HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Salsa music is a style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montuno, with elements of
mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particula ...
, Latin jazz, bomba, plena and guaracha. All of these elements are adapted to fit the basic son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa. Originally the name salsa was used to label commercially several styles of Latin dance music, but nowadays it is considered a musical style on its own and one of the staples of Latin American culture. The first self-identified salsa bands were predominantly assembled by
Cuban Cuban may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban citizen, a pers ...
and Puerto Rican musicians in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the '70s. The music style was based on the late son montuno of
Arsenio Rodríguez Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; 31 August 1911 – 30 December 1970)Giro, Radamés 2007. ''Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba''. La Habana, v. 4 p. 45 et seq. was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleade ...
,
Conjunto Chappottín Conjunto Chappottín, also known as Chappottín y sus Estrellas, is a Cuban son conjunto from Havana. It was founded in 1950 by trumpeter Félix Chappottín, pianist Lilí Martínez, singer Miguelito Cuní and other members of Arsenio Rodrígu ...
and Roberto Faz. These musicians included Celia Cruz, Willie Colón , Rubén Blades, Johnny Pacheco, Machito and Héctor Lavoe. During the same period a parallel modernization of Cuban son was being developed by Los Van Van, Irakere, NG La Banda,
Charanga Habanera La Charanga Habanera is a timba ensemble from Havana directed by David Calzado. The band has been nominated for awards including the Latin Grammy in 2003 for the album ''Live in the U.S.A''. In 2005 Charanga Habanera was nominated for " Orgull ...
and other artists in
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
under the name of
songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...
and timba, styles that at present are also labelled as salsa. Though limited by an embargo, the continuous cultural exchange between salsa-related musicians inside and outside of Cuba is undeniable.Unterberger, p. 50


Origins of the term Salsa

The word ''Salsa'' means
sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...
in the
Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...
. The origin of the connection of this word to a style of music is disputed by various music writers and historians. The musicologist
Max Salazar Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ( ...
believes the origin of the connection lies in 1930 when
Ignacio Piñeiro Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez (May 21, 1888 – March 12, 1969) was a Cuban musician, bandleader and composer whose career started in rumba and flowered in the rise of the son. He was one of the most important composers of son music; in total he w ...
composed the song ''Échale salsita'' (Put some sauce in it). The phrase is seen as a cry from Piñeiro to his band, telling them to increase the tempo to "put the dancers into high gear".Morales 2003, p. 56 In the mid-1940s, Cuban Cheo Marquetti emigrated to Mexico. Back in Cuba, influenced by spicy food salsas, he named his group Conjunto Los Salseros, with whom he recorded a couple of albums for the Panart and Egrem labels. Later on, while based in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
, the musician Beny Moré would shout ''salsa'' during a performance to acknowledge a musical moment's heat, making a connection with the hot salsa (sauce) made in the country. Manuel 1990, "salsa is to Latinos as 'soul' is to blacks; salsa—literally, 'hot sauce'" Puerto Rican music promoter Izzy Sanabria claims he was the first to use the word salsa to denote a
music genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from '' musical form'' and musical style, although in practice these terms are som ...
.
In 1973, I hosted the television show ''Salsa'' which was the first reference to this particular music as ''salsa''. I was using he term''salsa'', but the music wasn't defined by that. The music was still defined as Latin music. And that was a very, very broad category, because it even includes mariachi music. It includes everything. So salsa defined this particular type of music ... It's a name that everyone could pronounce.
Sanabria's ''Latin New York'' magazine was an
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
publication. Consequently, his promoted events were covered in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', as well as ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' and ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' magazines. Sanabria confessed the term salsa was not developed by musicians: "Musicians were busy creating the music but played no role in promoting the name salsa."Izzy Sanabria 2005 For this reason the use of the term salsa has been controversial among musicians. Some have praised its unification element. Celia Cruz said, "Salsa is Cuban music with another name. It's mambo, chachachá, rumba, son ... all the Cuban rhythms under one name."Steward 2000, p. 488. Willie Colón described salsa not as a precise musical style but a power to unite in the broadest terms: "Salsa was the force that united diverse Latino and other non-Latino racial and ethnic groups ...Salsa is the harmonic sum of all Latin culture ". On the other hand, even some New York based artists were originally against the commercialization of music under that name; Machito said: "There's nothing new about salsa, it is just the same old music that was played in Cuba for over fifty years." Similarly, Tito Puente stated: "The only salsa I know is sold in a bottle called ketchup. I play Cuban music." Cuban musicologist Mayra Martínez wrote that "the term salsa obscured the Cuban base, the music's history or part of its history in Cuba. And salsa was a way to do this so that Jerry Masucci, Fania and other record companies, like CBS, could have a hegemony on the music and keep the Cuban musicians from spreading their music abroad." Izzy Sanabria responded that Martínez was likely giving an accurate Cuban viewpoint, "but salsa was not planned that way".Boggs 1992, p. 189 The marketing potential from the name was so big, that eventually both Machito, Puente and even musicians in Cuba embraced the term as a financial necessity.Mauleón 1999, p. 80


Instrumentation

The instrumentation in salsa bands is mostly based on the son montuno ensemble developed by Arsenio Rodriguez, who added a horn section, as well as tumbadoras (congas) to the traditional Son cubano ensemble; which typically contained bongos,
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...
, tres, one trumpet, smaller hand-held percussion instruments (like claves, güiro, or maracas) usually played by the singers, and sometimes a
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. Machito's band was the first to experiment with the timbales. These three drums (bongos, congas and timbales) became the standard percussion instruments in most salsa bands and function in similar ways to a traditional drum ensemble. The timbales play the bell pattern, the congas play the supportive drum part, and the bongos improvise, simulating a lead drum. The improvised variations of the bongos are executed within the context of a repetitive marcha, known as the ''martillo'' ('hammer'), and do not constitute a solo. The bongos play primarily during the verses and the piano solos. When the song transitions into the montuno section, the bongo player picks up a large hand held cowbell called the bongo bell. Often the ''bongocero'' plays the bell more during a piece, than the actual bongos. The interlocking counterpoint of the timbale bell and bongo bell provides a propelling force during the montuno. The maracas and güiro sound a steady flow of regular pulses (subdivisions) and are ordinarily clave-neutral. Nonetheless, some bands instead follow the Charanga format, which consists of a string section (of violins, viola, and
cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...
), tumbadoras (congas), timbales,
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...
,
flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...
, claves and güiro. Bongos are not typically used in charanga bands.
Típica 73 Típica 73 was an American charanga and salsa band in the 1970s and early 1980s, that was formed by musicians from Ray Barretto's band. "Típica" refers to the typical configuration of a Cuban chararanga while "73" refers to the year that group ...
, Orquesta Broadway, Orquesta Revé and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental where popular Salsa bands with charanga instrumentation. Johnny Pacheco, Charlie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaría and Ray Barretto also experimented with this format. Throughout its 50 years of life, Los Van Van have always experimented with both types of ensembles. The first 15 years the band was a pure charanga, but later a trombone section was added. Nowadays the band could be considered a hybrid.


Musical structure

Most salsa compositions follow the basic son montuno model based on a clave rhythm and composed of a verse section, followed by a coro-pregón (call-and-response) chorus section known as the montuno. The verse section can be short, or expanded to feature the lead vocalist and/or carefully crafted melodies with clever rhythmic devices. Once the montuno section begins, it usually continues until the end of the song. The tempo may gradually increase during the montuno in order to build excitement. The montuno section can be divided into various sub-sections sometimes referred to as ''mambo'', ''diablo'', ''moña'', and ''especial''.


History


1930s and 1940s: Origins in Cuba

Many musicologists find many of the components of salsa music in the Son Montuno of several artists of the 30s and 40s like Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín (Arsenio's former band now led by Félix Chappottín and featuring Luis "Lilí" Martínez Griñán) and Roberto Faz. Salsa musician Eddie Palmieri once said "When you talk about our music, you talk about before, or after, Arsenio.....Lilí Martínez was my mentor". Several songs of Arsenio's band, like ''Fuego en el 23'', ''El Divorcio'', ''Hacheros pa' un palo'', ''Bruca maniguá'', ''No me llores'' and ''El reloj de Pastora'' were later covered by many salsa bands (like
Sonora Ponceña Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...
and Johnny Pacheco). On the other hand, a different style,
Mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particula ...
, was developed by Cachao, Beny Moré and
Dámaso Pérez Prado Dámaso is a Spanish masculine given name. The name is equivalent to that of Pope Damasus I in English. The name also exists in Italian as Damaso, though it is uncommon. People * Dámaso Alonso (1898–1990), Spanish poet * Dámaso Berenguer, 1st ...
. Moré and Pérez Prado moved to Mexico City where the music was played by Mexican
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
wind orchestras.


1950s-1960s: Cuban music in New York City

During the 1950s, New York became a hotspot of Mambo with musicians like the aforementioned Pérez Prado, Luciano "Chano" Pozo, Mongo Santamaría, Machito and Tito Puente. The highly popular
Palladium Ballroom The Palladium Ballroom was a New York City night club. The US mambo craze that started in 1948 began at the Palladium Ballroom. On March 15, 1946, it opened at the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd Street.''New York Post'', March 14, 1946; ...
was the epicenter of mambo in New York. Ethnomusicologist Ed Morales notes that the interaction of Afro-Cuban and
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
music in New York was crucial to the innovation of both forms of music. Musicians who would become great innovators of mambo, like Mario Bauzá and Chano Pozo, began their careers in New York working in close conjunction with some of the biggest names in
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, like Cab Calloway,
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others. Morales noted that: "The interconnection between North American jazz and Afro-Cuban music was taken for granted, and the stage was set for the emergence of mambo music in New York, where music fans were becoming accustomed to innovation." He later notes that Mambo helped pave the way for the widespread acceptance of salsa years later. Another popular style was chachacha, which originated in the Charanga bands in Cuba. By the early 1960s, there were several charanga bands in New York led by musicians (like Johnny Pacheco, Charlie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaría and Ray Barretto) who would later become salsa stars. In 1952, Arsenio Rodríguez moved for a short period to New York City taking with him his modern son montuno. During that period his success was limited (NYC was more interested in Mambo), but his guajeos (who influenced the musicians he shared the stage with, such as Chano Pozo, Machito, and Mario Bauzá), together with the piano
tumbaos In music of Afro-Cuban origin, tumbao is the basic rhythm played on the bass. In North America, the basic conga drum pattern used in popular music is also called ''tumbao''. In the contemporary form of Cuban popular dance music known as timba, piano ...
of Lilí Martínez, the trumpet of Félix Chappottín and the rhythmic lead vocals of Roberto Faz would become very relevant in the region a decade later.Waxer 2002, pp. 91–94 In 1966, the Palladium closed because it lost its liquor license.Steward, Sue 1999. ''Salsa: the musical heartbeat of Latin America''. Thames & Hudson, London. p. 60 The mambo faded away, as new hybrid styles such as boogaloo, the jala-jala and the shing-a-ling had brief but important success. Elements of boogaloo can be heard in some songs of Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Machito and even Arsenio Rodríguez. Nonetheless, Puente later recounted: "It stunk ... I recorded it to keep up with the times. Popular
Boogaloo Boogaloo or bugalú (also: shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo, Latin R&B) is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly among teenage African Americans and Latinos ...
songs include "Bang Bang" by the
Joe Cuba Joe Cuba (April 22, 1931 – February 15, 2009), was an American conga drummer of Puerto Rican descent widely regarded as the "Father of Latin Boogaloo". Early years Joe Cuba (birth name: Gilberto Miguel Calderón) was born in Harlem, New York ...
Sextet and "I Like It Like That" by Pete Rodríguez and His Orchestra. During the late 1960s, the Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco and Italian-American businessman Jerry Masucci founded the recording company Fania Records. They introduced many of the artists that would later be identified with the salsa movement, including Willie Colón, Celia Cruz, Larry Harlow, Ray Barretto, Héctor Lavoe and Ismael Miranda. Fania's first record album was "Cañonazo", recorded and released in 1964. It was panned by music critics as 10 of the 11 songs were covers of previously recorded tunes by such Cuban artists as Sonora Matancera, Chappottín y Sus Estrellas and Conjunto Estrellas de Chocolate. Pacheco put together a team that included percussionist
Louie Ramírez Louie Ramirez (February 24, 1938 – June 7, 1993) was an American boogaloo, salsa and latin jazz percussionist, vibraphonist, band leader and composer. He co-wrote with Johnny Pacheco the 1961 hit "El Güiro De Macorina". He has been called "the ...
, bassist
Bobby Valentín Roberto "Bobby" Valentín (born June 9, 1941), is a musician and salsa bandleader. He is known as "El Rey del Bajo" (King of the Bass). Early years Valentín was born in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. He was taught by his father to play the guitar at ...
and arranger Larry Harlow to form the Fania All-Stars in 1968. Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican band
La Sonora Ponceña La Sonora Ponceña is a Puerto Rican salsa band, founded in 1954 by Enrique "Quique" Lucca Caraballo. Today Quique's son, Papo Lucca, directs the band. The band has stayed active for a remarkable amount of time, recording dozens of albums, inclu ...
recorded two albums named after songs of Arsenio Rodriguez (''Hachero pa' un palo'' and ''Fuego en el 23'').


1970s: Songo in Cuba, salsa in NYC

The 1970s was witness to two parallel modernizations of the Cuban son in
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
and in New York. During this period the term salsa was introduced in New York, and
songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...
was developed in Havana. The band Los Van Van, led by the bassist
Juan Formell Juan Climaco Formell Cortina (August 2, 1942 – May 1, 2014) was a Cuban bassist, composer, and arranger, best known as the director of Los Van Van. He was a creator of popular danceable music and credited with bringing electronic instrumentatio ...
, started developing
songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...
in the late 1960s.
Songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...
incorporated rhythmic elements from folkloric rumba as well as
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...
and rock to the traditional
son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some curren ...
. With the arrival of the drummer
Changuito Changuito (born José Luis Quintana on January 18, 1948) is a Cuban percussionist. Biography Quintana was born in 1948 in Casablanca, Cuba.son montuno/
mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particula ...
-based structure.
Songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...
integrated several elements of North American styles like jazz, rock and funk in many different ways than mainstream salsa. Whereas salsa would superimpose elements of another genre in the
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...
of a song, the
songo Songo may refer to: * Songo music, a type of contemporary Cuban music originating in Havana * Songo people, of northern Angola * Songo-salsa, a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo * Songo.mn, an ...
was considered a rhythmic and harmonic hybrid (particularly regarding funk and clave-based Cuban elements). The music analyst Kevin Moore stated: "The harmonies, never before heard in Cuban music, were clearly borrowed from North American pop ndshattered the formulaic limitations on harmony to which Cuban popular music had faithfully adhered for so long." During the same period, Cuban super group Irakere fused bebop and
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...
with
batá drum The Batá drum is a double-headed drum shaped like an hourglass with one end larger than the other. The percussion instrument is still used for its original purpose as it is one of the most important drums in the yourba land and used for tradi ...
s and other Afro-Cuban folkloric elements; Orquesta Ritmo Oriental created a new highly syncopated, rumba-influenced
son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some curren ...
in the charanga ensemble; and
Elio Revé Timba is a Cuban genre of music based on Cuban ''son'' with ''salsa'', American Funk/R&B and the strong influence of Afro-Cuban folkloric music. Timba rhythm sections differ from their salsa counterparts, because timba emphasizes the bass dru ...
developed changüí. On the other hand, New York saw in the 1970s the first use of the term salsa to commercialize several styles of Latin dance music. However, several musicians believe that salsa took on a life of its own, organically evolving into an authentic pan-Latin American cultural identity. Music professor and salsa trombonist Christopher Washburne wrote:
This pan-Latino association of salsa stems from what Félix Padilla labels a 'Latinizing' process that occurred in the 1960s and was consciously marketed by Fania Records: 'To Fania, the Latinizing of salsa came to mean homogenizing the product, presenting an all-embracing Puerto Rican, Pan-American or Latino sound with which the people from all of Latin America and Spanish-speaking communities in the United States could identify and purchase.' Motivated primarily by economic factors, Fania's push for countries throughout Latin America to embrace salsa did result in an expanded market. But in addition, throughout the 1970s, salsa groups from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, among other Latin American nations, emerged, composing and performing music that related to their own specific cultural experiences and affiliations, which posited salsa as a cultural identity marker for those nations as well.
In 1971, the Fania All-Stars sold out Yankee Stadium.Steward 2000, pp. 488–489 By the early 1970s, the music's center moved to Manhattan and the Cheetah, where promoter Ralph Mercado introduced many future Puerto Rican salsa stars to an ever-growing and diverse crowd of Latino audiences. The 1970s also brought new semi-known Salsa bands from New York City, bands such as Ángel Canales, Andy Harlow,
Chino Rodríguez Chino Rodriguez (b February 2, 1954 - d November 5, 2022) is an American musician and impresario specializing in Latin music, salsa and Latin jazz. Biography Chino was born James Mui in New York City on February 2, 1954, in the Little Italy/Ch ...
y su Consagracion (Chino Rodríguez was one of the first Chinese Puerto Rican artists that caught the eye of Fania Record's owner Jerry Masucci and later became the booking agent for many of the Fania artists.), Wayne Gorbea, Ernie Agusto y la Conspiración, Orchestra Ray Jay, Orchestra Fuego, and Orchestra Cimarron, among other bands that were performing in the Salsa market on the East Coast. Celia Cruz, who had had a successful career in Cuba with Sonora Matancera, was able to transition into the salsa movement, eventually becoming known as ''the Queen of Salsa''. Larry Harlow stretched out from the typical salsa record formula with his opera ''Hommy'' (1973), inspired by
The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
's Tommy album, and also released his critically acclaimed ''La Raza Latina, a Salsa Suite''. In 1975, Roger Dawson created the "Sunday Salsa Show" over WRVR FM, which became one of the highest-rated radio shows in the New York market with a reported audience of over a quarter of a million listeners every Sunday (per Arbitron Radio Ratings). Ironically, although New York's Hispanic population at that time was over two million, there had been no commercial Hispanic FM. Given his jazz and salsa conga playing experience and knowledge (working as a sideman with such bands as salsa's Frankie Dante's Orquesta Flamboyán and jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp), Dawson also created the long-running "Salsa Meets Jazz" weekly concert series at the Village Gate jazz club where jazz musicians would sit in with an established salsa band, for example Dexter Gordon jamming with the Machito band. Dawson helped to broaden New York's salsa audience and introduced new artists such as the bilingual Ángel Canales who were not given play on the Hispanic AM stations of that time. His show won several awards from the readers of Latin New York magazine, Izzy Sanabria's ''Salsa Magazine'' at that time and ran until late 1980 when Viacom changed the format of WRVR to
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
. Despite an openness to experimentation and a willingness to absorb non-Cuban influences, such as
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, rock, bomba and plena, and already existing mambo-jazz, the percentage of salsa compositions based in non-Cuban genres during this period in New York is quite low, and, contrary to songo, salsa remained consistently wedded to older Cuban templates. Some believe the pan-Latin Americanism of salsa was found in its cultural milieu, more than its musical structure. An exception of this is probably found in the work of Eddie Palmieri and Manny Oquendo, who were considered more adventurous than the highly produced Fania records artists. The two bands incorporated less superficially jazz elements as well as the contemporary Mozambique (music). They were known for its virtuous trombone soloists like Barry Rogers (and other "Anglo" jazz musicians who had mastered the style). Andy González, a bass player who performed with Palmieri and Oquendo recounts: "We were into improvising ... doing that thing
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
was doing — playing themes and just improvising on the themes of songs, and we never stopped playing through the whole set." Andy and his brother Jerry González started showing up in the DownBeat Reader's Poll, and caught the attention of jazz critics.


1980s: Salsa expansion in Latin America and the birth of timba

During the 1980s, several Latin American countries, such as Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and Panama, began producing their own salsa music. Two of the biggest stars from this period are
Oscar D'León Oscar Emilio León Somoza (born July 11, 1943), known as Oscar D'León, and affectionately called ''The Pharaoh of Salsa'', ''The Lion of Salsa'', and the ''World's Sonero'', is a Venezuelan musician best known for his work with salsa music. He ...
from Venezuela and
Joe Arroyo Álvaro José Arroyo González (also known as Joe Arroyo or El Joe; 1 November 1955 – 26 July 2011) was a Colombian salsa and tropical music singer, composer and songwriter. He was considered one of the greatest performers of Caribbean music i ...
from Colombia. Other popular acts are Fruko y sus Tesos,
Grupo Niche Grupo Niche is a salsa group founded in 1978 in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1982, the group settled in the city of Cali, Colombia, enjoying great popularity throughout Latin America. It was founded by Jairo Varela and Alexis Lozano. Varela remained ...
and Rubén Blades (now as a soloist). During this period Cuba received international salsa musicians for the first time.
Venezuelan salsa star Oscar D'León's 1983 tour of Cuba is mentioned prominently by every Cuban I've ever interviewed on the subject. Rubén Blades' album ''Siembra'' was heard everywhere on the island throughout the mid-80s and has been quoted extensively in the guías and coros of everyone from Van Van's Mayito Rivera (who quotes lades''Plástico' in his guías on the 1997 classic ''Llévala a tu vacilón''), to El Médico de la Salsa (quoting another major hook from 'Plástico'—'se ven en la cara, se ven en la cara, nunca en el corazón'—in his final masterpiece before leaving Cuba, ''Diós sabe'').
Prior to D'León's performance, many Cuban musicians rejected the salsa movement, considering it a bad imitation of Cuban music. Some people say that D'León's performance gave momentum to a "salsa craze" that brought back some of the older templates and motivated the development of timba. Before the birth of timba, Cuban dance music lived a period of high experimentation among several bands like the charangas: Los Van Van, Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, and Orquesta Revé; the conjuntos: Adalberto Alvarez y Son 14, Conjunto Rumbavana and Orquesta Maravillas de Florida; and the jazz band Irakere. Timba was created by musicians of Irakere who later formed NG La Banda under the direction of Jose Luis "El Tosco" Cortez. Many timba songs are more related to main-stream salsa than its Cuban predecessors earlier in the decade. For example, the song "La expresiva" (of NG La Banda) uses typical salsa timba/bongo bell combinations. The tumbadoras (congas) play elaborate variations on the son montuno-based tumbao, rather than in the songo style. For this reason some Cuban musicians of this period like
Manolito y su Trabuco Manolito y su Trabuco is a salsa and timba group out of Camaguey and Havana, Cuba. It is named for founding member, pianist Manolito Simonet. ''Trabuco'' literally means a firearm from the times of the Independence War of 1895 and figuratively r ...
, Orquesta Sublime, and Irakere referred to this late-80s sound as ''salsa cubana'', a term which for the first time, included Cuban music as a part of salsa movement. In the mid-1990s California-based Bembé Records released CDs by several Cuban bands, as part of their ''salsa cubana series''. Nonetheless, this style included several innovations. The bass tumbaos were busier and more complex than tumbaos typically heard in NY salsa. Some guajeos were inspired by the "harmonic displacement" technique of the Cuban jazz pianist
Gonzalo Rubalcaba Gonzalo Rubalcaba (born May 27, 1963) is an Afro-Cuban jazz pianist and composer. Early life Rubalcaba was born Gonzalo Julio González Fonseca in Havana, Cuba into a musical family. He adopted his great grandmother's name for professional use, ...
. Curiously, it was in Cuba where hip hop and salsa first began to meet. For example, many breakdown sections in NG La Banda's album ''En la calle'' are a combination of
guaguancó Guaguancó () is a subgenre of Cuban rumba, combining percussion, voices, and dance. There are two main styles: Havana and Matanzas. Percussion * battery of three conga drummers: the ''tumba'' (lowest), ''tres dos'' (middle, playing a counter-c ...
and hip hop rhythms. During this period, Cuban musicians had more of an impact on jazz than salsa in the United States. Even though the Mariel boatlift took hundreds of Cuban musicians to the US, many of them were astonished to hear what sounded to them like Cuban music from the 1950s. Cuban conguero Daniel Ponce summarized this sentiment: "When the Cubans arrived in New York, they all said 'Yuk! This is old music.' The music and the feelings and arrangements aven'tchanged." Nonetheless, there was an awareness of the modern Cuban styles in the US. Tito Puente recorded the Irakere composition "Bacalao con pan" (1980), and Rubén Blades covered Los Van Van's "Muevete" (1985). While the Puerto Rican bands Batacumbele (featuring a young Giovanni Hidalgo) and Zaperoko fully embraced songo music under the mentorship of
Changuito Changuito (born José Luis Quintana on January 18, 1948) is a Cuban percussionist. Biography Quintana was born in 1948 in Casablanca, Cuba.salsa romántica Salsa Romántica is a soft form of salsa music that emerged between the mid-1980s and early 1990s in New York City, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic . It has been the most commercially successful form of salsa in the last 20 years, despite crit ...
and salsa erótica evolved, with lyrics dwelling on love and romance. Salsa romántica can be traced back to ''Noches Calientes'', a 1984 album by singer
José Alberto "El Canario" José Alberto Justiniano (born December 22, 1959, in Villa Consuelo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), better known by his stage name José Alberto "El Canario", is a salsa singer from the Dominican Republic. José Alberto moved to Puerto R ...
with producer Louie Ramírez. Some viewed salsa romántica as a rhythmically watered-down version of the genre. Critics of ''salsa romántica'', especially in the late '80s and early '90s, called it a commercialized, diluted form of Latin pop, in which formulaic, sentimental love ballads were simply put to Afro-Cuban rhythms — leaving no room for classic salsa's brilliant musical improvisation, or for classic salsa lyrics that tell stories of daily life or provide social and political commentary. Some artists of these styles include Ómar Alfann, Palmer Hernández and Jorge Luis Piloto.


1990s: Pop salsa and timba explosion

The 1990s was marked by "pop salsa" in the US, and the "timba explosion" in Cuba. Sergio George produced several albums that mixed salsa with contemporary pop styles with Puerto Rican artists like Tito Nieves,
La India Linda Viera Caballero (born March 9, 1969), better known as La India, is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter of salsa, house music and Latin pop. La India has been nominated for both Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, winning the Latin Grammy Awa ...
, and Marc Anthony. George also produced the Japanese salsa band
Orquesta de la Luz is a Japanese salsa band that was formed in 1984, and began performing and recording in 1989. The band sings in Spanish and is led by vocalist Nora Shoji, who returned to traditional salsa after the band broke up in the mid-1990s. It became w ...
.
Brenda K. Starr Brenda Joy Kaplan (born October 14, 1966), known by her stage name Brenda K. Starr, is an American singer and songwriter. She is well known originally in R&B, dance and pop but now mostly in salsa-based music. She is also well known for her 19 ...
, Son By Four, Víctor Manuelle, and the Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan enjoyed crossover success within the Anglo-American pop market with their Latin-influenced hits, usually sung in English. More often than not, clave was not a major consideration in the composing or arranging of these hits. Sergio George is up front and unapologetic about his attitude towards clave: "Though clave is considered, it is not always the most important thing in my music. The foremost issue in my mind is marketability. If the song hits, that's what matters. When I stopped trying to impress musicians and started getting in touch with what the people on the street were listening to, I started writing hits. Some songs, especially English ones originating in the United States, are at times impossible to place in clave." As Washburne points out however, a lack of clave awareness does not always get a pass:
Marc Anthony is a product of George's innovationist approach. As a novice to Latin music, he was propelled into band leader position with little knowledge of how the music was structured. One revealing moment came during a performance in 1994, just after he had launched his salsa career. During a piano solo he approached the timbales, picked up a stick, and attempted to play clave on the clave block along with the band. It became apparent that he had no idea where to place the rhythm. Shortly thereafter during a radio interview in San Juan (Puerto Rico), he exclaimed that his commercial success proved that you did not need to know about clave to make it in Latin music. This comment caused an uproar both in Puerto Rico and New York. After receiving the bad press, Anthony refrained from discussing the subject in public, and he did not attempt to play clave on stage until he had received some private lessons.
In Cuba, what came to be known as the "timba explosion" began with the debut album of
La Charanga Habanera La Charanga Habanera is a timba ensemble from Havana directed by David Calzado. The band has been nominated for awards including the Latin Grammy in 2003 for the album ''Live in the U.S.A''. In 2005 Charanga Habanera was nominated for " Orgullos ...
, ''Me Sube La Fiebre'', in 1992. Like NG La Banda, Charanga Habanera used several new techniques like gear changes and song-specific tumbaos, but their musical style was drastically different and it kept changing and evolving with each album. Charanga Habanera underwent three distinct style periods in the 90s, represented by the three albums Manolín "El Médico de la salsa", an amateur songwriter discovered and named by El Tosco ( NG La Banda) at med school, was another superstar of the period. Manolín's creative team included several arrangers, including Luis Bu and Chaka Nápoles. As influential as Manolín was from a strictly musical point of view, his charisma, popularity and unprecedented earning power had an even more seismic impact, causing a level of excitement among musicians that had not been seen since the 1950s. Reggie Jackson referred to Manolin as "the straw that stirs the drink."—Moore (2010: v. 5: 18) The term ''salsa cubana'' which had barely taken hold, again fell out of favor, and was replaced with '' timba''. Some of the other important timba bands include Azúcar Negra, Manolín "El Médico de la salsa", Havana d'Primera, Klimax,
Paulito FG Paulito FG (aka Paulo FG, Pablo FG) (born Pablo Alfonso Fernández Gallo in Cuba) is one of the original innovators of timba and is a popular salsa and timba performer. Career Paulito began his professional career singing with Adalberto Álvare ...
, Salsa Mayor, Tiempo Libre, Pachito Alonso y sus Kini Kini, Bamboleo, Los Dan Den, Alain Pérez,
Issac Delgado Issac Delgado (born Isaac Felipe Delgado-Ramirez on April 11, 1962 in Marianao, Habana, Cuba) is one of the founders of the band NG La Banda and is a popular salsa and timba performer. Early life and family His father, Luis Delgado, was a ta ...
, Tirso Duarte, Klimax,
Manolito y su Trabuco Manolito y su Trabuco is a salsa and timba group out of Camaguey and Havana, Cuba. It is named for founding member, pianist Manolito Simonet. ''Trabuco'' literally means a firearm from the times of the Independence War of 1895 and figuratively r ...
, Paulo FG, and Pupy y Los que Son Son. Cuban timba musicians and New York salsa musicians have had positive and creative exchanges over the years, but the two genres remained somewhat separated, appealing to different audiences. Nonetheless, in 2000 Los Van Van were awarded the first ever Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album. In Colombia, salsa remained a popular style of music producing popular bands like Sonora Carruseles, Carlos Vives, Orquesta Guayacan,
Grupo Niche Grupo Niche is a salsa group founded in 1978 in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1982, the group settled in the city of Cali, Colombia, enjoying great popularity throughout Latin America. It was founded by Jairo Varela and Alexis Lozano. Varela remained ...
, Kike Santander, and Julian Collazos. The city of Cali became known as Colombia's "capital of salsa". In
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, Cabijazz was playing a unique modern blend of timba-like salsa with a strong jazz influence.


2010s: Timba-fusion hits

During the late 00s and the 10s, some timba bands created new hybrids of salsa, timba, hip hop and reggaeton (for example
Charanga Habanera La Charanga Habanera is a timba ensemble from Havana directed by David Calzado. The band has been nominated for awards including the Latin Grammy in 2003 for the album ''Live in the U.S.A''. In 2005 Charanga Habanera was nominated for " Orgull ...
- ''Gozando en la Habana'' and
Pupy y Los que Son, Son Pupy y Los que Son, Son was the band of the Cuban musician Cesar "Pupy" Pedroso, founded in 2001. "Pupy" Pedroso died in July 2022.Gente de Zona and Marc Anthony produced the timba-reggaeton international mega-hit ''La Gozadera'' reaching over a billion views in
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. The style known as Cubaton, that was also popular during this period, was mostly based on reggaeton with only some hints of salsa/timba.


African salsa

Cuban music has been popular in sub-Saharan Africa since the mid twentieth century. To the Africans, clave-based Cuban popular music sounded both familiar and exotic. ''The Encyclopedia of Africa v. 1''. states:
Beginning in the 1940s, Afro-Cuban ongroups such as Septeto Habanero and Trio Matamoros gained widespread popularity in the Congo region as a result of airplay over Radio Congo Belge, a powerful radio station based in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa DRC). A proliferation of music clubs, recording studios, and concert appearances of Cuban bands in Léopoldville spurred on the Cuban music trend during the late 1940s and 1950s.
Congolese bands started doing Cuban covers and singing the lyrics phonetically. Soon, they were creating their own original Cuban-like compositions, with lyrics sung in French or Lingala, a lingua franca of the western Congo region. The Congolese called this new music ''rumba'', although it was really based on the son. The Africans adapted guajeos to electric guitars, and gave them their own regional flavor. The guitar-based music gradually spread out from the Congo, increasingly taking on local sensibilities. This process eventually resulted in the establishment of several different distinct regional genres, such as
soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar impro ...
. Cuban popular music played a major role in the development of many contemporary genres of African popular music. John Storm Roberts states: "It was the Cuban connection, but increasingly also New York salsa, that provided the major and enduring influences—the ones that went deeper than earlier imitation or passing fashion. The Cuban connection began very early and was to last at least twenty years, being gradually absorbed and re-Africanized." The re-working of Afro-Cuban rhythmic patterns by Africans brings the rhythms full circle. The re-working of the harmonic patterns reveals a striking difference in perception. The I IV V IV harmonic progression, so common in Cuban music, is heard in pop music all across the African continent, thanks to the influence of Cuban music. Those chords move in accordance with the basic tenets of Western music theory. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, performers of African popular music do not necessarily perceive these progressions in the same way: "The harmonic cycle of C-F-G-F -IV-V-IVprominent in Congo/Zaire popular music simply cannot be defined as a progression from tonic to subdominant to dominant and back to subdominant (on which it ends) because in the performer's appreciation they are of equal status, and not in any hierarchical order as in Western music." The largest wave of Cuban-based music to hit Africa was in the form of salsa. In 1974 the Fania All Stars performed in
Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...
(known today as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
), Africa, at the 80,000-seat Stadu du Hai in Kinshasa. This was captured on film and released as ''Live In Africa'' (''Salsa Madness'' in the UK). The Zairean appearance occurred at a music festival held in conjunction with the Muhammad Ali/ George Foreman heavyweight title fight. Local genres were already well established by this time. Even so, salsa caught on in many African countries, especially in the Senegambia and Mali. Cuban music had been the favorite of Senegal's nightspot in the 1950s to 1960s. The Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab plays in a basic salsa style with congas and timbales, but with the addition of Wolof and Mandinka instruments and lyrics. According to Lise Waxer, "African salsa points not so much to a return of salsa to African soil (Steward 1999: 157) but to a complex process of cultural appropriation between two regions of the so-called Third World." Since the mid-1990s African artists have also been very active through the super-group Africando, where African and New York musicians mix with leading African singers such as Bambino Diabate, Ricardo Lemvo,
Ismael Lo Ismael may refer to: People * Ismael Balkhi, a political activist from Afghanistan * Ismael Blanco (born 1983), an Argentine professional footballer * Ismael Prego "Wismichu", a Spanish youtuber * Ismael Villegas, a Puerto Rican Major League Bas ...
and Salif Keita. It is still common today for an African artist to record a salsa tune, and add their own particular regional touch to it.


Lyrics

Salsa lyrics range from simple dance numbers, and sentimental romantic songs, to risque and politically radical subject matter. Music author
Isabelle Leymarie Isabelle Leymarie is a French musicologist, writer, pianist, filmmaker, translator and photographer. Early life As a young child, Isabelle Leymarie developed a passion for African-American music (and also Broadway tunes and the French, Spanish ...
notes that salsa performers often incorporate machoistic
bravado Bravado may refer to: * ''The Bravados'', a 1958 western film * ''Bravado'' (EP), 2008 debut extended play by Australian electronic band Miami Horror * ''Bravado'' (Kirin J. Callinan album), 2017 * "Bravado" (song), 2013 song by Lorde * "Bravad ...
(''guapería'') in their lyrics, in a manner reminiscent of calypso and samba, a theme she ascribes to the performers' "humble backgrounds" and subsequent need to compensate for their origins. Leymarie claims that salsa is "essentially virile, an affirmation of the man's pride and identity". As an extension of salsa's macho stance, manly taunts and challenges (''desafio'') are also a traditional part of salsa.Leymarie, pp. 268-269 Salsa lyrics often quote from traditional Cuban sones and rumbas. Sometimes there are references to Afro-Cuban religions, such as '' Santeria'', even by artists who are not themselves practitioners of the faith. Salsa lyrics also exhibit Puerto Rican influences. Hector LaVoe, who sang with Willie Colón for nearly a decade used typical Puerto Rican phrasing in his singing. It's not uncommon now to hear the Puerto Rican declamatory exclamation "le-lo-lai" in salsa. Politically and socially activist composers have long been an important part of salsa, and some of their works, like Eddie Palmieri's "La libertad - lógico", became Latin, and especially Puerto Rican anthems. The Panamanian-born singer
Ruben Blades Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugue ...
in particular is well known for his socially-conscious and incisive salsa lyrics about everything from
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic powe ...
to
disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such a ...
and
environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...
, which have resonated with audiences throughout Latin America.Manuel, ''Caribbean Currents'', pg. 80 Many salsa songs contain a nationalist theme, centered around a sense of pride in black Latino identity, and may be in Spanish, English or a mixture of the two called ''
Spanglish Spanglish (a portmanteau of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is m ...
.''


Films

* 1979 - ''Salsa: Latin Music in the Cities''. Directed by Jeremy Marre. * 1988 - ''
Salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...
''. Former Menudo member Robi Draco Rosa plays a teenager who wants to win a dance contest. Celia Cruz, Wilkins and Tito Puente also appear. * 2007 - '' El Cantante''. El Cantante is a biographical film which stars singers Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. The film is based on the life of the late salsa singer Héctor Lavoe, who is portrayed by Anthony. * 2014 - ''Sex, Love & Salsa''. Directed by Adrian Manzano. Choreographer: Julie L Tuttlebee. Legendary Salsa dancer Julie Tuttlebee also features in several scenes.


See also

* Latin Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album *
Salsa (dance) Salsa is a latin dance, associated with the music genre of the same name, which was first popularized in the United States in the 1960s in New York City. Salsa is an amalgamation of Cuban dances, such as mambo, pachanga and rumba, as well as A ...
* Son Cubano * Timba * Twoubadou * Bomba * Plena * Music of the United States


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * Agawu, Kofi 2006. "Structural Analysis or Cultural Analysis? Comparing Perspectives on the 'Standard Pattern' of West African Rhythm" ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'' v. 59, n. 1. * Amira, John and Cornelius 1992. ''The Music of Santeria; Traditional Rhythms of the Batá Drums.'' Tempe, AZ: White Cliffs. * * * Centro de Investigación de la Música Cubana 1997. ''Instrumentos de la música folclórico-popular de Cuba'' v. 1, v. 2. Havana: CIDMUC * * Collins, John 1992. ''West African Pop Roots''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. * Grenet, Emilio 1939. tr. R. Phillips. ''Popular Cuban Music''. New York: Bourne. * Hartigan, Royal 1995. ''West African Rhythms for Drumset'', ed. Dan Thress. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing. * * Jones, A.M. 1959. ''Studies in African Music''. London: Oxford University Press. 1978 edition: * * Kubik, Gerhard 1999. ''Africa and the Blues''. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Moore, Kevin 2010. ''Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Revolution. v. 1 The Roots of the Piano Tumbao''. Santa Cruz, CA: Moore Music/Timba.com. . * Moore, Kevin 2010. ''Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Revolution. v. 3 Cuban Piano Tumbaos (1960-1979)''. Santa Cruz, CA: Moore Music/Timba.com. * Moore, Kevin 2011 p. 73. ''Beyond Salsa Piano v. 11. César "Pupy" Pedroso: The Music of Los Van Van,'' Part 2. Santa Cruz, CA: Moore Music/Timba.com. * Moore, Kevin 2011. ''Understanding Clave and Clave Changes''. Santa Cruz, CA: Moore Music/Timba.com. * Pérez, Alian 2001. Interview. ''Timba.com''. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193521/http://www.timba.com/musician_pages/3 * Peñalosa, David 2010. ''The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins''. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. * Roberts, John Storm. ''Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth and Growth of Congo Music''. Original Music cassette tape (1986). * * * * Sanabria, Bobby 1986. "The Songo," ''Modern Drummer Magazine''. April p. 76. * Sanabria, Bobby 2008. Posting to the ''Latinjazz'' discussion. http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/latinjazz/ * * Santos, John 1986. "The Clave: Cornerstone of Cuban Music" ''Modern Drummer Magazine'' p. 32 Sept. * Stapleton, Chris, and Chris May 1990. ''African Rock: The Pop Music of a Continent''. New York: Dutton. * * * * * Waxer, Lise 2002. ''Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular Music''. Routledge.


Further reading

* * * Brill, Mark. Music of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2nd Edition, 2018. Taylor & Francis * * * * * * * Rondón, César Miguel
''The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean to New York City''
translated by Frances R. Aparicio with Jackie White, University of North Carolina Press, 2008. * * * * *


External links


Latin Music USA
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) TV documentary, October 2009. {{Authority control Cuban styles of music 1970s in Latin music 1980s in Latin music 1990s in Latin music 2000s in Latin music 2010s in Latin music Music of New York City Articles containing video clips