Jerry Masucci

Jerry Masucci (October 7, 1934 – December 21, 1997) was a co-founder of Fania Records.

Early life

Masucci was born October 7, 1934, in Brooklyn, to parents Urbano and Elvira Masucci. He had a brother named Alex Masucci (born November 11, 1949). Massucci relocated to a home on the Upper East Side of New York City, and eventually owned homes in Paris, Ibiza, Uruguay, Havana and Miami.

Masucci was a high school dropout who earned his high school diploma while serving in the U.S. Navy at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the Korean War. He became a member of the New York City Police Department. After attending college at night, Masucci took a leave of absence and attended City College, where he played halfback with the college football team, and earned a degree in Business Administration, majoring in foreign trade. He graduated first in his class with cum laude honors. He then returned to the Police Department as a plainclothes policeman, and attended New York Law School during the day. Graduating in 1960 with a Doctor of Law Degree, he resigned from the Police Department and worked in Havana, Cuba as assistant to the Director of Public Relations in the Department of Tourism.

Career

Masucci became a partner in the law firm Pariser & Masucci. Masucci met Johnny Pacheco in 1962 when his firm handled Pacheco's divorce. In 1964 Masucci and Pacheco established Fania Records. They started out selling records out of the trunk of cars on the streets of Spanish Harlem, signing up young artists, creating new sounds, and eventually having hit records. Throughout his tenure as an impresario of the Salsa genre, Masucci was reportedly generous, sponsoring lavish parties and buying everyone lunch at rehearsals, while popularizing Salsa among Latin Jazz listeners. Over the next 15 years, Fania Records helped define the sound, culture, and language associated with the Salsa genre, a musical movement that arose partly from the unavailability in the United States of music produced in Cuba.^[1]

Massucci became a feature film maker, producing Our Latin Thing, Salsa, Vigilante, and The Last Fight. He became sole owner of the Fania Records label in 1977, and would own ten other recording companies, as well: Vaya, Cotique, Tico, Alegre, Mardi-Gras, Sonido, Exitos, International, Bronco, and Karen. He was also a part-owner of the "Fame" modeling agency.

Masucci had Pacheco directing stage shows and Harlow directing in the studio. Alex Masucci, Jerry's brother, was at the helm of the New York-based Fania Records for many years. Massucci first produced a concert at Yankee Stadium. The event, featuring his Fania-All-Stars, was attended by 45,000 people, and was included in the second set of 50 recordings in a list preserved in the National Recording Registry.

Massucci ventured into the world of boxing with Don King, with whom he promoted a Heavyweight Championship bout fought between Muhammad Ali and Jean-Pierre Copuian in Puerto Rico in 1976.

Masucci had shares of Fania Records issued on Friday, 19 December 1997; Fania was going public. Masucci died over the weekend and the shares were never offered.

Death

Masucci had moved to and died in his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1997. Masucci had three daughters, Darlene, Misty and Corrine, with three different women: Marlene Masucci, Rachel Ann Butler, and Melissa Gosnel.^[1]

On December 21, 1997, Jerry Masucci died in Buenos Aires. His personal assistant, Daniel Amar Siad was with him the weekend he died. Masucci had complained in the weeks before his death of headaches and stomach pains, but did not seek medical advice. On Friday, December 19, he experienced further stomach pains while playing tennis. Two days later he died on the operating table during exploratory surgery. The cause of death was a brain aneurysm. The following week his body was flown to New York for a service at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home; the body was cremated after the service.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Jerry Massucci tribute website – archived version

External links

• Watrous, Peter, "Obituary: Jerry Masucci, 62, International Salsa Promoter", The New York Times, December 24, 1997

Persondata
Name	Massucci, Jerry
Alternative names
Short description	record label owner; boxing promoter
Date of birth	October 7, 1934
Place of birth	Brooklyn
Date of death	December 21, 1997
Place of death	Buenos Aires