I published my blog on the historical Salsa recording of “Celia & Johnny” I realized I left out mentioning the musicians in the album. This is important as there were significant changes in Pacheco’s recording band.
Papo Lucca and Luis “Perico” Ortiz join Pacheco’s albums
As Johnny Pacheco recorded his last duo hit album “Tres de Café, Dos de Azucar” with Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez in 1973, he was about to support “El Conde” on launching his solo career, and coincidentally joined forces with Celia Cruz for the 1974 album “Celia & Johnny”.
But for his debut album with the “Queen of Salsa”, Pacheco wanted to reinforce his conjunto, which he nicknamed the “Tumbao Añejo”. Pacheco already had a pretty good band, featuring Dominican Hector “Bomberito” Zarzuela on lead trumpet, with Ray Maldonado to back him up, another excellent trumpet player. Victor Venegas was on bass, Charlie Rodriguez on tres, Luis Mangual on bongoes, and John Rodriguez on congas. But for “La Guarachera de Cuba” he wanted to take his band up a notch.
So for “Celia & Johnny”, Pacheco brought in the great Papo Lucca on piano (from the Sonora Ponceña), and Luis “Perico” Ortiz on trumpet to take the lead and have “Bomberito” back him up. This proved to be just the right musicians needed to enchance his sound. Two virtuosos, one in the rhythm section, and another in the wind section. “Perico” became part of Pacheco’s band, but Papo only participated in the recordings as he kept busy with La Sonora Ponceña.
Pacheco’s “Tumbao Añejo” on Steroids
Pacheco continued to record with his “tumbao añejo” through the 70’s, recording three more albums with Celia Cruz and then teaming up with Hector Casanova. Pacheco’s sound continued to sound superbly, until Luis “Perico” Ortiz decided to part ways and Papo Lucca eventually focused solely on his work with the Sonora Ponceña.
The Johnny Pacheco recording band of the 1970’s was one of the best in Salsa music at the time, using a typical sound of a Cuban” conjunto”, with first class musicians.