Boogaloo!

The boogaloo was a fascinating musical phenomenon of 1960s Spanish Harlem, an organic consequence of both the Puerto Rican community’s proximity to the city’s African-American neighborhoods, and the popular, pervasive influence of 1960’s soul music. Joe Cuba (“Bang Bang”), Ray Barretto (“El Watusi”), the TNT Band (“The Meditation”), and Mongo Santamaria (“Watermelon Man”): they all had hits by wedding jazzy horn lines, jumbles of English and Spanish lyrics, and vamping piano motifs to Afro-Latin styles like montuno, rumba and guajira, fitting, in turn, these elements into an R&B sensibility. It was perfect for the side of a 45 rpm record, it was perfect for radio play. This was the boogaloo, and it transcended El Barrio and the Five Boroughs in its day.

There'd been similar musical composites before the boogaloo; there was Latin jazz - and then there was the mambo and cha-cha-cha, styles which enjoyed massive popular success in this country after World War II. The boogaloo, however, was the first to attain national success with an identity distinct to New York City's Puerto Rican (i.e., Nuyorican) community and culture.

Despite its appeal amongst and beyond New York’s heterogeneous audiences, the boogaloo was dismissed by the older generations of the city’s Latin musicians. In retrospect, they really didn’t have much to worry about, as the boogaloo was a transitory phenomenon. By the late 1960’s, a formalized group of Latin styles had coalesced as salsa, replacing everything as the predominant musical voice of Nuyorican identity.

The boogaloo is sometimes referred to as the shingaling, distinct from - though sort of spiritually related to - this species of shingaling.

1. King Nando and His Orchestra, Orchard Beach Shing-a-Ling, pt I (Swinger)
It's King Nando exhorting us to do the shingaling - and, later, on side two, to join him at the Bronx’s Orchard Beach, where again we do the shingaling. I think it’s understood that lyrics were generally not the point of the boogaloo. The boogaloo was no anomaly in the great arc of American popular dance music. If present at all, the lyrics were an afterthought, another means for exciting an audience into motion. Any sort of catchy, shouted interjection might do.

2. King Nando and His Orchestra, Orchard Beach Shing-a-Ling, pt II (Swinger)
Fernando “King Nando” Rivera was the singer and guitarist responsible for this summertime anthem. As a bandleader King Nando exercised great taste. Nando's group’s rhythmic and melodic drive was distinguished by his attractive electric guitar parts, parts which replaced what would have normally been a piano’s role. “Orchard Beach Shing-a-Ling” was taken from the first (circa 1965) of King Nando’s three excellent boogaloo albums of the 1960s, all released on the tiny Swinger label.

3. Pepe Fernandez & His Orchestra, Having Fun (20th Century Fox)
It’s a similar atmosphere as “Orchard Beach Shing-a-Ling." Pepe and his co-vocalist don’t really sound like they’re having all that much fun, though, the “having fun” chant seems a bit perfunctory. Who knows? There is, after all, a fine line between a party and a shouting, angry mob.

Either way, I have no further details on Pepe Fernandez’s whereabouts. 20th Century Fox, the brief-lived record division of its better known parent company, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, was a label with West Coast affiliations. I’m positive, however, that Fernandez hailed from New York City. Producer Jackie Mills was working in New York City in 1967, when this was recorded, but, mostly, “Having Fun” just has that hard-driving New York City sound.

The “L. Reed” given the co-credit here is probably not Lou Reed, unfortunately.

4. Diane & Carole & The Watchamacallits, The Fuzz (Speed)
Diane and Carole were the rare female lead vocalists during the boogaloo era. “The Fuzz,” a cautionary lesson to all you would-be delinquent types, is also a clear demonstration of an old adage. Songs with references to local beaches are cool, songs with references to the police as the “fuzz” are much, much cooler. Coincidentally, there is a discrete handful of boogaloo records about drugs: the buying of drugs, the doing of drugs, and/or the lamenting about the buying and the doing of the drugs.

“The Fuzz” was written and arranged by Louie Ramirez, one of the biggest, hippest names on the New York City Latin scene of the '60s and '70s. This selection was taken from Diane and Carole and company's full-length album on Speed records, yet another tiny, short-lived Latin record label from the era.

** Note: Oliver Wang has graciously invited me aboard the mighty Soul Sides steamship for what will hopefully be an ongoing, fortnightly series of guest posts, a series which will focus more on LP's - and various trippier, funkier, and exotic forms found therein. And, hey, here’s my inaugural post. Which, in classic form, is not an LP, but a 45. Hope you enjoy! -Dan **