Father of salsa music Johnny Pacheco dies age 85 | Showbiz

SANTO DOMINGO, Feb 16 — Johnny Pacheco, the Dominican-born musician thought-about one of many fathers of salsa, died yesterday on the age of 85 in New Jersey, his household mentioned.

A musician, composer and producer, Pacheco based the Fania Data label, in addition to the historic Fania All Stars band, which included salsa icons Celia Cruz, Hector Lavoe and Willie Colon.

“With nice ache in my soul and an vacancy in my coronary heart I inform you that maestro Johnny Pacheco handed away this afternoon with nice peace,” his spouse, Cuqui Pacheco, mentioned in a press release printed on the musician’s official Fb web page.

“A thousand thanks for all of your prayers and all of the love you all the time gave him.”

Pacheco had been urgently hospitalised a couple of days in the past for pneumonia.

Born Juan Azarias Pacheco in Santiago de los Caballeros, within the northern Dominican Republic, on March 25, 1935, he emigrated to New York as a baby together with his household.

There, he studied on the Juilliard arts faculty and started his musical profession within the Fifties. He rose to fame together with his band Pacheco y Su Charanga.

He based Fania Data in 1964 with lawyer Gerald Masucci.

He recorded or composed greater than 100 songs throughout his profession, together with El Faisan and Quitate tu.

“DEP (Relaxation In Peace) my expensive good friend and trainer,” Colon tweeted after Pacheco’s loss of life was introduced, calling his former bandmate “distinctive.” — AFP