In Memoriam: Larry Harlow

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On New Year’s Eve, my wife and I watched Being the Ricardos, the new film about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, directed by Aaron Sorkin, which we enjoyed greatly. At one point, I began to wonder about the popularity in the US of the Latin music that Desi Arnaz (and Ricky Ricardo) performed in the 1950s. And yes, it appears that in the 30s, 40s and 50s, Latin dance music of various styles, including the tango, samba, and rhumba, was popular in dance halls, essentially because it was fun to dance to. And some have ascribed the popularity of Latin music in the United States during the 40s in part as an attempt to escape the horrors of World War II. Arnaz was part of a mambo boom that started in the 40s with, among others, Xavier Cugat and later included Tito Puente, Pérez Prado (the “Mambo King”), and Carmen Miranda. 

During this period, the bandleader at the Latin Quarter nightclub in New York was Buddy Harlowe, whose birth name was Nathan Kahn. Nathan’s young son Larry (born in Brooklyn in 1939) often hung around, listening to the music with club owner Lou Walters’ daughter Barbara (yes, that Barbara Walters). Larry, whose mother Rose was an opera singer, was a musical prodigy who could play many instruments at a young age, and he soon focused on the piano. While attending the High School of Music and Arts in Harlem, he became fascinated by the music of Cuba that he heard coming from the buildings he passed walking the streets.  Harlow studied music in Cuba in the 1950s but didn’t finish his degree, though, because of the Revolution, so he returned to New York. 

Using a truncated version of his father’s stage name, Larry Harlow and his orchestra played the Borscht Belt hotels in the Catskills, where Latin music was extremely popular and other Jewish and actual Latino musicians performed the music. (The number of Jews playing Latin music during this era was surprisingly large). Once the US Government embargoed Cuba, it became impossible for Cuban musicians (and their recordings) to come to the States, so an American label for Latin music was needed. Fania Records was founded by lawyer Jerry Masucci (who Harlow had met in Cuba and bonded with over their common Brooklyn roots and love of the music) and Dominican-born musician Johnny Pacheco. Fania’s first signing was Larry Harlow, and it went on to be referred to as the “Motown of Salsa,” for its influence in the style of Latin music that arose in the 1970s. 

Harlow became one of the most prolific artists for Fania, recording more than 200 albums by various artists and 50 of his own, including Hommy, inspired by the Who’s Tommy. He was the first to develop the front line of two trumpets and two trombones that most salsa bands use today and explored Latin music’s African roots. When Arsenio Rodriguez, an influential blind Afro-Cuban musician died in obscurity in 1970, Harlow recorded a tribute album. Rodriquez had been nicknamed “El Ciego Maravilloso,” “The Amazing Blind Man” — and Harlow would soon be known as “El Judio Maravilloso.”—"The Amazing Jew.” As a less amazing Jew, I found that amusing when I learned about it. 

In 1974, Harlow was instrumental in collecting over 100,000 signatures for the recognition of Latin music by the Grammy Awards and led a protest at the awards, resulting in the creation of a Latin Grammy Award. Three decades later, in 2008, Harlow would receive the Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys. (That category no longer exists, but there's now a whole separate Latin Grammy Awards.  You can decide for yourself if that is better or not.) And while constantly affirming his Jewishness, Harlow became a Santeria priest in 1975. 

Despite the fact that my parents are basically the same age as Harlow and are also from Brooklyn (and went to high school with another well-known Jewish salsa musician, Harvey Averne, who played and worked with Harlow), I’m not well-versed in Latin music, and was utterly unaware of Harlow until my son became a fan of the Mars Volta, which was made up primarily of Latino musicians, but whose sound, in general, had very little in common with salsa. However, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, of the Mars Volta, is of Puerto Rican descent, and was a fan of Harlow’s. Through the friendship of Harlow’s son Miles (who now runs a cannabis company named “Buddy’s” in honor of his grandfather) and the lawyer for the Mars Volta’s label, Harlow appeared on two songs on the band's album, Frances the Mute, "L'Via L'Viaquez" and "Cassandra Gemini." I saw Harlow perform “L’Via” with the Mars Volta a bunch of years ago, and you can read about that (and hear the performance) here. 

The clip above is from a film, Our Latin Thing, released in 1972, featuring the Fania All-Stars, which, as you probably can guess from their name, was an all-star collection of Fania bandleaders, sidemen and singers. You can see Harlow in the recording studio directing an overdub vocal sweetening session with vocalists Ismael Miranda, Adalberto Santiago and Cheo Feliciano, who sang lead on the tune “Anacaona,” as well as playing an amazing piano solo.