Gerald "Jerry" Masucci[1] (October 7, 1934 – December 21, 1997) was an American attorney, businessman and was co-founder of Fania Records.
Masucci was born in Brooklyn, New York[2] to Italian immigrant parents Urbano and Elvira Masucci.[3] He was a police officer in New York City before attending, and during law school. In 1960, he graduated from New York Law School as a juris doctor. He then worked for a public relations firm in Cuba, where he became interested in Latin music.[4]
In 1964 in New York City, Masucci, then a divorce attorney, and Johnny Pacheco, a Dominican musician, established Fania Records.[5][6][7][8][9] 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.[10] 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.[11]
In 1980, he was running Fame, a modeling agency.[12]
Masucci died of aortic aneurysm caused by a heart attackinBuenos Aires, Argentina on December 21, 1997 at age 63. It was reported that he had three daughters, Darlene, Misty and Corinne.[13][4][14]
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