The Romántica Takeover

By the 1980s the hard Fania sound cooled into something smoother and sexier. Two threads built salsa romántica: a Puerto Rican bandleader's 'school' of...

By the 1980s the hard Fania sound had done its work, and salsa didn't so much decline as reformat itself. Salsa romántica was the answer in Puerto Rico and New York: a polished, radio-friendly, studio-driven music that put the singer and the love song at the centre — intimacy, heartbreak and vocal charisma over barrio grit. Two threads weave it: Tommy Olivencia's "school" of voices, including Frankie Ruiz, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Lalo Rodríguez, and the New York arranger Louie Ramírez, who turned pop ballads into slow-burn salsa for singers like Ray de la Paz. Walk the cooling of the music into something smoother, and sexier.

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