The International Latin Music Hall of Fame (ILMHF) was an annual event established in 1999 and held in New York City to honor artists who have largely contributed to the Latin music genre.
In addition to the induction into the Hall of Fame, the award ceremonies include Special Recognition Awards and Beny Moré Memorial Award. The last awards were held in 2003.
The first Induction and Award ceremony was held on April 7, 1999. It honored the following inductees and recipients of the Special Recognition Awards: [1]
Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Pacheco, Joe Cuba, Israel "Cachao" López, Johnny Ventura, Orquesta Aragón, José Fajardo, Marco Antonio Muñiz, Ray Barretto, La Sonora Matancera.
Miguel Faílde, Ignacio Piñeiro, Rafael Hernández, Ernesto Lecuona, Arsenio Rodríguez, Chano Pozo, Beny Moré, Perez Prado, Mario Bauza, Machito, Tito Rodríguez, Miguelito Valdés, Enrique Jorrín, Agustín Lara.
The second Induction and Award ceremony was held on April 5, 2000. It honored the following inductees and recipients of the Special Recognition Awards: [2]
José Feliciano, Willie Colón, Mongo Santamaría, Ray Barretto, Cheo Feliciano, Hector Lavoe, Charlie Palmieri, Larry Harlow, La Lupe, Yomo Toro, Johnny Albino, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Oscar D'León, Armando Manzanero, Myrta Silva, Bobby Capó, Daniel Santos, Luis Kalaff, Vicentico Valdés, Rafael Ithier and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Miguel Matamoros, Rafael Cepeda, Julio Gutiérrez, Felipe Rodríguez, Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, Maria Teresa Vera, Chalía Herrera, Antonio Arcaño, Joseíto Mateo, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Orestes Lopez, Carlos Gardel, and Pedro Flores.
The third annual ceremony and concert took place on April 4, 2001 at the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, Bronx, New York. [3]
Rita Moreno, Cristóbal Díaz-Ayala, Rudy Mangual, Chata Gutiérrez, Chico Álvarez, Vicki Sola, Martin Cohen, and Ernie Ensley
The fourth Induction and Award ceremony was held on April 10, 2002. It honored the following inductees and recipients of the Special Recognition Awards: [4]
Julio Iglesias, Carlos Santana, Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D'Rivera, Danny Rivera, José José, Sandro, Vicente Fernández, Astrud Gilberto, Richie Ray, Willie Rosario, Cuco Valoy, Roberto Torres, Milly Quezada, Bobby Cruz, José Curbelo, Trio Vegabajeño, Bobby Rodríguez, La Sonora Ponceña, Leo Marini, Matilde Díaz, Aldemaro Romero, Mario Clavell, Elena Burke, Carmen Miranda, Gilberto Monroig, Alberto Socarrás, Félix Chappottín, Miguelito Cuní, Noro Morales, Joe Loco, Santos Colón, Louie Ramírez, Carmen Delia Dipiní, Juan Tizol, René Hernández, and Lola Flores
The fifth Induction and Award ceremony was held on April 2, 2003. It honored the following inductees and recipients of the Special Recognition Awards: [5]
Arturo Sandoval, Trini López, Juan Luis Guerra, Roberto Roena, Ismael Quintana, Raphael, Flaco Jimenez, Alberto Beltrán, Juan Gabriel, Nelson Ned, Ray Santos, Manny Oquendo, Justi Barretto, Pucho Brown, and Jose Luis Monero
Desi Arnaz, María Grever, Consuelo Velázquez, Eliseo Grenet, Gonzalo Roig, Álvaro Dalmar, Esther Borja, and Joseíto Fernández
Former Palladium Dancers Cuban Pete, Augie and Margo; Millie Donay; artist Erich Padilla, and filmmaker Avenol Franco
The Beny Moré Memorial Award was an annual award, from 1999 to 2003, presented by the International Latin Music Hall of Fame to an individual who has helped to popularize Latin music throughout the world, in honor of the late Cuban artist Benny Moré. The International Latin Music Hall of Fame struggled in relation to the more established Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame, and ceased operation before it was time for the 2004 Beny Moré Memorial Award.
Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso, known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname "La Guarachera de Cuba". In the following decades, she became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" due to her contributions to Latin music. She had sold over 10 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists.
Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez, better known as Benny Moré, was a Cuban singer, bandleader and songwriter. Due to his fluid tenor voice and his great expressivity, he was known variously as "El Bárbaro del Ritmo" and "El Sonero Mayor". Moré was a master of the soneo – the art of vocal improvisation in son cubano – and many of his tunes developed this way. He often took part in controversias with other singers, including Cheo Marquetti and Joseíto Fernández. Apart from son cubano, Moré was a popular singer of guarachas, cha cha cha, mambo, son montuno, and boleros.
Fania Records is a New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his American lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964. The label took its name from a popular luncheonette frequented by musicians in Havana, Cuba that Masucci frequented when he worked for a public relations firm there during the pre-Castro era. Fania is known for its promotion of salsa music.
Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez, better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Lavoe is considered to be possibly the best and most important singer and interpreter in the history of salsa music because he helped to establish the popularity of this musical genre in the decades of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His personality, style and the qualities of his voice led him to a successful artistic career in the whole field of Latin music and salsa during the 1970s and 1980s. The cleanness and brightness of his voice, coupled with impeccable diction and the ability to sing long and fast phrases with total naturalness, made him one of the favorite singers of the Latin public.
A descarga is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it was developed in Havana during the 1950s. Important figures in the emergence of the genre were Cachao, Julio Gutiérrez, Bebo Valdés, Peruchín and Niño Rivera in Cuba, and Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Bauzá in New York. Originally, descargas were promoted by record companies such as Panart, Maype and Gema under the label Cuban jam sessions. From the 1960s, the descarga format was usually adapted by large salsa ensembles, most notably the Fania All-Stars.
Juan Pablo Knipping Pacheco, known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer. Born in the Dominican Republic, Pacheco became a leading figure in the New York salsa scene in the 1960s and 1970s as the founder and musical director of Fania Records.
"Oye Cómo Va" is a 1962 cha-cha-chá song by Tito Puente, originally released on El Rey Bravo. The song achieved worldwide popularity when it was covered by American rock group Santana for their album Abraxas. This version was released as a single in 1971, reaching number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 11 on the Billboard Easy Listening survey, and number 32 on the R&B chart. The block chord ostinato pattern that repeats throughout the song was most likely borrowed by Puente from Cachao's 1957 mambo "Chanchullo", which was recorded by Puente in 1959.
Carlos Valdés Galán, better known as Patato, was a Cuban conga player. In 1954, he emigrated from La Habana to New York City where he continued his prolific career as a sideman for several jazz and Latin music ensembles, and occasionally as a bandleader. He contributed to the development of the tunable conga drum which revolutionized the use of the instrument in the US. His experimental descarga albums recorded for Latin Percussion are considered the counterpart to the commercial salsa boom of the 1970s. Tito Puente once called him "the greatest conguero alive today".
Jimmy Sabater was an American musician of Puerto Rican ancestry. A three-time winner of the ACE Awards, he was a singer and timbales player. He gained international fame thanks to his work with the Joe Cuba Sextet in the 1960s and '70s, and later became the lead singer of various groups including Charlie Palmieri's Combo Gigante. His son, Jimmy Sabater Jr., is a trumpeter and bandleader.
Concha Valdés Miranda was a Cuban songwriter and performer of Cuban music.
The Latin Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame established by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize "early recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that were released more than 25 years ago". LARAS is also the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards. The albums and songs are picked by a panel of recording-arts professionals, such as musicologists and historians, and selected from all major categories of Latin music.
The Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame (LSHOF) also known as La Musa Awards, was established on October 18, 2012, by Desmond Child and Rudy Pérez, and is located in Miami, Florida, United States. The hall of fame is dedicated to "educating, honoring and celebrating the lives and music of the world’s greatest Latin songwriters and composers". The hall of fame was conceived by Child after he realized that he was only the third Latino to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Pérez came up with the same idea after having discussions with Latin composers Manuel Alejandro and Armando Manzanero 16 years prior to its conception. Initially, the organization had only 119 participants which grew to over 15,000 members in two years from 21 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries across Latin America, Europe, and the US. Nominations for the inductions are selected by its committee of music professionals, which consists of producers, composers, musicians, and performers, with the winners being voted by the general public. The only exception was for the 2022 inductees. To be eligible for a nomination, the songwriter, composer, or lyricist is required to have their first published work released at least 20 years prior to the year of induction.
Félix Rafael Herrera Altuna, better known as Félix Reina, was a Cuban violinist, arranger, music director and composer. Since the mid-1940s, he was a member of many popular charangas, including Arcaño y sus Maravillas, Orquesta América and Fajardo y sus Estrellas. In 1959, after Fajardo went into exile, he became the leader of his orchestra, the Estrellas Cubanas, which he directed until his death. A prolific composer, his most performed danzones include "Angoa", "Los jóvenes del silencio" and "El niche". In the 1950s, he primarily wrote chachachás and his bolero "Si te contara" became a standard of the genre.
Harvey Averne has been described as "one of several prominent Jewish Americans in New York's bustling Latin music scene."
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in Latin music in the 1980s, namely in Ibero-America. This includes recordings, festivals, award ceremonies, births and deaths of Latin music artists, and the rise and fall of various subgenres in Latin music from 1980 to 1989.
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in Latin music in the 1970s, namely in Ibero-America. This includes recordings, festivals, award ceremonies, births and deaths of Latin music artists, and the rise and fall of various subgenres in Latin music from 1970 to 1979.
José Mangual Jr. is an American Salsa percussionist of Puerto Rican descent, singer and composer best known for his recordings with Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe during the 1960s and 1970s salsa boom in New York.
Edwin "Eddie" Montalvo is an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Born and raised in the Bronx, he best known for playing the Congas for Hector Lavoe, Rubén Blades as well as with the Fania All-Stars.
Jon Evan Fausty was an American multiple Grammy Award-winning sound and recording engineer best known for his work on some of the most successful Latin albums ever recorded.