Salsa Legend

Salsa is a music written in 4 beats (4 beats per measure). For a couple of measures, when the musician counts 1, 2, 3, 4 for the first measure (strong measure) and always 1, 2, 3, 4 for the second measure (weak measure), in general, the dancer and / or dance teacher counts 1, 2, 3, 4 the first measure, then 5, 6, 7, 8 the second measure.

This way of counting to 8 is common to many other dances (modern jazz, hip-hop, classical ...). We can identify three types of salsa and different styles: Cuban salsa, Puerto Rican salsa and Colombian salsa. It comes from many rhythms such as sound, mambo and guaracha from Cuba, la plena et a bomba from Puerto Rico, and from different styles such as charanga, conjunto (en), sexteto and others. But it is mainly based on a fusion of his montuno and mambo.

The first songs are Dónde estabas a noche (1925, Ignacio Piñeiro), Don lengua and Échale salsita (1933, Ignacio Piñeiro). For confusion or for commercial purposes, we sometimes use the term salsa to include other incompatible genres such as merengue, cha-cha-cha, even Latin house, cumbia, bachata.

Sn 1952 José Curbelo wrote the songs La familia, Sun Sun Babae and Mambo cha cha cha; in 1955 the Cuban singer Cheo Marquetti (en) formed the group Conjunto salseros after a work experience in Mexico, and composed the songs Sonero and Que no muera el son.

In this period also Benny Moré composed pretty songs (Castellano, que bueno baila usted, Vertiente Camaguey, Son guajiro and Santa Isabel de las layas).

The term salsa embraces this variety of rhythmic styles and musical forms. To study the roots of salsa, we must turn to Cuba because of its enormous contributions to this type of music. Countries like the United States, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic also contributed to the development of salsa, but it was in Cuba that its bases were developed.

Technically, salsa can be described as a general term that includes all of this music, which is all structured around a rhythm cell called a clave. What distinguishes the rhythm of salsa is this rhythmic structure in which presence and rhythm are strictly maintained by musicians and arrangers, which thus create a unique rhythmic base in musical styles of Afro-Caribbean origin.

Cuban music is a fusion of harmonies, melodies, rhythms and instruments from Africa and Europe. This continuous fusion of elements from the 16th century onwards gave birth to a complex and fascinating multitude of musical forms, giving salsa its variety of aspects, instrumentations, dance steps, poetic forms, structures and rhythmic and melodic phrases.

A major factor in the development of salsa is its deep connection with several styles of percussion, especially in Cuba, where the enslaved African peoples were able to preserve their sacred and secular traditions of percussion. A unique element of this tradition is the link between natural music, such as punk or rock, and language where speech extends beyond the song to become an instrument.

This integration of percussion into popular culture is perhaps the dominant characteristic of Afro-Cuban music — and of all Afro-centrist music.

She rhythmic legacy of salsa is directly linked to popular Cuban music. Of particular importance in this regard are the forms known as rumba, son and danzón, which represent the consolidation of secular and religious African and European elements.

Undoubtedly the origin of salsa as its own musical style can be found in New York and the Fania label is the main producer. If salsa is indeed the granddaughter of Cuban and Puerto Rican musical styles, it is especially the daughter of the Spanish Harlem boogaloo.

Salsa becomes a symbolic rhythm of identity for all Latinos, from New York to the Caribbean. She returned to Cuba and Puerto Rico, among others. Colombia appropriated this music to the point of making Cali, the world capital of salsa, in the late 1980s.

The 1971 concert at the Cheetah Club in New York, where six of the most important salsa vocalists of the time will perform, is often considered [By whom?] To be the birthplace of salsa. This concert by Fania All Stars is immortalized in the film Our Latin Thing, co-produced by Jerry Macusi (one of the two founders of the New York label Fania).

From 1973, under the impulse of Fania, the name of salsa will be massively used commercially to designate this movement.

Salsa-aérobic    Salsa colombienne    Salsa cubaine    Salsa portoricaine    

Salsa ragga jam    Salsa romántica    Salsa suelta    Salsa-tap