Quítate Tú
Fania All-Stars · 1971 · from the album Live at the Cheetah, Vol. 1
Sixteen minutes, live, with every star singer of Fania taking turns: the night in 1971 that launched the salsa boom.
- coro and soneo
- descarga
Why it matters
On the night of August 26, 1971, Fania Records put its whole roster of stars on stage at the Cheetah, a club in midtown Manhattan. The show was recorded for Live at the Cheetah and filmed for the documentary Our Latin Thing.
Those records and that film carried Fania's music, and the word salsa, around the world. Quítate Tú, all of the singers improvising in turn, is the heart of the night.
What to listen for
- The soneo: one singer after another improvises a verse over the same repeated coro, trying to top the last one. The title says it: “move over”, it's my turn.
- The rhythm section carrying the verses on its own, then the horns coming in with riffs of their own, dropping out and coming back. Listen for the changes and match them: calmer in the verses, bigger when the horns hit.
- It's a descarga on stage: long, loose and live. You don't have to dance all sixteen minutes, but notice how the band builds the energy up.