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Who Was Joe Acosta? The History of "The Power of Love" album and CD Release.

Writer's picture: Salsa WarriorsSalsa Warriors


Joe Acosta (born October 31, 1950 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is a salsa piano player and one of the pioneers of Latin music in the United States in the early 1970s. Acosta migrated to New York City in 1953 and settled in East Harlem, a neighborhood with many salsa musicians that emerged to stardom.


Acosta started his first band in 1969 "Los Empresarios". During his tenure at MSM, he also played with many of the local bands including Johnny Colon's Band (playing both trombone and piano), The TNT Band, The Latinjazzmen, and Joe Bataan.


In the early 1970s, Acosta became more successful with his second recording, The Power of Love, on Ghetto Records. Acosta wrote most of the tunes, including the 21-week Billboard Latin Top 10 single "I Need Her." By the end of the 1970s, Acosta and his band had recorded the LP's Asi Soy Yo and Encore. He performed in Puerto Rico, Spain, Colombia, and Venezuela. Acosta also enjoyed playing salsa and Latin jazz on many recordings for SMC-Pro Arte records. He also recorded the Ray Rivera's hit "Listen to Louie" for SMC Pro-Arte.


During his musical career, Acosta has played and recorded with Sammy Ayala, Joe Quijano, Tony Pabon, and La Protesta, Bobby Rodriguez, Joe Cuba, Orchestra Flamboyan, Vitin Aviles, Ismael Rivera, Orchestra Broadway, Yomo Toro, and Mon Rivera. Acosta has written and arranged songs for many artists. Including the Jonas Brothers "Chillin in the Summertime" for Disney's Jonas L.A. TV show in July 2010.


Sadly, April 4th, 2020, Joe Acosta passed away at his home state in Delaware due to health complications. Certain sources claimed COVID-19 ended Acosta's life, however, this was not the case and was confirmed with Andres Padua who has spoken to his sister Diana.

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Acosta -------------------------------------------



The Sweeter Side of Latin Soul produced 2007 by Nick Aguirre of Latin Soul Recordings is a compilation of the best Latin Soul ballads from the 60's & 70's. Joe Acosta's single "I Need Her" was part of this compilation. A Latin Soul compilation CD is not complete without the track "I Need Her." The front cover is actually Joe Acosta's "Power of Love" musicians and it was given to Nick Aguirre for the compilation cover. Rumor has it, this would have been the front cover for the "Power of Love" album but the photo was too dark.



The History of The Power of Love LP


THE POWER OF LOVE LP (1971) was Joe Acosta's second Lp on his roster and his first release on the short-lived Ghetto Record label. "The Power of Love" was considered by many worldwide music fans one of the best albums released on the Ghetto label. The LP has quite a history attached to it. Another Latin orchestra (La Fantastica) was recording their album for Ghetto titled "From Ear to Ear" while Acosta was recording his "Power of Love" LP. The LP cover presented to Acosta was designed with a collage of human ears



as shown on the left. Acosta was not impressed with the design for his album so the label presented the cover to "La Fantastica." There was a miscommunication somewhere between the printer and management at Ghetto Records. In 1971, La Fantastica's LP "From ear to ear" was released with the proper cover, the proper printed record label with the song list, however, the actual vinyl recording was the one and only Joe Acosta's LP "The Power of Love." If you purchased La Fantastica's Lp "From Ear to Ear" in 1971, chances are, you have Joe Acosta's Lp "The Power of Love" in your possession.

On May 5th, 2006 35 years after the release of the "Power of Love", it was time to reissue the album on CD. Andres Padua one of the founders of the internet radio station "The Latin Soul Show Radio" met Joe for lunch at Marisco Del Caribe in the Bronx to pitch the idea of reissuing on CD a remastered version the POL album. Joe and Andres had several lunches and spoke for hours regarding music and about the good o' days. Not too mention all the private conversations they had on My Space. Oh, for those of you young cats may


not know, My Space was one of the first social networking websites. In one of their lunch meetings, Andres asked Joe "Do you have any songs you have recorded that was never released to the public?" Andres became very excited to learn Acosta in fact had several singles he recorded in the early '80s that were never released to the public. One of those tracks was included in the POL CD reissue as a bonus track.


Andres was a little upset with Joe. On the B-side of the 45rpm single of "I Need Her" was a swinging funky salsa tune titled "Bendita Illusion." The song was 2:30 running time which Andres' believes it's the shortest Salsa song on the planet. When Andres purchased the POL album, it just happened that the length of the track was identical from the single and it was never extended on the album release. Andres asked Joe "what the heck happened to this badass song? Every track on the POL album averaged 4-5 minutes even the Cha Cha Cha's were long. "Bendita Illusion" did not have any solo parts whether piano, sax or an electric guitar. You cheated me on the LP. Hello, LP stands of Long Play. I still got the short play version again." LOL. Andres jokingly said, "You owe me $6.99 for this freakin album and I'm taking it out on your first royalty check."


Acosta laughed and explained to Andres "I had a date with one of the chicks that worked at Ghetto Records so we recorded the song short. There was no time for solos." Andres stared at him for approximately 5 seconds and said "I am so going to expose you. The whole world will know why you cut "Bendita Illusion" short. I am adding it to the liner notes of the CD packaging." LOL and sure enough Andres actually included it on the liner notes.


The Power of Love album was reissued in the winter of 2006 and Joe was very impressed with the CD packaging not mention the superb audio quality remastered by Digitech. Acosta expected a cheesy one-page sheeter with the tracklist and a silver CD printed with black text. Andres said "I'm surprised you didn't think I was going to take a sharpie marker and write on blank CD-Rs "The Power of Love by Joe Acosta" and make the copies at home on my computer." LOL.


Boy was he surprised with the packaging. He actually stated the CD sounded better than the crappy Fania reissues from Sonido Inc. Andres was glad he had the opportunity to reissue the album and was pleased that Joe Acosta was very satisfied with the project. Joe finally got to receive royalties he never obtained from Ghetto Records for his Power of Love LP. By the way, Andres never deducted the $6.99 from Joe's royalty checks.


Joe Acosta is now gone to that paradise in the sky with the Lord and His angels. He may be gone but he will never be forgotten nor his music he has produced throughout his musical career. "Rest in peace, my brother. The club DJ's and radio DJ's will ensure your music will continue to spin throughout generations. God Rest Your Soul. Until we meet again my Latin Soul brother. My condolences to his family, friends and those that worked with Joe Acosta." Andres Padua

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