Pachanga

Pachanga began as a Cuban song-dance — Eduardo Davidson's 'La Pachanga' was a 1959 hit — before it became the craze that bridged the mambo era and the 1960s...

Pachanga began as a Cuban song-dance — Eduardo Davidson's 'La Pachanga' was a 1959 hit — before it became the craze that bridged the mambo era and the 1960s in New York: an uptempo, charanga-flavoured sound that turned the city's Latin floors into a frenzy of kicks and dips. Its New York capital was the South Bronx, where promoters like Federico Pagani packed rooms such as the Caravana Club and Charlie Palmieri cut a live album there in 1961. José Fajardo and Johnny Pacheco rode the craze, and Alegre Records pressed it into hits.

Era

Boogaloo & Pachanga

Traits

Uptempo, charanga-based dance. The name comes from Eduardo Davidson's 1959 Cuban hit 'La Pachanga'; in New York it became a charanga craze (José Fajardo, Charlie Palmieri, Johnny Pacheco, Alegre Records).