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Legacy of a Legend
The Latin music community mourns the passing of prominent music impresario Ralph Mercado. Guarded by his family, Mercado, who managed and recorded artists including Marc Anthony and Tito Puente, lost his battle with cancer, leaving behind a legacy of award-winning songs and seminal music concerts that helped define the salsa and Latin music industry.
“The passing of Ralph Mercado weighs heavily on the hearts of New York 's music community,” said a statement from Michael R. Bloomberg, mayor of New York , the city where salsa was purportedly born. “Today, his legacy can be heard on the neighborhood streets of Brooklyn and on Main Streets across America .”
Responsible for taking salsa on tour through Africa, Holland , Germany and all over America , Mercado promoted both traditional and romantic salsa, bridging the two to keep salsa alive for both old and new fans. Today's salsa mavericks acknowledge Mercado's hand in maintaining the status quo in the collective mind of worldwide salsa enthusiasts.
“Tropical music loses one of the promoters that defended and represented salsa the most,” commented Victor Manuelle, a ballad and salsa singer famous among young fans. “He was one of the key figures in developing and maintaining salsa in the place it occupies today and in opening new doors and new markets for all of salsa's artists.”
“He gave me my first chance in tropical music and he was a great supporter in the early stages of my career,” Marc Anthony said shortly after Mercado's death.
Born in Brooklyn to a Puerto Rican mother and a Dominican father, Mercado began organizing parties in his neighborhood's social club when he was a teenager. He promoted “waistline” parties in a basement, where men would pay a penny per inch of their date's waistline. He later booked Eddie Palmieri, Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz among other hot acts to perform at his events, which paved the way to starting his own promoting company, Showstoppers.
Mercado promoted Latin artists while adding R & B and soul singers such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin and others to his repertoire, helping tropical music grow alongside successful artists.
He partnered with Jack Hooke, Tito Puente's manager, to spearhead the Salsa Meets Jazz Series at the Village Gate and the Latin Jazz Jam of the JVC Jazz Festival, and is reportedly responsible for the Cheetah Nightclub parties that supported salsa's stardom in the ‘70s.
Mercado's RMM Management opened in 1972, representing Palmieri and the late conga superstar Ray Barreto and later Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. Puente proved to be one of his most faithful clients, staying with Mercado for over 25 years.
By 1987 he had founded RMM Records and added Tito Nieves, Oscar D'León and Domingo Quiñones, among others, to his label. He also recorded the Fania All-Stars, restoring the fame of salsa label Fania Records.
Mercado took over where Fania had left off, this time mixing in salsa romantica's younger singers with classic musicians.
“The ‘90s belonged to RMM, the way the 1970s were Fania's,” Mercado explained in a New York Times interview in 2001. “RMM created a second wave of an explosion.”
It was an explosion whose shockwaves can still be felt. He signed Marc Anthony and La India , expanding salsa's shelf life at a time when radio waves belonged to hip hop and R & B. As a manager, he was renowned for pairing music legends with upcoming stars at venues of the caliber of Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall , shooting these youngsters into stardom. His label accrued over 140 artists and sold millions. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Tribute Award from Billboard Magazine.
Mercado experienced a major setback in 2001 when he lost a copyright infringement lawsuit against Puerto Rican balladeer Glenn Monroig, who claimed the lyrics to one of his songs were changed and the song used for profit without permission and issuing of royalties. A federal jury awarded Monroig $7.7 million plus interest.
Such a high amount forced Mercado to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for RMM, but Mercado was quoted saying that the label was bound for failure even before the lawsuit. His indie label, he said, couldn't compete with the more powerful labels that had come up with Latin divisions.
Mercado's had other ventures. He owned RMM Filmworks, which produced the documentary on the history of Latin music “ Yo soy, del son a la salsa ,” two publishing houses and a few restaurants.
He continued producing and staging concerts for Latin acts all over, including the concert " Un Tributo al cantante de los cantantes: Héctor Lavoe,” a 20-city tour throughout the United States and Latin America in 2007.
Mercado will always be remembered as the visionary who maintained salsa and Latin jazz in the top bins of music stores, attracting new audiences – young and old, Latin, white or black – to tropical music.
As his long-time friend and salsa legend Johnny Pacheco said, “Ralph was and will be a guide to follow in our music.”
-Huáscar Robles
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