Fruko: A Beginner's Guide

The story of Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincón (born 1951, Medellín, Colombia), better known as Fruko, is a story worthy of a biopic. Tracing his 60-year-long career is tracing the history of tropical music in Colombia from the 1960s onwards. He is a prodigious arranger, producer, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist, and founder of the most epic orchestra in Latin America, Fruko y Sus Tesos, the first orchestra dedicated exclusively to salsa in Colombia. Fruko was also at the centre of the golden years of the record label Discos Fuentes and founded many other bands along the way. What makes his achievements more impressive is that he didn’t finish high school or study music, at least not in an academic institution. “I’m auto-didactic, to be a musician is to have a gift. It’s something you carry inside, and I have the gift of carrying music inside,” says Fruko, when I meet him in London between rehearsals for an upcoming show.

At 11 years old Fruko was kicked out of school and two of his uncles, both of whom were sound engineers, found him a job as a utility man at Discos Fuentes, an important record label that launched the careers of emerging musicians and introduced styles like cumbia, fandango, porro, merengue and salsa to the nation. Think of it as the Colombian Motown. For Fruko, working at the label was the equivalent of music school, as Antonio Fuentes, the founder of Discos Fuentes, took him under his wing and taught him everything about music production. Fruko’s own curiosity and ambition led him to grab the instruments and experiment with them. Starting with percussion, he then moved on to more harmonic instruments. “The instrument I like the most is the bass guitar; he is my friend. We’re very fond of each other,” he says holding his metallic grey bass guitar tightly in his arms. “The bass is the most important instrument,” he continues. “With this instrument you can lead the harmonic and the percussive part of the orchestra.”

Back to those first months of Fruko at Discos Fuentes, and one day he suggested a new sound with the timbal for a song by Los Corraleros de Majagual and with this addition they created the group’s signature song, ‘La Burrita’, with Fruko, in 1965, joining the most representative band of Caribbean music in Colombia at the time on the timbales. “I had a lot of fun during my adolescence travelling all over the world with Los Corraleros de Majagual; and with the teachings of Antonio Fuentes I became a good producer with different orchestras and different rhythms,” he says proudly.

In the 60s Fruko spent time in Venezuela and New York City with Los Corraleros de Majagual and became entralled by the new salsa orchestras. “There I saw the artists at the centre of the salsa movement: Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Richie Ray, Bobby Cruz, Tito Puente, and we alternated with them,” he gushes. This was when his nickname ‘Fruko’ arose, as someone pointed out how he looked like the character in an ad for tomato sauce (salsa de tomate). Fruko saw the connection between salsa de tomate and salsa music and embraced the sauce’s brand name: Fruko.

After playing with Los Corraleros for six years, in 1970, at the age of 19, he created Fruko y Sus Tesos, the first group wholly devoted to salsa in Colombia. He based his band on New York’s Fania All-Stars, a brainchild of salsa powerhouse Fania Records. “To imagine a band as famous as Fruko y Sus Tesos, that could compete with musicians who had studied music at university level I had to prepare, practice, record and build a sound that was pioneering this genre in Colombia,” he admits.

His influences came from Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York and the coastal rhythms of Colombia, in particular cumbia, arriving to a salsa with a Colombian twist. The band has released over 40 albums to date and is indelible in the musical memory of Colombians through hit songs like ‘El Preso’, ‘Tania’, ‘El Ausente’, ‘Cachondea’ and ‘El Caminante’. With vocals by the virtuosic Wilson ‘Saoko’ Manyoma, ‘El Preso’ has become a salsa anthem. It’s a prayer, a lament from those behind bars and a great example of how each song often tells a profound, sometimes dark story with a flowing vigorous rhythm. Wilson Saoko was one of many artists that Fruko nurtured and catapulted into fame. Joe Arroyo was perhaps the most famous of a list that also includes Juan Carlos Coronel, Piper ‘Pimienta’ and Joseito Martinez. “I became a producer and I looked for talented musicians in all corners of Colombia,” Fruko says. That’s why he called the band Fruko y Sus Tesos (Fruko and His Toughest) because he always looked for the most talented musicians. “Having perfect pitch allows me to hear someone singing and know ‘this is the voice that I need for this song’ or ‘this is the instrumentalist, let’s say, trumpet player, that I need for this orchestra,’” he adds.

The way Fruko y Sus Tesos were presented was heavily inspired by the US hippie culture of the 60s or, as Fruko calls it, “the Woodstock generation”; they wore leather vests, love beads and afros, all adding to Fruko’s reputation as a rebellious, counter-cultural figure. The relationship with the US was reciprocal, with the group representing Colombia at a Salsa International Concert at NYC’s Madison Square Garden in 1978, and they regularly featured in Record World (US) magazine in the 70s.

Yet, his contributions to tropical music go beyond salsa as, parallel to Fruko y Sus Tesos, Fruko took part in the creation of many more bands at Discos Fuentes. He reformed the cumbia orchestra La Sonora Dinamita after it had been on hiatus for 12 years; wanting to explore other popular tropical genres, he created The Latin Brothers; when Peru’s psychedelic take on cumbia began getting attention in Colombia, he created Afrosound; and when Fela Kuti’s influence arrived on the Colombian coast, he founded Wganda Kenya.

Now, 73, Fruko is still going strong, and is currently working on a new album with his Tesos. When I met him in London he was preparing to perform with Classico Latino and Omar Puente at Kings Place to perform songs from a new album they had all made together, Salsa Classics. With a career spanning 60 years, and having recorded more than 8,000 songs, Fruko has soundtracked the lives of Latin Americans and tropical music lovers all over the world. Now, who’s going to make that biopic?

Fruko & The Bonita House Band will play The Jazz Cafe, London on April 19 as part of La Linea 24: comono.co.uk

This article originally appeared in the April 2024 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today