Salsa is a style of dance music mainly influenced by Caribbean traditions and music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and other countries such as Colombia and Venezuela, where African cultural syncretism in music and dance blends with European influences and indigenous instruments, along with contributions from the contiguous United States. 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 and son cubano,Catapano 2011. "Although a great number of New York's stars and sidemen in the 1970s were Cuban and Puerto Rican, the basic musical elements of salsa were derived mainly from Cuba." with elements of cha-cha-chá, bolero, rumba, mambo, jazz, R&B, bomba, plena, merengue (Pambiche) and pachanga as well as other music styles from Latin American countries traditions.Morales 2003, p. 33. Morales writes that "While many Afro-Cuban music purists continue to claim that salsa is a mere variation on Cuba's musical heritage, the hybridizing experience the music went through in New York from the 1920s on incorporated influences from many different branches of the Latin American tradition, and later from jazz, R&B, and even rock." Morales' claim is confirmed by Unterberger's and Steward's analysis. All of these genres and their musical instruments are adapted and fused to accomplish smooth and seamless transitions between them when performed within the context of salsa.Mauleón 1993, p. 215. Mauleón codifies this approach with examples of bomba, plena, and merengue arrangements for the salsa ensembles. When adapting these non-Cuban rhythms to salsa it is common to alter them in order to fit into the Cuban template. For example, Mauleón's merengue chart includes clave, which is essential to Cuban popular music, although it is not a component of the traditional Dominican rhythm.
Originally the name salsa was used to label commercially several styles of Hispanic Caribbean music, but nowadays it is considered a musical style on its own and one of the staples of Hispanic American culture.Gerard 1989, pp. 8–9. "From jazz came a harmonic vocabulary based on extended harmonies of altered and unaltered ninths, elevenths and thirteenths, as well as quartal harmony—chords built on fourths. These harmonic devices entered salsa in the piano styles of Eddie Palmieri and the Puerto Rican Papo Lucca. They would take traditional piano figures based on simple tonic-dominant harmony and elaborate them with modern harmonies. These modern harmonies are now a staple of salsa arrangers such as Marty Sheller and Óscar Hernández."
The first self-identified salsa band is Cheo Marquetti y su Conjunto - Los Salseros which was formed in 1955 in Cuba. The first album to mention Salsa on its cover was titled “Salsa” which was released by La Sonora Habanera in 1957. Later on self-identified salsa bands were predominantly assembled by Puerto Rican and Cuban and Dominican musicians in New York City in the 1970s. The music style was based on the late son montuno of Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín and Roberto Faz. These musicians included Celia Cruz, Willie Colón, Rubén Blades, Johnny Pacheco, Machito and Héctor Lavoe.Boggs 1992, pp. 187-193Hutchinson 2004, p. 116. Hutchinson says salsa music and dance "both originated with Cuban rhythms that were brought to New York and adopted, adapted, reformulated, and made new by the Puerto Ricans living there." During the same period a parallel modernization of Cuban son was being developed by Los Van Van, Irakere, NG La Banda under the name of songo, which further evolved into timba in the late 80s with artists like Charanga Habanera; both styles are at present 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 the Spanish language. 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 traced the origin of the connection to 1930 when Ignacio Piñeiro composed the song Échale salsita (Put some sauce in it).Salazar 1991; Waxer 2002, p. 6; Morales 2003, pp. 56–59. Morales dates the song to 1932. 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. 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, 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: In 1973, I hosted the television show Salsa which was the first reference to this particular music as salsa. I was using [the 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.Boggs 1992, p. 190
Sanabria's Latin New York magazine was an English language publication. Consequently, his promoted events were covered in The New York Times, as well as Time and Newsweek magazines.Boggs 1992, p. 192. Izzy Sanabria: "In Santo Domingo ... they told me that they don't recognize a Dominican artist as having made it in New York City unless a photograph and something written on this artist appears in Latin New York. I said 'but why?' And what he said: 'Because we consider Latin New York a North American publication.' You see what I mean? In other words, it's an American publication. It was in English. So because it was in English, because it was from America, then it's legitimate. That in a sense, was the major impact of Latin New York." 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 ".Fuentes 2003, p. 59
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 Johnny Pacheco, co-founder of Fania Records, gave his definition of the term “Salsa” during various interviews: “La salsa es, y siempre ha sido, la musica cubana” (“Salsa is, and always has been, Cuban music”).
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.In 1983, Machito won a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Recording category for Machito and his Salsa Big Band '82 Timeless CD 168.Izzy Sanabria 2005. "Years later, [Tito] Puente told me, 'Izzy you remember how much I hated and resisted the term salsa? Well I've had to accept it because wherever I travel, I find my records under the category of salsa.'"Mauleón 1999, p. 80
Instrumentation
The instrumentation in salsa bands is mostly based on the son montuno ensemble developed by Arsenio Rodríguez, who added a horn section, as well as tumbadoras (congas) to the traditional Son cubano ensemble; which typically contained bongos, bass, tres, one trumpet, smaller hand-held percussion instruments (like claves, güiro, or maracas) usually played by the singers, and sometimes a piano. Machito's band was the first to experiment with the timbales.Bobby Sanabria 2008 Latinjazz. 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), tumbadoras (congas), timbales, bass, flute, claves and güiro. Bongos are not typically used in charanga bands. Típica 73, 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.
Latin big bands in the 1950s-1960s included a brass section of trumpets and saxes.
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.
In the 1960s, Eddie Palmieri decided to replace the violins with two trombones for a heavier sound.
Rhythm
Salsa music typically ranges from 160 bpm (beats per minute) and 220 bpm, which is suitable for salsa dancing.
The key instrument that provides the core groove of a salsa song is the clave. It is often played with two wooden sticks (called clave) that are hit together. Every instrument in a salsa band is either playing with the clave (generally: congas, timbales, piano, tres guitar, bongos, claves (instrument), strings) or playing independent of the clave rhythm (generally: bass, maracas, güiro, cowbell). Melodic components of the music and dancers can choose to be in clave or out of clave at any point.