By LARRY ROHTER

For more than 40 years, Larry Harlow has been affectionately known in the Latin music world as “El Judio Maravilloso” (“the marvelous Jew”), a pianist, songwriter, producer and arranger with an unerring feeling for clave, Latin music’s five-stroke beat, and an ear for hits. Mr. Harlow helped create the Fania Records sound that came to define salsa and also discovered and shaped the careers of many of the genre’s top stars, like the singer Ismael Miranda.

His own work for the label ranges from snappy dance numbers to an ambitious suite called “La Raza Latina.” “Larry is a gringo with clave, who understands and respects our music, but also knows how to be innovative,” said the Panamanian singer and actor Ruben Blades, who has sung with Mr. Harlow’s band . Born Lawrence Ira Kahn, Mr. Harlow, 71, comes from a family of musicians with roots in Brooklyn.

His mother was an opera singer; a grandfather played piano for silent films and in the Yiddish theater; and his father, a vaudevillian and orchestra leader , for many years led the house band at the Latin Quarter nightclub . “I was brought up backstage there,” said Mr. Harlow .

Mr. Harlow says his fascination with Latin music began as a teenager, when he would “hear this strange music coming out of the bodegas and the mom-andpop record stores and the bars” as he walked to school . He eventually took off for Havana, where he attended music classes by day and hung out in clubs and dance halls at night.

Returning to New York just as Fidel Castro came to power, he eventually formed his own orchestra, which had a distinctively brassy sound that paired trumpets and trombones with his percussive piano.

When Fania Records was founded in 1964, the Dominican bandleader Johnny Pacheco, the label’s co-founder, was searching for new talent, saw Mr. Harlow’s band and immediately signed him to a contract. “ I was flabbergasted,” Mr. Pacheco said. “He really was El Judio Maravilloso.” Mr. Harlow made more than 40 albums at Fania and produced about 200 more for other artists .

He also oversaw the making of “Our Latin Thing,” the 1972 documentary film that took Fania-style salsa to a global audience. His campaign for Latin music’s greater recognition at the Grammy Awards resulted in his receiving a lifetime achievement award from the organization in 2008.

“I grew up with rock ‘n’ roll, but college is when a lot of us Latinos discovered our roots, and Harlow was there for us as we were doing that,” said Agustin Gurza, a Los Angeles music critic and historian. who wrote the liner notes for a reissued recording of “Raza Latina” suite .