Another week of salsa here for our Throwback Thursday series. This week’s artist is Andy Montañez. If you enjoyed In The Heights, this week’s post will fit in pretty well. It’s old-school Puerto Rican salsa and a love letter to the incomparable New York City.
Andy Montañez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1942. Known as the “Godfather of Salsa”, Montañez began his career with El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico where he began to gain some notoriety. He spent 15 years with the group, producing 37 albums. He then spent a handful of years with “Dimension Latina” before becoming a solo artist. Montañez has been a solo artist for the last 40 years, producing a huge number of hits. The most unique project in his discography is easily his 2006 album Salsaton: Salsa con Reggaeton. The album combines salsa and reggaeton, as you would expect from the title. Montañez is still out touring at the age of 79, check out his dates here.
This week’s song is “Un Verano en Nueva York” which, as you could guess, is about a summer in New York. This song was recorded when Montañez was a member of El Gran Combo. The lyrics are a tribute to summer traditions of New York City and the surrounding area. With references to the 4th of July, Puerto Rican Pride parade, and Bear Mountain, this is a song clearly written by a local. It’s a classic salsa track that will get the people moving. This song paints such a rosy picture of New York City that I almost want to take their advice and live a summer in the city. Then I remember a studio apartment is more than 2x the price of my current place.
From 1975, “Un Verano en Nueva York”.