2. Real and Pretend Gangsters
In the mid 1960s, young musicians Joe Bataan and Willie Colón are quickly owning the boogaloo scene in East Harlem and the Bronx. The problem—Morris Levy, the mob boss who owns hit-making labels, is one of the few routes to stardom. Bataan and Colón have to figure out how to avoid Levy, while projecting a gangster image themselves.
Listen to the Music Behind Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York playlist here.
Archival courtesy of The Bronx County Archives at The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library, Buyout Footage, Craft Recordings, a Concord company, and Mary Kent’s Salsa Talks interviews, Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA, Martin Cohen Congahead Archives. This episode also utilizes a fair use clip from NBC Boston.
Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More description
In the mid 1960s, young musicians Joe Bataan and Willie Colón are quickly owning the boogaloo scene in East Harlem and the Bronx. The problem—Morris Levy, the mob boss who owns hit-making labels, is one of the few routes to stardom. Bataan and Colón have to figure out how to avoid Levy, while projecting a gangster image themselves.
Listen to the Music Behind Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York playlist here.
Archival courtesy of The Bronx County Archives at The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library, Buyout Footage, Craft Recordings, a Concord company, and Mary Kent’s Salsa Talks interviews, Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA, Martin Cohen Congahead Archives. This episode also utilizes a fair use clip from NBC Boston.
Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for ad-free listening, early-access and exclusive bonus episodes with the chisme behind Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York and all our podcasts: www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2026-06-02
40 min
Listen elsewhere
Available Results
Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.
No generated results are available for this episode yet.
Transcript
No transcript is available for this episode yet.
No audio file is available for transcript generation.
Chapters
No chapters available.