Salsa

Salsa, a fusion of Cuban, Puerto Rican, and American musical styles, was born in the United States. It originated in the nightclubs of New York City in the 1940s and 50s but was not officially labeled salsa until the 1960s. 

Trumpeter Willie Colón describes Salsa as “the force that united diverse Latino and other non-Latino racial and ethnic groups …Salsa is the harmonic sum of all Latin culture.”

According to “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz, Salsa is a catch-all term for a music that combines Cuban rhythms  – the mambo, chachachá, rumba, and son. Son is a 19th-century Cuban musical style that blends Spanish guitar-playing tradition with the complex rhythms and call-and-response vocals of African music. Using son as a framework, Salsa music adds a number of Afro-Cuban musical styles, including rumba, mambo, bolero, and conga.

In salsa, the clave, a small wooden percussion instrument, provides the core groove. The band plays either with the clave (congas, timbales, bongos, piano, guitar) or independent of its rhythm (bass, maracas, güiro, cowbell). Singers and dancers can either be in clave or out of clave. 

The musical term “salsa” likely originated with Ignacio Piñeiro’s 1930 song “Échale Salsita.” The title translates to “put some sauce in it,” a phrase Piñeiro used to encourage his band to increase the tempo and energize the dancers. In the ‘40s, Cuban musician Cheo Marquetti’s band Conjunto Los Salseros were a popular act in Mexico.   

In the 1940s and 1950s, New York’s Palladium Ballroom became a cultural hub for Latin music and dance. Fans crossed racial dividing lines to get in and experience the music. 

In the 1960s, the charismatic Celia Cruz helped popularize the genre in the United States and abroad. She was as famous for her vibrant fashion and catchphrase “Azucar!” as she was for her impressive musical pedigree. 

Salsa music experienced a surge in popularity during the 1970s, and came to represent Latin American pride. However, it never made an impact on the sales charts. However, due to the popularity of salsa dancing, it remains a vital musical form. 

Puerto Rican music promoter and TV host Izzy Sanabria summed up the music this way: 

“Salsa is flavor and spice. It’s Latin soul. It’s primo rhythm. It started in Africa from the conga. The basis of salsa is the clave. In Africa, in Carribe, Santa Domingo, in Puerto Rico, Mexico. It mixed with the Indians. And now the heartbeat, the soul of Salsa, the bass. From Europe, the piano. The sons and daughters came to the United States, here with the influence of jazz. Brass! New York. Los Angeles. American. Salsa!”