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Dateline -- January 19, 1998..
Once again we left JFK airport
on a 747 Air France jet at 9 PM Wednesday evening....All 45 of us...The great Fania
All-stars to play at the ZENITH
in Paris Friday night evening and to open the MIDEM 98 Conference in Cannes Saturday night
evening....Missing from the group this time were Celia Cruz, Ismael Miranda, and of course
Jerry masucci, who had passed away in December..... The management went to Ralph Mercado,
who was partners with Jerry in the Fania Concerts.......We flew to Charler DeGaulle
Airport in Paris and
arrived at 1PM in the afternoon Thursday...I thought we would have a free day
in Paris to shop and get a great French meal...Not a chance.. We went directly
to Masucci's favorite hotel the Beverly Hills Hotel....I expected to see the
Beverly Hillbilly's...But this exotic art deco hotel was quite unorganized....
We had to wait 2 hours before we were assigned rooms and told of our impending rehearsal in the evening and that there was no food for us either or budget for our per diem. There were no single rooms just 3 bedroom suites with a large living room and large dining room, a kitchen and three bedrooms with 2 single bed in them ...
So my roommate for the 2 days was non other then Le Madam Izzy Sanabria, probably because no one else would room with him...Press party interviews for TV and Radio stations???? We ate salmon for two days prepared every way possible, smoked, in salad ,poached, fried; and Baked salmon. Definitely, not a five star restaurant... We were at their mercy..... The rehearsal was at a small studio with no air conditioner....and by having 45 personalities from Fania and another 45 reporters and staff in these small quarters was quite uncomfortable....
Finally, we finished at 12;30am (midnight) we were dead after the long flight.... There was nothing opened in Paris this late except McDonalds 24hr joint on the Champs Eylesee... I was very depressed so was Izzy who wanted to go back to NY immediately and tried to contact Air France to exchange HIS ticket... It was impossible for they were group tickets and non refundable and we had to fly on the exact day or the tickets were worthless...Izzy tried to Jump out the window but I stopped him. (I don't know why).
We got up early to find a great breakfast of smoked...you guessed it ...SALMON... I got to the point where the whole group was singing Salmon coros on the buss with some really nasty inspirations about... you guessed it ...SALMON... No one was happy with the accommodations.... Ralph Mercado had NO ROOM.... Victor Gallo went to another hotel...etc, etc, etc ....
We had the morning free and Ismael Quintana, Izzy and Chino the photographer went to the Louve Museum to see the great works of art and the new entrance that I had never seen 10 years ago.....It was spectacular... the Glass Pyramid entrance and the underground modern mall size entrance leading to the 4 sides of this great museum ...We saw the Venus , Mona Lisa, Winged Victory...and thousands of paintings of the great masters.... It would take three weeks to cover the museum and we were here for 2 hours... so be it we left and I took the 3 tourists to the Eiffel Tower just to see the great tower and take a few pictures then we bought a few drinks to bring home.....
Back to the hotel to shower and change to leave at 4pm for the sound check.... packed into our bus to the Zenith. The Zenith a 6000 seat vevue with a round shaped and dome ceiling. The equiptment was excellent , and Marc Farron our production manager had a crack team of teckies who made it easier for us to do our jobs by providing quality sound and lights on a wonderfully large stage....The sound check went great and quickly and we were able to relax for a couple of hours ....We were fed some more smoked....right...plate. Finally, some chicken with brocoli...It was finally a decent meal with good French Wine....
SHOWTIME came soon enough It was packed with people pushed up against the front of the stage......There were 7000 spectators and Fania played one of the best shows in the last 10 years...We presented Jerry Masucci's latest discovery Yanette Sol who although did not belong with the Fania All Stars did an excellent performance with us and was received well....
Everyone played and sang great...the conditions were just right and the performance was on the money...Now if we were only making some money, it would have been an excellent trip.....We partied after the show at a Cuban resturant near the hotel till 4AM and then packed and left for Orley airport for Nice and then bussed to Cannes on th French Riviera.....If it were only summertime and I could walk the beach in between the topless bathers .....Not a chance.... it was mild and hundreds of strollers were walking and cruising the avenue window shopping or people watching....We were the opening act for the opening party at Miden, playing at the Palm Club before a great opening night crowd.... We passed on the sound check and entered the stage cold....The show was a short one .... one hour as compared to Paris (3 hrs) but the impact was greeted, for we put all out energy into this short program and each and every song was heavy.... all the hits in one basket.... a lot of the credit must go to our tech crew who did the impossible in a short 3 hours to set up and check everything, guessing the settings and mixing on the fly...Rolly, our stage mixed was especially great, keeping the 30 member band all content and happy with their sound and levels.
The band played great and
everyone was happy..... including Ralph Mercado and Victror Gallo.... I had a great room
at the Noga Hilton again with Izzy but it was for only one more night....We left Cannes at
6am for Orley then rode a bus to DeGaulle and met the next group who left at 8am at Air
France gate...Most of you out there do not really know what it takes to put on a show like
this in a foreign country with 2 shows in three days and a 6 hour time difference ...It is
an enormous undertaking... We arrived jetlagged out in New York at 3pm to light snow and
30 degrees to families and pets.... now I got to pack my bags to leave for the next
commitment.... Hasta la proxíma baby.... photos to follow....L.Harlow
Larry Harlow's Latin Legends Band is the leading worldwide Latin music band ready perform the very best of classical salsa to audiences around the globe. We have a long history of producing quality Latin music commonly known as Salsa..