As has become customary for Saturday nights, quick post-bust post
Joe Cotto was one of the great Puerto Rican bandleaders of the 60s and 70s
His nickname was “El Magnifico”
🙂
His orchestra played pretty much any Latin rhythm: guaguanco, pachanga, mambo, bolero, merengue, etc
This is from “Que Pollo!” on JMC Records in 1971
Descarga (literally “discharge”) is the latin jam session
And the piano here (courtesy of Javier Vasquez) jams so hard
Joe was born in PR and worked as a policeman for a few years (mainly functioning as one of the governor’s bodyguards)
He went to NY in 1951 and, like many boricuas, was back and forth for the greater part of his life
In the city he studied percussion (particularly timbal) with the great maestro Santiago Mesorana
He ended up forming his own orchestra in the mid 50s and started playing all the big NYC spots like the Palladium
Joe had some real all star squads, with Charlie Palmieri on piano and El Negro Vivar on trumpet
Put out the classic “Dolores” in 1963 with Barry Rodgers on trombone; Mon Rivera and Chivirico Dávila on vocals
Helped blow up the danceable charanga rhythm in the US (like at the famed Caravana club in el Bronx)
He tended to keep his sound stripped down, with strong brass but no sax
He appears to have been either the first or one of the first Puerto Rican bandleaders to include multiple trombones
He would bring 2 trumpets and 2 trombones and just ball out on the brass
My understanding is that Mon Rivera introduced the all-trombone brass section (4 of em), which is where Willie Colon heard that sound and later popularized to great effect, with the characteristic strong low-end punch
Today’s dose is a Cotto original
In 86, he tragically lost his son and entered a difficult depression
On top of that, he also suffered from prostate cancer and mostly gave up music, pursuing other hustles to bring in cash
For a while, he owned a number of different gas stations
