Salsa is an energetic song and dance style that combines Cuban son, Afro-Puerto Rican beats and sounds from other Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries, with American jazz and other styles.
Salsa was developed mainly by Hispanic American, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Caribbean musicians in New York City (USA). It is a hot Latin dance style that frequently features exciting horn arrangements. The polyrhythmic, beautifully syncopated music, is usually played by a band (sometimes called orquesta) of 8-10 musicians with 1 or 2 lead singers, brass instruments (especially the trombone), piano, bass, conga drums, timbales, bongos, a cowbell and other percussion instruments. The word Salsa means sauce, denoting a “hot” flavor.
One of the musical giants of the 20th century, Tito Puente, was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents. By the late 1940s he had his own orchestra, complete with four trumpets, three trombones, four saxophones and a large rhythm section. Puente became a major innovator in mambo, descarga, Latin jazz, cha-cha-cha, Salsa and many other styles.
One of Salsa's most innovative pianists, Eddie Palmieri grew up in New York's Bronx burrough (district), in a Puerto Rican family. By 1955, Eddie was playing music professionally, and in 1961 he launched a band that would soon become legendary, La Perfecta.
Some of the most famous Salsa groups appeared in the New York City area in the 1970s. Fania Records, founded in 1964, by Johnny Pacheco, became the home of some of the most exciting groups and recordings of the time. A few of the key artists from that period are composer and arranger Willie Colon, vocalists Hector Lavoe, Ismael Miranda and Ruben Blades. A group known as the Fania All Stars was formed, which included some of the best singers, instrumentalists and composers based in the New York vicinity.
Hector Lavoe was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and quickly made a name for himself with his distinctive high-nasal vocal sound and jibaro singing style. Later he met Willie Col?n and launched what would prove to become one of the most formidable partnerships in Latin music history Willie Col?n was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1950. Col?n?s talent has been unmatched. This gifted trombonist, singer, composer, producer, arranger and actor has produced more than forty albums in his career, and has sold an astonishing fifteen million records. He has been nominated for eleven Grammys, has fifteen gold and five platinum records.
One of the world's top soneros, http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=820 Jos? Alberto ?El Canario? was born in the Dominican Republic in 1958, but spent most of his childhood in Puerto Rico. In 1978 in New York he joined T?pica 73 and began recording for the Fania label. Five years later, he formed the Jos? Alberto ?El Canario? Orchestra, which quickly earned a reputation as one of the hottest Salsa bands.
New York was not the only hotspot for Salsa groups. In Puerto Rico there was El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. Andy Monta?ez was its lead vocalist for a while and appeared on many of the group's hits. In Venezuela, Dimensi?n Latina was the leading band. It featured Oscar D'Le?n, a singer that would later become one of the world's top Salsa stars. There were many other popular bands and artists, including La Sonora Ponce?a, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, Roberto Rohena y su Apollo Sound, La Zodiac.
Manny Oquendo?s Libre was founded in 1974 by a pair of New Yorkers of Puerto Rican heritage, Manny Oquendo and Andy Gonz?lez. Both decided to leave http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=913 Eddie Palmieri ?s band in order to create new sound that was libre (or ?free?) of traditional musical boundaries, based on Afro Cuban and Afro Puerto Rican roots but constructed more around jazz arrangements. In Colombia, Salsa took hold in the main Atlantic and Pacific coastal cities, where a distinctive style emerged and had a significant effect on the genre as a whole. Within Colombia, Salsa is danced in clubs, discos and at carnival ? dancing is widespread in a land where the latest Salsa hit is heard everywhere, on your way to work, when you do the shopping, and when you go out with your friends.
Some of the biggest Salsa names today are Colombian, including Joe Arroyo, http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=2666 Fruko y sus Tesos, La Sonora Dinamita and The Latin Brothers. Born in 1955 in Cartagena, Joe Arroyo would become Colombia?s most popular Salsa artist and an international star. A singer, bandleader, composer, arranger and producer, he formed his own band La Verdad in 1981, playing a variety of traditional Latin rhythms and blending musical influences, as heard in ?La Guerra De Los Callados?.
An incredible composer and arranger, after discovering New York Salsa, Fruko formed http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=2666 Fruko y sus Tesos in 1971. Since then he has been at the cutting edge of Colombian music, stamping his unique musical imprint on a range of styles, and is one of the most respected Latin music artists in Salsa from South America.
Colombian arranger/composer Lucho Argain brought together eleven musicians from the Atlantic coast of Colombia to form La Sonora Dinamita, who have played a central role in the music of Colombia over the last forty years.
Internationally regarded as one of the finest Colombian Salsa bands, The Latin Brothers were originally influenced by the (then) new sound of two extra trombones in a music group, pioneered by Venezuelan Salsa legend Oscar D'Le?n and his band Dimensi?n Latina. This sound is now integral to their distinctive music, and they have produced a string of classic albums in the best traditions of Colombian Salsa.
Formed in 1995 by composer and producer Diego Gal? and Mario Rinc?n, La Sonora Carruseles are an incredible machinery of non-stop swing. Their mission has been to re-record classic songs from the Salsa heyday of the 1970s preserving them for future fans. Luis Felipe Gonz?lez first became famous as lead singer of Nelson y Sus Estrellas. His wide-ranging voice successfully performed bolero, tropical music, and, of course, Salsa, with songs like the unforgettable ?Londres? (recorded in 1979).
Los Golden Boys formed in 1961, and the success and popularity they initially gained from covering the twist, and Atlantic coast rhythms such as el elevado, allowed them to record numerous covers including ?El Pirulino? by Calixto Ochoa. ?Pirulino? was chosen as the soundtrack to one of the most successful Colombian soap operas ever, Pedro El Escamoso.
Other Colombian Salsa artists worth listening are Los Nemus Del Pacifico, Los Del Caney, Los Titanes, Grupo Niche and one of the greatest soneros, Gabino Pampini.
A variant known as Salsa Dura is a term that defines Salsa as it developed in New York, with genres and rhythms drawn from Cuba and other islands in the Caribbean melding with the tempo, drive and improvisational techniques picked up by the immigrants in New York City. http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=926 Jimmy Bosch is one of its top exponents.
Salsa now reaches far and wide. There are numerous bands in Europe, Africa and Asia. Two African acts have become very popular in the Salsa world, http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=1074 Africando (Senegal) and http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=983 Ricardo Lemvo (Congo/USA).
A genre called Salsa romántica has been around for a few years. It is by and large a very commercial and bland mix of romantic Latin pop with a little Salsa. The artists record for the Latin divisions of major labels, who promote this lackluster genre as Salsa.
Sources: Part of this history of Salsa contains material kindly provided by The Rough Guide series.
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