Salsa is a type of music and dance that combines influences from Caribbean traditions and music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, and other countries. This music blends African cultural traditions with European and indigenous musical elements, along with contributions from the United States. Because the basic musical parts of salsa existed before the term "salsa" was used, there have been disagreements about where it began. Most salsa songs are based on styles called son montuno and son cubano, and they include elements from other genres like cha-cha-chá, bolero, rumba, mambo, jazz, R&B, bomba, plena, merengue (Pambiche), and pachanga, as well as other Latin American music styles. These different styles and their instruments are adapted and combined to create smooth transitions when performed as salsa.

The word "salsa" was first used to describe several types of music from the Hispanic Caribbean. Today, it is considered its own unique musical style and is an important part of Hispanic American culture.

The first group to identify itself as a salsa band was Cheo Marquetti y su Conjunto – Los Salseros, which was formed in Cuba in 1955. The first album to use the word "salsa" on its cover was titled Salsa, released by La Sonora Habanera in 1957. Later, salsa bands were mostly created by Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican musicians in New York City during the 1970s. This music style was inspired by the son montuno of musicians like Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín, and Roberto Faz. These musicians included famous artists such as Celia Cruz, Willie Colón, Rubén Blades, Johnny Pacheco, Machito, and Héctor Lavoe. At the same time, Cuban musicians like Los Van Van, Irakere, and NG La Banda developed a modern version of Cuban son called songo, which later became timba in the late 1980s. These styles are now also considered part of salsa. Even though there was a trade embargo limiting communication, the ongoing cultural exchange between salsa musicians inside and outside of Cuba remains clear.

Origins of the term Salsa

The word "salsa" means "sauce" in the Spanish language. Experts and music historians disagree about how the word "salsa" became linked to a type of music.

A music expert named Max Salazar said the connection began in 1930 when a musician named Ignacio Piñeiro wrote a song called Échale salsita (Put some sauce in it). The phrase was used by Piñeiro to tell his band to speed up the music and make the dancers move faster. In the 1940s, a Cuban musician named Cheo Marquetti moved to Mexico. He named his group Conjunto Los Salseros and recorded music for two record companies. Later, a musician named Beny Moré, who was based in Mexico City, used the word "salsa" during a performance to describe the energy of a musical moment, linking it to the hot sauce made in the country.

A Puerto Rican music promoter named Izzy Sanabria said he was the first to use the word "salsa" to describe a music style. His magazine, Latin New York, was written in English. Because of this, events he promoted were reported in major publications like The New York Times, Time, and Newsweek. Sanabria said musicians did not create the term "salsa" themselves. He explained, "Musicians were focused on making music, but they did not help promote the name 'salsa.'" This has caused some disagreement among musicians. Some believe the term helped bring different musical styles together. Celia Cruz said, "Salsa is Cuban music with another name. It includes rhythms like mambo, chachachá, rumba, and son." Willie Colón described salsa as a way to unite people: "Salsa was the force that brought together Latino and non-Latino groups. It is the mix of all Latin cultures."

However, some musicians were not at first happy with using the word "salsa" for music. Machito said, "There is nothing new about salsa. It is the same music that has been played in Cuba for over fifty years." Tito Puente joked, "The only salsa I know is the ketchup sold in a bottle. I play Cuban music." A Cuban music expert, Mayra Martínez, wrote that the term "salsa" hid the Cuban roots of the music and its history. She said it allowed record companies like Fania and CBS to control the music and limit Cuban musicians' ability to share their music globally. Izzy Sanabria responded that Martínez's view was likely accurate from a Cuban perspective, but he said "salsa" was not created with that intention. Johnny Pacheco, who helped start Fania Records, said, "Salsa is, and always has been, Cuban music."

Because the name "salsa" had strong marketing value, eventually even musicians like Machito, Puente, and some in Cuba began to use the term because it helped them financially.

Instrumentation

Salsa music uses instruments from the son montuno ensemble created by Arsenio Rodríguez. He added a group of horns and congas (tumbadoras) to the traditional Son cubano group, which usually included bongos, bass, tres, one trumpet, small hand percussion instruments like claves, güiro, and maracas, often played by singers, and sometimes a piano. Machito’s band was the first to use timbales. These three drums—bongos, congas, and timbales—became standard in salsa bands. They work like a traditional drum group: timbales play the main rhythm, congas support the rhythm, and bongos add improvisation, similar to a lead drum. The bongo improvisations follow a repeated rhythm called the martillo ("hammer") and are not considered solos. Bongos are played mainly during verses and piano solos. When the music moves to the montuno section, the bongo player uses a large hand-held cowbell called the bongo bell. Often, the bongo bell is played more than the bongos themselves. The combination of timbale and bongo bells creates a driving rhythm during the montuno. Maracas and güiro provide steady, regular beats and do not follow the clave pattern.

Some bands use the Charanga format, which includes string instruments like violins, viola, and cello, congas, timbales, bass, flute, claves, and güiro. Bongos are not used in charanga bands. Típica 73, Orquesta Broadway, Orquesta Revé, and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental were popular salsa bands that used charanga instruments. Johnny Pacheco, Charlie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaría, and Ray Barretto also used this format.

Latin big bands in the 1950s and 1960s included brass instruments like trumpets and saxophones.

Los Van Van has experimented with both charanga and other ensembles for 50 years. For the first 15 years, the band was a pure charanga, but later added a trombone section. Today, the band is a mix of both styles.

In the 1960s, Eddie Palmieri changed the instruments by replacing violins with two trombones to create a stronger sound.

Rhythm

Salsa music usually has a tempo between 160 and 220 beats per minute (bpm), which makes it suitable for dancing.

The main instrument that creates the basic rhythm in salsa music is called the clave. It is played using two wooden sticks, also named clave, that are struck together. In a salsa band, most instruments (such as congas, timbales, piano, tres guitar, bongos, claves, and strings) play along with the clave rhythm. Other instruments (like bass, maracas, güiro, and cowbell) play rhythms that are not directly connected to the clave. The melody and dancers can choose to follow the clave rhythm or not at any time.

There are four types of clave rhythms in salsa music: 3-2 and 2-3 Son claves, and 3-2 and 2-3 Rumba claves. The Son claves are most commonly used in salsa music, while the Rumba clave is sometimes used, especially during rumba sections of songs. For example, the 2-3 Son clave rhythm is played on the counts of 2, 3, 5, the "and" of 6, and 8 within the 8-beat structure of salsa dancing.

Other common rhythms in salsa music include the chord beat, tumbao, and Montuno rhythm.

The chord beat (often played on cowbell) focuses on the odd-numbered counts of salsa: 1, 3, 5, and 7. The tumbao rhythm (usually played on congas) highlights the "off-beats" of the music: 2, 4, 6, and 8. Some dancers use the strong sound of the cowbell to stay in sync with the salsa rhythm, while others use the conga rhythm to create a jazz-like feel because "off-beats" are a feature of jazz music.

The tumbao rhythm is played on conga drums. Its basic pattern includes beats 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8. This rhythm is helpful for learning to dance "On2," a style where dancers emphasize beats 2 and 6. The tumbao rhythm also strongly highlights these beats.

The Montuno rhythm is often played on the piano. It repeats every 8 beats and helps dancers identify the starting point of the music. By listening to the Montuno rhythm, which returns to the beginning after 8 counts, dancers can recognize which beat is the first one in the music.

Musical structure

Salsa music often follows a structure called the son montuno, which is based on the Afro-Cuban clave rhythm. This structure includes a verse section, followed by a chorus section called the montuno, which is a call-and-response style. The verse section can be short or longer, sometimes highlighting the lead singer or featuring well-designed melodies with special rhythm patterns. Once the montuno section begins, it usually continues until the song ends. The tempo may gradually speed up during the montuno to create excitement. The montuno section can be divided into smaller parts, sometimes named mambo, diablo, moña, and especial.

History

Many music experts believe that the musical elements of salsa can be found in the Son Montuno style played by artists from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín (a band once led by Arsenio and now led by Félix Chappottín with 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." Songs by Arsenio's band, such as Fuego en el 23, El Divorcio, Hacheros pa' un palo, Bruca maniguá, No me llores, and El reloj de Pastora, were later performed by many salsa bands, including Sonora Ponceña and Johnny Pacheco.

A different style, called Mambo, was developed by musicians like Cachao, Beny Moré, and Dámaso Pérez Prado. Moré and Pérez Prado moved to Mexico City, where Mexican big band wind orchestras played their music.

During the 1950s, New York became a major center for Mambo, with musicians such as Pérez Prado, Luciano "Chano" Pozo, Mongo Santamaría, Machito, and Tito Puente. The Palladium Ballroom in New York was the most famous place where Mambo was performed.

Ethnomusicologist Ed Morales explained that the blending of Afro-Cuban music and jazz in New York was important for the development of both styles. Musicians like Mario Bauzá and Chano Pozo, who later became key innovators of Mambo, began their careers in New York working with famous jazz musicians, including Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie. Morales noted, "The connection between North American jazz and Afro-Cuban music was common, and this created the conditions for Mambo to develop in New York, where people were used to hearing new music." He also said that Mambo helped make salsa more widely accepted later on.

Another popular style was cha-cha-cha, which came from Charanga bands in Cuba. By the early 1960s, several Charanga bands in New York, led by musicians like Johnny Pacheco, Charlie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaría, and Ray Barretto, were performing. These musicians later became famous for their salsa music.

In 1952, Arsenio Rodríguez briefly moved to New York City with his modern Son Montuno style. His success there was limited because New Yorkers were more interested in Mambo at the time. However, his musical techniques, along with the piano work of Lilí Martínez, the trumpet of Félix Chappottín, and the rhythmic vocals of Roberto Faz, became important influences in the region a decade later.

In 1966, the Palladium Ballroom closed because it lost its license to serve alcohol. Mambo music declined as new styles, such as boogaloo, jala-jala, and shing-a-ling, became popular for a short time. Some boogaloo elements can be heard in songs by Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Machito, and Arsenio Rodríguez. Puente later said, "It stunk… I recorded it to keep up with the times." Popular boogaloo songs include Bang Bang by the Joe Cuba Sextet and I Like It Like That by Pete Rodríguez and His Orchestra.

In the late 1960s, Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco and Italian-American businessman Jerry Masucci started a record company called Fania Records. They helped launch the careers of many artists who later became known for salsa music, including Willie Colón, Celia Cruz, Larry Harlow, Ray Barretto, Héctor Lavoe, and Ismael Miranda. Fania's first album, Cañonazo, was released in 1964. Critics said most of its songs were covers of earlier Cuban recordings. Pacheco formed the Fania All-Stars in 1968 with musicians like percussionist Louie Ramírez, bassist Bobby Valentín, and arranger Larry Harlow. Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican band La Sonora Ponceña released two albums named after songs by Arsenio Rodríguez: Hachero pa' un palo and Fuego en el 23.

In the 1970s, two versions of Cuban son music developed at the same time: one in Havana, Cuba, and one in New York, USA. During this time, the word "salsa" was first used in New York to describe Latin dance music. In Havana, a new style called songo was created.

The band Los Van Van, led by bassist Juan Formell, began developing songo in the late 1960s. Songo combined rhythms from traditional rumba with elements of funk and rock. When drummer Changuito joined the band, new rhythms were added, and the style became more different from earlier styles like Son Montuno and Mambo.

Songo mixed elements of North American music, such as jazz, rock, and funk, in ways that were different from mainstream salsa. While salsa often added elements of another genre in a song's bridge, songo was considered a mix of rhythm and harmony, especially combining funk and Cuban clave rhythms. Music analyst Kevin Moore said, "The harmonies in songo were new to Cuban music and clearly borrowed from North American pop music. This broke the usual rules about harmony that Cuban music had followed for a long time." At the same time, Cuban groups like Irakere blended bebop and funk with batá drums and other Afro-Cuban traditions. Orquesta Ritmo Oriental created a new, highly syncopated rumba-influenced son in the charanga style, and Elio Revé developed changüí.

In New York during the 1970s, the term "salsa" was first used to describe Latin dance music. Some musicians believe salsa grew naturally into a shared cultural identity across Latin America. Music professor and salsa trombonist Christopher Washburne wrote:

In 1971, the Fania All-Stars performed at Yankee Stadium, selling out the event. By the early 1970s, the center of salsa music moved to Manhattan and the Cheetah club, where promoter Ralph Mercado introduced many future Puerto Rican salsa stars to a growing and diverse Latino audience. New York also saw the rise of new salsa bands, such as Ángel Canales, Andy Harlow, Chino Rodríguez y su Consagración (Chino Rodríguez was one of the first Chinese-Puerto Rican

African salsa

Cuban music became popular in sub-Saharan Africa during the middle of the twentieth century. To many Africans, the rhythmic patterns of Cuban music sounded both familiar and new. According to The Encyclopedia of Africa, volume 1:

Congolese musicians began playing Cuban songs and singing the lyrics in a way that sounded similar to their own language. Soon, they created their own original songs that resembled Cuban music, using French or Lingala, a widely spoken language in western Congo. These Congolese musicians called their new style "rumba," even though it was actually based on a Cuban style called "son." They adapted rhythmic guitar patterns from Cuban music, changing them to fit their own musical traditions. Over time, this guitar-based music spread across Africa, blending with local styles and creating new regional genres, such as soukous.

Cuban music had a major influence on the development of many modern African music styles. John Storm Roberts wrote: "Cuban music, along with New York salsa, had a lasting impact on African music, shaping it more deeply than earlier imitations or short-lived trends. This influence began early and lasted for at least twenty years, as African musicians gradually changed and adapted Cuban rhythms to fit their own traditions." This process of adapting Cuban rhythms brought the music back to its roots in Africa.

The way African musicians use harmonic patterns in their music shows a difference in how they understand music. The I-IV-V-IV chord progression, common in Cuban music, is found in many African pop songs because of Cuban influence. These chords follow the rules of Western music theory. However, Gerhard Kubik explained that African musicians may not see these chords the same way: "In African popular music, the harmonic cycle of C-F-G-F (I-IV-V-IV) is not viewed as a progression from one chord to another in a strict order, as in Western music. Instead, all the chords are seen as equal, not in a hierarchy."

The most significant wave of Cuban-influenced music reaching Africa was salsa. In 1974, the Fania All Stars performed in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) at the 80,000-seat Stade du Hai in Kinshasa. This event was recorded and released as Live in Africa (called Salsa Madness in the UK). The performance happened during a music festival connected to a heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. At this time, local music styles were already well established. Despite this, salsa became popular in many African countries, especially in the Senegambia and Mali. Cuban music had been a favorite in Senegal’s nightclubs during the 1950s and 1960s. The Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab plays salsa using traditional instruments like congas and timbales, but also includes instruments and lyrics from the Wolof and Mandinka cultures.

Lise Waxer wrote: "African salsa does not simply mean salsa returning to Africa, but shows a complex exchange of culture between two parts of the so-called Third World." Since the mid-1990s, African artists have also been active through a group called Africando, where African musicians and New York-based musicians collaborate with famous African singers like Bambino Diabate, Ricardo Lemvo, Ismael Lo, and Salif Keita. Today, it is still common for African artists to record salsa songs and add their own unique regional style to them.

Lyrics

Salsa music includes many types of songs, such as simple dance tunes, romantic songs, and others that address bold or political topics. Music expert Isabelle Leymarie explains that salsa singers often use strong, confident expressions (called guapería) in their lyrics, similar to styles found in calypso and samba music. She says this style comes from the backgrounds of the performers and their need to show pride in their origins. Leymarie describes salsa as "mainly about manliness and showing pride in being a man." As part of this focus on strength, salsa songs often include bold challenges or taunts, known as desafío.

Salsa lyrics sometimes include lines from traditional Cuban songs called sones and rumbas. They may also reference Afro-Cuban religions, like Santería, even when the artists are not part of those traditions. Salsa also shows influences from Puerto Rican culture. For example, Hector LaVoe, who sang with Willie Colón for many years, used typical Puerto Rican speech patterns in his music. Today, it is common to hear the Puerto Rican phrase "le-lo-lai" in salsa songs. Many salsa musicians have also focused on social and political issues. For example, Eddie Palmieri’s song "La libertad – lógico" became an important anthem for Latin and Puerto Rican communities. Ruben Blades, a Panamanian singer, is known for writing thoughtful salsa songs about topics like imperialism, peace, and protecting the environment. These songs have been popular across Latin America. Many salsa songs express pride in Black Latino identity and may be sung in Spanish, English, or a mix of both, called Spanglish.

Films

• 1979 – Salsa: Latin Music in the Cities. A film about salsa music in cities, directed by Jeremy Marre.
• 1988 – Salsa. A movie where Robi Draco Rosa, a former Menudo member, plays a teenager trying to win a dance contest. Celia Cruz, Wilkins, and Tito Puente also appear.
• 1996 – Giovanni Hidalgo – In The Tradition. A music guide by Giovanni Hidalgo that teaches basic sounds, tuning, and techniques for styles like son montuno, bolero, charanga, danzón, and how to use multiple percussion instruments in these styles.
• 2007 – El Cantante. A biographical movie about the life of salsa singer Héctor Lavoe, starring Marc Anthony as Lavoe and Jennifer Lopez as his wife.
• 2014 – Sex, Love & Salsa. A film directed by Adrian Manzano. Julie L Tuttlebee is the choreographer and also appears in several scenes as a salsa dancer.