HECTOR LAVOE

LaVoe was born Hector Juan Perez, on September 30th, 1946 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. "El Cantante De Los Cantantes", as he is affectionately known, came to New York at age 17 with the dream of making it big. With no formal singing training this skinny kid from Barrio San Antonio in Ponce, caught the ear of Johnny Pacheco. Pacheco was amazed at the raw talent this young kid had. Because Pacheco already had a singer (Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez) and during those times you only needed one singer. Lavoe only sang sparingly on weekend gigs. Later Pacheco, who at this time began to recruit musicians and singers for his new Fania label, introduced to Lavoe a young talented trombonist who was in need of a singer. This gifted trombonist was Willie Colón. Colón was in the process of a new recording with Al Santiago's Alegre label when Pacheco saw the potential read more...