Marking the landmark 50th anniversary of famed Puerto Rico band Sonora Ponceña’s seventh album Sabor Sureño, Craft Latino has announced a special reissue of the seminal salsa record. The album is now available for pre-order ahead of its official release on October 18.
Featuring known fan favorites like “Juana Bayona,” “Ecue Baroni,” and “Las mujeres son de azúcar,” Sonora Ponceña’s album was initially released via Inca Records (a subsidiary of Fania Records) in 1974. That history is preserved, literally, in the new reissue, which has been pressed in 180-gram vinyl and uses lacquers cut from those original masters. Devotées can also score one of 300 limited purple vinyl variants, as well as a T-shirt via the bundle option. Digitally, Sabor Sureño will also make its debut in 192/24 audio.
The history of Sonora Ponceña spans decades, from their beginning in 1944 as El Conjunto Internacional. But it was when founding member Enrique “Quique” Lucca Caraballo’s then-8-year-old son Enrique “Papo” Lucca Quiñonez, Jr joined the group as a pianist that their career truly took off. After years of proving his chops as a musical prodigy, Papo eventually took over as bandleader in the late 1960s. The success of the band continued far beyond Sabor Sureño; Papo continued to receive honors and awards throughout the 90s and 2000s, including from the government of Puerto Rico, which christened “Día Nacional de la Salsa” in their honor in 2004.
Fania Records, meanwhile, celebrates its 60th anniversary this year and is marking the occasion with more than a dozen vinyl reissues, not to mention an additional dozen digital ones, via Craft Latino, the Latin arm of Craft Recordings. Fania Records emerged in the 1960s as a pioneer in salsa music, helping to popularize the genre globally. The label also hosts artists who quickly went on to become household names, like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.
