Salsa music rivalries and battles

Latin Beat Magazine, August, 2003 by Max Salazar

Top Billing (the name of the orchestra at the top line of a marquee or poster over the names of other bands) was a point every bandleader insisted upon.

Alberto Iznaga, who organized La Siboney band in 1939, said, "Top billing was important during my time and we played tricks on each other to get it. We were friendly rivals and we worked something out so everyone could enjoy the top line."

For a Columbia label recording he made in 1942, Iznaga and his vocalist Juan "El Boy" Torres agreed to split the billing. One side of the record bears the bandleader's name over the vocalist, and vice-versa on the other side. With a sly grin on his face, Iznaga said, "I made sure my name was over his on the best side."

"One day," he continued, "during the early forties, I was given billing over Machito at the Park Palace. Later on in the day I saw Machito' s name over mine because he featured Miguelito Valdés as a special attraction. This was the only way Machito could get billing over me at the time; it annoyed me but I soon forgot about it; I didn't mind taking second billing to Miguelito Valdés."

During the early forties, the size of a photo meant more than the name on the top line. Miguelito Valdés insisted his photo be larger than anyone else's photo on the same billing. No one ever objected (at least, not openly). It appeared that most Latin musicians understood that the talented Valdés deserved the largest photo because of his singing ability and international prominence gained while working with Xavier Cugat. Cugat enjoyed the title of "King of the Rumba" during World War II, a result of his international exposure through motion pictures. Although bandleaders were friendly, they did every thing possible to outshine each other. They utilized every strategy conceivable to the human mind for an advantage point. A good example of this occurred during the winter of 1941, when the orchestra of Montesino battled the orchestra of Iznaga at the Audubon Ballroom at 166th Street near Broadway. Montesino, the most popular bandleader in Harlem at the time, got top billing by featuring an all-star group consisting of Machito on vocals, Gilberto Ayala on piano and the trumpets of Mario Bauzá and Puerto Rican, Frank "Hot Lips" García. At this time, Hot Lips, René Edreira (an Afro-Cuban) and Mario Bauzá were considered three of the best high note specialists.

The heavy snowfall that blanketed the city prevented Hot Lips from arriving on time. The bandboy with Montesino's music never arrived to the dance. Iznaga, who proficiently played saxophone, clarinet and violin, added two star soloists to his band for this event. He coaxed René Edreira to leave his sick bed and secured the popular hot pianist Luis Cardenas to duel Ayala. He urged his sidemen to put on a show while they performed. His men danced in unison, they turned to the right, then to the left. Besides playing their instruments, they doubled up on cowbell, bongó, spoons, the jawbone of an ass and anything else that would create an exotic rumba sound in clave. The dancers, who had not been exposed to this before, shook and wriggled rhythmically all over the dance floor. After three half-hour sets that began at 9 p.m., Iznaga left the bandstand smiling with a look that read, "try and top this."