Fruko

An award-winning multi-instrumentalist and recording artist, Fruko is a pioneer of Colombian salsa and a renowned exponent of cumbia, pachanga, and other tropical styles globally. He is a prolific composer, arranger, producer, and bandleader who has mentored and nurtured some of the finest singing voices to emerge from the region including Joe Arroyo, Piper Pimienta Diaz, Wilson Manyoma, and Joseito Martinez. He founded Fruko y Sus Tesos in 1969, wedding his country's native cumbia and champeta to tropical styles including guaguanco, cha-cha, mambo, and son on their album Tesura. The group delivered a string of hits including "Bailar Oriza," "El Ausente," "El Tronco Seco," "In Memory of the Dead," "El Caminante," and "El Preso." In 1974, he founded the Latin Brothers, who made history that year by issuing the first Columbian salsa chart hit, "A la Loma de la Cruz," for Discos Fuentes. They reached the top of the charts with the title track for 1975's Dale al Bombo. That year, in his capacity as artistic director at Discos Fuentes, Fruko re-formed the legendary La Sonora Dinamita. Among the other bands he has formed, mentored, produced, and recorded with are Afrosound and the charting tropical orchestra Banda la Bocana. His combined credits appear on some 800 albums. Fruko's 2020 single "El Beso Que de Ti" was recorded in collaboration with legendary north Colombian singer, songwriter, and accordionist Armando Hernandez. Fruko was born Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincón in Medellín. At age six, he was already playing percussion and singing with groups of friends. Two years later, he was participating in talent contests. In 1963, at age 12, he got his first music industry job as an errand boy for the historic Discos Fuentes label, which was founded in 1934 by Anotino Fuentes and is Colombia's oldest independent label. He worked his way up, playing percussion, piano, bass, and singing on sessions for several artists, and he joined the band Los Corraleros de Majagual in 1965, with whom he remained until the early 1970s. With the group he toured not only Latin America but the United States and Canada, and met several important salsa musicians including Willie Colón, Hector Lavoe, Ray Barretto, Tito Puente, Cheo Feliciano, and others. The band gave him his nickname due to his resemblance to a cartoon character on the label of a soup can. During the late 1960s, he led the in-house session band Wganda Kenya, which consisted of various musicians who would later be in the lineups of Fruko y sus Tesos and the Latin Brothers. The musicians were paid a monthly salary and recorded in the studio on a daily basis, playing everything from cumbia, zouk, and champeta to soca and Afro-Latin funk. They recorded several albums of their own between 1976 and 1987. In 1972, Fruko founded the original lineup of Fruko y Sus Tesos, with Joe Arroyo on lead vocals. They released their debut album, Fruko el Bueno; though it didn't chart, it did get airplay and began to spread the word of their emergent meld of cumbia, guaguancó, and salsa. Later that year, they hit the charts with the long-player A la Memoria del Muerto thanks to its hit title-track single. 1973's Ayunando and La Fruta Bomba also charted. That same year, Fruko began producing Disco Fuentes' newest signing, Afrosound, a Colombian supergroup who responded to the Chicha pop sound emerging from Peru and Bolivia with a meld of funk, proto-disco, merengue, son, and Afrobeat. Their debut album, The Dance of the Blackbirds, was a cult hit in South America. In early 1974, Fruko founded the Latin Brothers as a touring sister group to Fruko y Sus Tesos. They shared some of the same musicians and featured vocalist Piper Pimienta alongside Arroyo. Unlike Fruko's primary project, the Latin Brothers were a true Colombian salsa band and established themselves with their charting debut single, "A la Loma de la Cruz," in 1974. The two groups often recorded on successive days in the studio, played sessions for other singers and musicians, and toured together for many years. The following year, the Latin Brothers released the smash single "Dale al Bombo," and sent their album of the same title into the Top Ten. Fruko y Sus Tesos released El Grande at the end of 1975 and Fruko el Barbaro in mid-1976. Their evolving musical approach was deeply influenced by the experiments of the Latin Brothers and made Colombian salsa the anchor of their sound. At 23, Fruko was restless. He was artistic director with Discos Fuentes and a house producer and arranger as well as a recording artist. He re-formed the legendary cumbia band La Sonora Dinamita, founded in 1960 by Lucho Argaín that dissolved in 1963. Given Fruko's many other commitments, they didn't get to record much initially but released the classic La Explosiva in 1977, the same year Fruko y Sus Tesos issued the smash album El Patillero. Fruko took all three acts on tour together, offering audiences a panorama of Colombian musical styles from historical to the present. Through the rest of the decade, Fruko divided his time as artistic director and house producer and managing all three bands. In 1978, he arranged and produced El Meneito, a reunion album between La Sonora Dinamita and Lucho Argaín. Between 1978 and 2004, the group released at least an album a year and still performed. Fruko y Sus Tesos were regularly riding the charts with their singles and albums including 1979's salsa disco outing El Teso. Meanwhile the Latin Brothers scored big on the charts and in clubs with En Su Salsa. The 1980s were a blur of activity, but they added up to one thing for Fruko: He became one of his country's most visible musical representatives. His integrational approach to all of Colombia's most popular styles including cumbia, champeta, vallenato, and even porro, was inseparably woven into a unique approach to salsa and other Afro-Latin and Caribbean funk styles, showcased on albums such as 1983's El Salsero Mayor by Fruko y Sus Tesos, and the Latin Brothers' 1986 offering ¡Para Bailar! Under Fruko's studio leadership, La Sonora Dinamita attained stardom not only in Colombia but across Latin America, where their early and mid-'80s recordings such as La Cumbia Nació en Barú, Explosion Tropical, and La Vibrante received airplay and sold in numbers they had never before experienced. In 1991, Fruko formed another band at Discos Fuentes, Banda la Bocana, a modern merengue and cumbia group that he composed for, arranged, and produced; their self-titled debut arrived that year and was followed quickly by Punta y Rap in 1992 and Merengue & Technotropical in 1993. Also that year, Fruko assembled a touring orchestra devoted to the work of Perez Prado, and did the same for a touring showcase on the legacy of Afro-Cuban rhythms. During the 1990s, the Latin Brothers recorded singles and albums at a dizzying pace. Among their most successful outings were 1992's Nuestra Salsa and 1994's Son del Cañaveral, but they split after 1997's Renaciendo. While Fruko y Sus Tesos toured regularly, they issued hits compilations and albums devoted to various musical styles including Pachangas (1994), Sones y Montunos (1995), and Guarachas, Guajiras y Boleros (1996). While Fruko didn't play with La Sonora Dinamita, he produced and arranged their many recordings including the 1992 hit Imparable! and 1999's ¡Que Lindo Cu...! In 1998, Fruko y Sus Tesos released the global smash and soccer anthem "La Pachanga del Futbol," commissioned for the World Cup tournament. In 2000, Fruko y Sus Tesos issued the hit old-school salsa outing Power Salsa, which registered on both the Colombian and Peruvian charts. 2003's Descarga Espectacular and the bugalú- and Latin soul-oriented Pa' Gozá Con Fruko did equally well. The following year, La Máquina del Sabor returned to hard salsa and became a favorite of club DJs across Spain and Latin America. In 2006, Fruko y Sus Tesos hit the studio and recorded the scorching Fruko Power. The funky salsa outing received airplay from Medellín and Lagos to Mexico City, Miami, and New York. That same year, he collaborated with Cuban violinist Alfredo de la Fé on The Golden Key, a collection of vintage-sounding salsas and charangas. Fruko took a break from recording under his own name but produced, arranged, and composed for several artists at Discos Fuentes including La Sonora Dinamita. In 2012, he re-emerged as a guest on the track "My Black" from the self-titled Ondatrópica from Will "Quantic" Holland's all-star South American orchestra. In 2013, Fruko ran for Colombia's senate on the ticket of the governing party of President Juan Manuel Santos; his platform was to "defend the arts" by representing the rights of musicians who often outlived their commercial success. That same year, he resumed recording under his own name with Fruko Sinfonico for Discos Fuentes, a set that showcased the orchestral side of his composing and arranging. In 2015, Discos Fuentes began an ambitious physical and digital reissue program of the recorded catalogs of both Fruko y Sus Tesos and the Latin Brothers. It concluded in 2017 with a deluxe reissue of Tesura. In 2020, Fruko formed his own Fruko Records label and collaborated with the iconic north Columbian singer, songwriter, and accordionist Armando Hernandez on the single "El Beso Que de Ti."
© Thom Jurek /TiVo