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Salsa

Salsa is Caribbean dance music from New York City. It is 1950s Cuban Son that evolved into Salsa in NYC’s Puerto Rican communities in the 1960s and 70s. Salsa then jumped to Colombia where Cali is the capital of Salsa Colombiana. Then it went global.

As El Gran Combo sings, “Sin salsa, no hay paraiso” (without Salsa, there’s no paradise). That’s true, but the music sounds different and is danced differently, everywhere it is played.

  • Cuban Salsa evolved into Timba.
  • In Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, Salsa starts on the first beat (Salsa on 1) and is circular.
  • New York Salsa starts on the second beat (Salsa on 2) and is linear with disco moves and shines mixed in.
  • Salsa Caleña (Salsa Colombiana in Cali) is like martial arts with a partner. It’s cultural. Everyone dances. Children compete in stage Salsa competitions from a young age.
  • Salsa is popular in Eastern Europe too.

Salsa NYC

April 8, 2022

Apr | May | Jun | Oct

Thursday Salsa

Uptown Salsa Royalty at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Thu, Apr 7 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10.

DJ John John, “El Boricua Del Sabor,” 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar, 2nd & 4th Thursdays from 9pm – 1am. 21+. From $10. 🇵🇷

Friday Salsa

Willy Torres at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Fri, Apr 8 at 11:45pm & 1:30am. $20. 🇵🇷

Saturday Salsa

Astoria Salsa Project at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Sat, Apr 9 at 9:30pm & 11:30pm. $20

Monday Salsa

Talia Castro-Pozo’s Latin Mondays at Taj, 7pm (5pm doors). From $10. 🇵🇪

Moncho Rivera tributes his uncle, El Sonero Mayor Ismael Rivera, at Stepping Out Studios in Hell’s Kitchen on Sat, Apr 16 at 11:30pm (8pm doors). From $50. 🇵🇷

Tropical Music

Salsa Stories (Bianca Widakay)
Salsa Stories at The Clemente (Bianca Widakay) Obrigado Bianca. Muito legal! 🇧🇷

New York Salsa Venues

There is more Salsa at:

  • 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar, a 20th Floor rooftop with stunning city views, has a Salsa DJ on 2nd & 4th Thursdays.
  • Gonzalez y Gonzalez, a Mexican restaurant in Greenwich Village, has live Salsa bands for dancing, most Thursdays-Sundays. It’s a reliable Salsa Night with lots of NYU students.
  • Mi Salsa Kitchen, a Cuban diner in the Lower East Side, has live music most Wed-Sat. People push aside the tables and dance like we do in the Caribbean.
  • Taj II, a South Asian lounge in the Flatiron District, hosts Talia Castro’s Latin Mondays at Taj dance party. It’s one of NYC’s most popular Salsa dances.

Salsa Photography

Más Afro Latin is an online photo exhibition of the Hip-Hop photographer Joe Conzo Jr’s work in NYC’s Salsa community in the 1970s. Joe Conzo Sr grew up with Tito Puente, so Jr got all access. pregonesprtt.org

The Year in New York Salsa

March Salsa NYC

2022

Women of Latin Music

Oye Como Va is a Deborah Resto tribute to the women of Latin music at Flushing Town Hall in Flushing, Queens on Thu, Mar 31 at 7pm. $15. 🇨🇺🇵🇷

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April Salsa NYC

2022

Jerry Rivera

Jerry Rivera sings Puerto Rican Salsa at the Palladium Times Square on Fri, Apr 1 at 8pm (6:30pm doors). From $60. 🇵🇷

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May Salsa NYC

2022

Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Spanish Harlem Orchestra and special guest Paquito D’Rivera play New York Salsa at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Sat, May 14 at 7:30pm. 🇵🇷

Spanish Harlem Orchestra SHO

Spanish Harlem Orchestra celebrates the release of their Latin Jazz album “SHO” at Drom in the East Village on Fri, May 20 at 7:30pm. 🇵🇷

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June Salsa NYC

2022

Grupo Niche

Spanish Harlem Orchestra and special guest Paquito D’Rivera play New York Salsa at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Sat, May 14 at 7:30pm. 🇵🇷

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October Salsa NYC

2022

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico celebrates 60 years of Salsa at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey on Sat, Oct 8 at 8pm. From $49. 🇵🇷

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Previously in New York Salsa

Annette A. Aguilar & StringBeans (Angel Rosado/Hostos)
Annette A. Aguilar & StringBeans (Angel Rosado/Hostos)

Annette A. Aguilar & StringBeans, with guests Randy Brecker and Ada Rovatti, play Brazilian and Latin Jazz and Salsa at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Sat, Apr 2 at 8pm. Live $20 ($5 students). Streaming $10. cuny.edu 🇧🇷🇮🇹🇳🇮

Los Hermanos De Leon play Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Mar 19 at 12am & 1:30am. $20.

Jimmy Bosch “El Trombon Criollo” (Spanish Harlem Orchestra) plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Mar 18 at midnight & 1:30am. $20. 🇵🇷

Anthony Almonte & Yeisson Villamar play Puerto Rican Peruvian Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Mar 17 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10. 🇵🇷🇵🇪

Orquesta Broadway celebrates its 60th Anniversary with Cuban Charanga (flute, strings & percussion) for dancing at the David Rubenstein Atrium in Lincoln Center on Fri, Mar 11 at 7:30pm. FREE. 🇨🇺

Balmir Dance Society leads a Salsa Dance Party with live music at the Brooklyn Museum in Prospect Park on Thu, Mar 10, from 6-9:30pm. Free with registration.

The Big Three Palladium Orchestra is the sons of the Big Three: Tito Rodríguez Jr, Mario “Machito” Grillo and Tito Puente Jr, hosted by Joe Conzo Sr and featuring Fania All-Star and Puente’s bongo player John “Dandy” Rodríguez, at Lehman Center in Jerome Park, The Bronx on Sat, Mar 5 at 8pm. From $45. 🇨🇺🇵🇷

Johnny “Dandy” Rodriguez Jr (Tito Puente, Fania All-Stars, Típica 73) plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Mar 4 at midnight & 1:30am. $20. 🇵🇷

February 2022

Salsa Cabaret by Cali Salsa Pal Mundo with guest singer Anissa Gathers is at the Thalia Spanish Theatre in Sunnyside, Queens, Fri-Sun, Feb 4-27. From $40. 🇨🇴

Johnny “Dandy” Rodriguez Jr (Tito Puente, Fania All-Stars, Típica 73) plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Feb 26 at 12 midnight & 1:30am. $20. 🇵🇷

Orquesta Rosello plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Feb 25 at 11:45pm & 1:30am. $20.

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Grupo Niche and India play Salsa at Radio City Music Hall on Sat, Feb 12 at 8pm. This is some of the best Puerto Rican, Colombian and New York Salsa. From $96. 🇵🇷🇨🇴🇺🇸

Marc Anthony brings his Pa’lla Voy Tour to Madison Square Garden in Chelsea, Manhattan on Fri, Feb 11 at 8pm. From $77. 🇵🇷

Los Hacheros play Salsa at The Django in Tribeca on Tue, Feb 1 from 10pm – 1:30am. $25+ 🇵🇷d

January 2022

Arturo Ortiz & 7 Con Calle play Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Jan 14 from 11:30pm – 2am. $20. 🇵🇷

Jerry Rivera and Tony Vega sing Puerto Rican Salsa at the Palladium Times Square on Fri, Jan 14 at 8pm (6:30pm doors). From $60. 🇵🇷

Frankie Negron sings New Jersey Puerto Rican Salsa at SOB’s in Hudson Square, Manhattan on Fri, Jan 14 at 7pm. $25. 🇵🇷

Los Hermanos De Leon play Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Jan 13 at 8:30 & 10:30pm. $10.

Uptown Salsa Royalty plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Jan 8 at 12 & 1:30am. $20.

Luis Esquilin & SalsaVive play Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Jan 7 at midnight and 1:30am. $20 🇵🇷

All-blind band Los Ciegos del Barrio plays Latin rhythms for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Jan 6 at 9:30pm & 11:30pm. $10

December 2021

Afro Latin Jazz Alliance Tambor Tuesdays features People of Earth, Mambembe, and Kikiriki Biquey playing Salsa/Timba and Samba/Reggae at Drom in the East Village on Tue, Dec 21 at 8pm (7pm doors). $10. 🇨🇺🇧🇷

Johnny “Dandy” Rodriguez Jr (Tito Puente, Fania All-Stars, Típica 73) plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Dec 18 from 12 midnight – 2am. $20. 🇵🇷

Sebastian Natal plays Uruguayan Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Dec 17 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 🇺🇾

LowerEastSalsa plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Dec 16 from 9:30pm – 2am. $10.

Arturo Ortiz & 7 Con Calle play Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sun, Dec 12 from 8pm – midnight. $10 🇵🇷

Jimmy Bosch “El Trombon Criollo” (Spanish Harlem Orchestra) plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Dec 11 from 11:30pm – 2am. $20. @jimmyboschforever 🇵🇷

Grupo Ocho plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Dec 10 at 12 midnight and 1:30am. $20. 🇵🇷

Folklore Urbano Orchestra “El Barrio Project” plays Colombian Salsa at Terraza 7 in Elmhurst, Queens on Fri, Dec 10 at 7pm. 🇨🇴

Long Island Latin Rhythm Band plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Dec 9 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10

November 2021

Los Hacheros play The Stage on Level 4 at Hudson Yards on Tue, Nov 30 from 6-8pm. FREE with registration. hudsonyardsnewyork.com 🇵🇷

Quinteros Salsa Project plays Venezuelan Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Nov 20 from 12 midnight – 2am. $20. @quinterossalsaproject 🇻🇪

Johnny “Dandy” Rodriguez Jr (Tito Puente, Fania All-Stars, Típica 73) plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Friday, Nov 19 from 12 midnight – 2am. $20 🇵🇷

Willie Villegas y Entre Amigos play Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Nov 18 from 9:30-11:30pm. $10

Radio Free Brooklyn’s Gianluca Tremontana hosts a Changüi: The Music of Guantanamo listening event at the Pine Box Rock Shop in Bushwick, Brooklyn on Wed, Nov 17 at 8pm. Free with rsvp tickettailor.com (Changüi is the predecessor of Cuban Son).

Jimmy Bosch “El Trombon Criollo” (Spanish Harlem Orchestra) plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez on Sat, Nov 13 from 11:30pm – 2am. $20. 🇵🇷

Willy Torres plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Nov 12 from midnight – 2am. $20 🇵🇷

Uptown Salsa Royalty plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Nov 11 from 9:30-11:30pm. $10

Tony Succar and special guest La India, play Latin Grammy winning Salsa at The Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey on Sat, Nov 6 at 7pm. 🇵🇪🇵🇷

Los Hacheros play The Stage on Level 4 at Hudson Yards on Tue, Nov 2 from 6-8pm. FREE with registration. hudsonyardsnewyork.com 🇵🇷

October 2021

Jimmy Bosch “El Trombon Criollo” (Rubén Blades, Spanish Harlem Orchestra) plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Oct 16 at 11:30pm and 1:30am. $20. Happy Birthday Jimmy! 🇵🇷

Anissa Gathers sings Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Oct 15 from 12-2am. $20 🇵🇷

Willy Torres plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Oct 14 at 9:30pm – 2am. $10 🇵🇷

Fleur Seule sings “Latin Love Songs” at Birdland in Hell’s Kitchen on Thu, Oct 14 at 8:30pm. From $20. 🇧🇷🇨🇺🇵🇷

Cosa Seria plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Oct 9 at 12 midnight and 1:30am. $20

Sebastian Natal plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Oct 8 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 🇺🇾

Luis Esquilin & SalsaVive play Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez on Thu, Oct 7 at midnight and 1:30am. $20 🇵🇷

Grupo Aurora plays Bachata for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village for the “Brunchata” Bachata brunch on Sun, Oct 3 from 1-6pm. 🇩🇴

Grupo Encanto plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Oct 2 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 cover after 10pm.

September 2021

Sonora Nuyorkina plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Sep 30 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10 cover after 9pm.

Los Hermanos De Leon play Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Sep 25 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 after 10pm.

Eddie Palmieri, Tito Nieves and Arturo O’Farrill play a “Salsa Meets Jazz” concert at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) on Sat, Sep 25 at 8pm. From $29 🇨🇺🇵🇷

LowerEastSalsa plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Sep 24 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 after 10pm.

Cosa Seria plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Sep 23 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10

Puerto Rican salsa star Marc Anthony brings his “Pa’lla Voy Tour” to Barclays Center in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn on Sun, Sep 19 at 7pm. From $67.🇵🇷

Sin Salsa No Hay Paraiso

Sin Salsa, no hay paraiso. (Without Salsa, there is no paradise.)

Salsa is based on 1950s Cuban dance music, a blend of Cuban Rumba and Cuban Son. In Cuba, it evolved into Timba, but in New York it evolved into Salsa, mostly in Puerto Rican communities.

The entire Caribbean contributed to Salsa, but it sounds a little different in every place it is played whether that is Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, or Peru. Miami salsa sounds like Timba because of the Cuban influence.

New York Salsa has Swing and Broadway in it too. You can hear the early history of Salsa in the career of Celia Cruz: from her beginnings in Cuba, to her work in Mexico, to New York with Tito Puente, then Johnny Pacheco at Fania, and then Omer Pardillo Cid.

Salsa is not religious any more, but it originated in Cuban Santería traditions. Those traditions are themselves from Yorubaland in Mother Africa (Nigeria, Benin & Togo) with Dahomey and Kongo cultural influences. The same sacred rhythms and movements have been used to connect with the ancestors as far back as 4,000 years ago at the origins of the Yoruba people.

Salsa Festivals NYC

Summer in New York City is filled with salsa flavor. Though SummerStage is not a salsa festival, it always programs some salsa, especially in August.

New York Salsa Congress 2019

Labor Day Weekend
DANCE PARTIES
Sat-Wed, August 24-28, 2019
DANCE FESTIVAL
Thu-Sun, August 29-Sep 1, 2019
MARRIOTT MARQUIS
Times Square, NYC
A week of dancing in spots all over Manhattan ends with a weekend of salsa workshops, performances and dancing to live music by Tony Vega, Moncho Rivera and Doug Beavers

Continue Reading New York Salsa Congress 2019

New York Salseros

These salseros work in or are from New York City.

World Salseros

These salseros are from outside New York. This is a tough call because everybody travels back and forth between New York and the Caribbean.

Maelo Ruiz

Friday, March 20, 2020
LA BOOM NYC
Woodside, Queens
The Puerto Rican salsa romántica singer is joined by Colombian Vallenato group Binomio de Oro.

Continue Reading Maelo Ruiz

Ismael Miranda

Saturday, December 21, 2019
WELLMONT THEATER
Montclair, New Jersey
“El Niño Bonito de la Salsa” is joined by Tito Rojas, Ray de la Paz and Willie Alvarez for a Danceable Salsa Concert

Continue Reading Ismael Miranda

Salsa Legends

From New York, we are missing Ray Barretto, Charlie Palmieri, Frankie Ruiz, Joe Cuba. From Puerto Rico, we are missing Hector Lavoe, Ismael Rivera, Cheo Feliciano, Tommy Olivencia. Many artists made La Salsa what it is today.

The Salsa World

It is basically 1950s Cuban son montuno and rumba dance music with influences from Puerto Rican bomba and plena, Haitian meringue, Dominican merengue and Harlem swing.

Caribbean musicians, but mostly Puerto Ricans, put it all together in 1960s and 70s New York City.

The Cuban clave of El Barrio East Harlem mixed with the swing of Harlem across Fifth Avenue and we got la salsa. It jumped to Colombia and went global.

Salsa is characterized by TICO Records (1948-1974) and FANIA Records (1964). The music jumped to Colombia at Disco Fuentes (1934) and went global in the 1970s. Celia Cruz is the “Queen of Salsa.” She was never allowed to return home to Cuba, so she planted salsa everywhere else around the world. Tito Puente is “The King of Latin Music.”

Because Cuba was isolated by the U.S. blockade, the music evolved differently there. The music of the Havana street is Timba played by incredible musicians, many of whom trained in Cuba’s world-class classical music schools. When things opened up a little and Cubans heard what was going on in New York, some wondered why we were still playing the old 1950s music of their parents.

Salsa is loved everywhere in the world now, even in places where you would least expect it like Eastern Europe.

Puerto Rico

Have to say, the most beautiful salsa dancing we’ve ever seen was at La Fiesta de Santiago Apostól, the patron saint festival (local Carnival) in Loíza, Puerto Rico in June. It was soft, smooth, and profoundly connected. The quality of salsa in Loíza makes New York Salsa on 2 look like a bunch of clowns. (Sorry, but true.)

La Placita, Santurce, San Juan ~ Dance salsa on the street for free, Fridays-Sundays. This is where most Puerto Ricans in San Juan go. The later you go, the younger it gets. Sundays after about 6:30pm is a nice grown-up crowd. (January, 2020)

La Factoría, Old San Juan ~ Dance salsa in one of the “World’s 50 Best Bars” Fridays-Saturdays. (No cover. January, 2020)

24th Salsa World Congress (Congreso Mundial de la Salsa) ~ San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday-Saturday, March 5-7, 2020.

Día Nacional de la Zalsa ~ A concert of Puerto Rican salsa legends hosted by radio Zeta 93 at Estadio Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan on Sunday, March 8, 2020.

Colombia

Cali, Colombia is the “Capital of Salsa.” It is cultural in Cali. A stage form of salsa dancing has developed there. Caleños give their children salsa dance lessons. Caleños are famous for the quality of their dancing. In Colombia, if there is a Caleño or Caleña at the party, everybody wants to dance with them.

Cali Fair Salsa Festival (Feria de Cali) ~ The whole city come out to dance salsa, Friday-Wednesday, December 25-30, 2020.

Spanish Bantu, La Sonora Matancera, Arsenio Rodríguez, Machito, Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco, FANIA and Celia Cruz

[We are not musicologists, but this is our best understanding at the moment.]

Son cubano rose in the mountains of eastern Cuba in the late 1800s. It blends Spanish guitar (in the form of the Cuban tres) with Bantu rhythm, call and response, and percussion. The Bantu language comes from what is now Cameroon, just south of Nigeria, but spread across central Africa.

There is some connection between salsa and Carnival celebrations because in the days of human enslavement Carnival was the only time Africans were allowed to celebrate our own culture.

Early bands were small. They expanded to sextetos in the 1920s. La Sonora Matancera, which became one of the most iconic Cuban bands, was founded in 1924. The partnership of Celia Cruz and La Sonora is one of the great stories of Latin music. Matanzas, Cuba, where they originated, is one of Cuba’s more African regions.

In the 1930s, trumpets were added, creating septetos. El Manisero was recorded by Don Azpiazu and his Havana Casino Orchestra for Victor in New York City in 1930. The romanticized peanut vendor’s pregone introduced Cuban music to the wider world.

A pregone (as in Pregones Theater or El Cantante) is a seller’s song (like Hot Cross Buns in the English-speaking world). New York City street vendors used to sing songs to advertise their wares. They are like the chimes of an ice cream truck. It’s beautiful to watch a child react to those chimes. You can’t help but buy the kid an ice cream. The only place you can still hear a pregone in New York is on the fruit and vegetable market street in Chinatown (in Chinese of course).

Salsa lyrics often have this playful bragging, selling element in them. It doesn’t matter whether you are selling peanuts or trying to sell yourself into a hot night. It’s very Caribbean. It has roots in the troubadours of medieval Europe. This boastfulness shows up later in hip-hop and Latin rap. Troubadours of Puerto Rico do battles just like rappers.

In the 1940s blind Cuban tres player Arsenio Rodríguez revolutionized son montuno. He expanded the band into a conjunto with piano, congas and more trumpets. Rodríguez also standardized the song structure. Basically he orchestrated son cubano.

The Cuban Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo formed his band Machito and his Afro-Cubans with music director Mario Baúza in New York City in 1940. This was the first band to actually say that they were Black. Before then, you had to sort of hide it for commercial reasons. The most successful artists have generally been light-skinned, but the blues, jazz and salsa are African music.

Machito is important because Mario Baúza’s song Tanga (1942) is considered to be the first song with all the elements that make modern Latin jazz. It’s funny because “tanga” is an African word for weed and also Spanish for a g-string. Those things go together with Latin jazz really well. Try making love where both you and your partner are in clave. ¡WEPA!

Uptown, people crossed Fifth Avenue both ways. Tito Puente would sneak out of his mother’s house on 110th St to listen to Chick Webb’s swing band at the Savoy Ballroom where swing dancing was created. Tito dreamed of playing drums like Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman’s drummer, the artist who brought the drums front and center and helped standardize the modern drum kit. Tito did the same thing with timbales. Because he was originally a dancer, Tito was very entertaining. He would act nuts on stage just like Gene Krupa did. Maybe he wasn’t acting, he just let the music flow through him. That’s what stage artists do. They open up on stage, we copy it emotionally, and opening up feels real good.

Jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie would sit in with Machito’s band. When Dizzy decided he wanted congas in his band, he asked Baúza who introduced Chano Pozo. From this we got legendary jazz standards like Manteca and Tin Tin Deo. Jazz is Caribbean music from its very beginnings, but Dizzy and Chano brought Latin percussion back into mainstream jazz in a way it wasn’t before.

The Palladium Ballroom was failing so they opened a Latin night and it just took off. It was the first place that people of color and light-skinned people were allowed to hang out together openly. The big-three Palladium bands were Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez and Machito. The mambo dance craze that crossed the United States began at the Palladium Ballroom in 1948. In the 1970s, Latin kids in the Bronx added their parent’s Palladium dance moves to what became break dancing. Black and Latin just keeps crossing back and forth. If you can get over yourself, we are one and the same.

What we now call salsa started forming in New York City in the 1960s. On the recommendation of Celia Cruz, Cuban singer La Lupe started working with Mongo Santamaría in New York and then Tito Puente. She charmed the Latin world with the wild style of her charismatic performances “Ay, Ay, Ayyyyyy.”

La Lupe’s song Oriente with Tito Puente says a lot. She starts singing about being born in Oriente, meaning eastern Cuba where son Cubano originated. Then the song shifts. La Lupe sings about Tito Puente (whose parents were from Ponce) and calls out Ismael Rivera, one of great Black salsa singers from Santurce, Puerto Rico. She calls out Celia too. That’s the main story, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Tico Records with Tito Puente was a big force. Tito was a New Yorker, but many great salsa musicians are originally from Santurce, or Ponce, Puerto Rico. Originally a lot of the music came up off the street, but Tito was Julliard School. Celia Cruz studied in Cuba’s famed classical music schools. Talent is key, but education makes a difference.

Eddie Palmieri grew up listening to Cuban music on the short wave radio and running the jukebox at his family bodega El Mambo Candy Store near St. Mary’s Park in the South Bronx. A bunch of kids who used to hang out there became salsa musicians. In his legendary band Conjunto La Perfecta, Palmieri changed his trumpet line for a trombone line and gave salsa a big fat sound that Willie Colon mastered with “El Cantante” (the singer) Hector Lavoe.

The Dominican Johnny Pacheco co-founded FANIA Records, the Latin Motown, to bring the sound of La Sonora Matancera to the United States. Pacheco is credited with coining the term “salsa” because the music is a mix of so many things, like the sauce.

Out of New York, salsa traveled to Colombia through artists like Fruko, Joe Arroyo, Grupo Niche and the Latin Brothers. The whole thing went global in the 1970s. If you were born after that time, it seems like salsa has always been there, but it wasn’t until once upon a time in New York City.

Many great artists helped develop salsa (more than we have time and energy to name), but perhaps more than anyone Celia Cruz popularized the music around the world. Celia, “The Queen of Salsa,” could sing like nobody else. That is still true today. She is naturally a rumba singer, but she could never go home to Cuba, so Celia just kept singing and singing and singing all over the world.

Celia started her career with La Sonora Matancera in Cuba. Her love story with La Sonora trumpeter Pedro Knight is one of the great love stories. In New York Celia sang first for Tito Puente, then for FANIA and then for all of us under the banner of la salsa. “La negra tiene tumbao” (the black woman has a natural swing) and “La vida es un carnival” (life is a party). We love you Celia and all the artists who put their heart into la salsa. ¡Azúcar!

Drumming and clave can create a transcendent healing experience

Salsa is built on clave, the Spanish name for the 5-beat syncopated bell patterns of Sub-Saharan Africa. The whole thing is built on syncopation, emphasizing the upbeat instead of the downbeat. Syncopation is perhaps most obvious in reggae which is also built on clave. Though in reggae the 5-beat pattern is only implied, it is still there. You can clap it out Pa-pa-pa+Pa-pa or Pa-pa+Pa-pa-pa. Clap it out to some salsa music where clave is more obvious.

The original rhythms were from religious ceremonies intended to connect people with God. Classic salsa of the 1960s and 70s is filled with coded West African religious references. Even many Spanish speakers have no idea what they are dancing to. Anyway, it’s religious music from west Africa, just like classical music began as religious music in Italy. Both are meant to raise your spirits.

Syncopation is important because it is meant to lift you up, get you to transcend your normal existence. There is a moment when dancers connect with the drummers and the energy in the entire room rises. Watch a dance floor and you’ll see it. It’s like somebody hit a switch. The energy of the people in the room just starts to float.

Simple syncopation already floats the music over the downbeat. On another level, the 5-beat clave pattern floats over 2-beat or common 4-beat time. 5 over 2 or 5 over 4 gives you endless possibilities of rhythm and movement like the expanding and interacting ripples of rain drops on a pond.

This transcendent experience became even more important in the time of human enslavement. When daily life is dehumanizing, you need something to restore your humanity so you can make it through another day. The African music on which salsa and the blues are based, served this purpose during and after the Colonial Period.

African drums are healing instruments. Slavers must have been perplexed that anyone could survive their inhumanity and keep on smiling. We are not idiots, we are survivors who found a way to transform the pain and sorrow of life into joy. Everybody wants some of whatever it is we are having. Ha, it’s just la salsa.

The music still does this. Letting your body and spirit float with a salsa can be a transcendent experience. That’s probably why today people around the world love salsa, whether they have an African heritage or not. Human nervous systems respond to similar stimuli in similar ways. If you don’t respond, maybe your robot needs a tune up.

Puerto Rican New Yorker Eddie Torres created New York Salsa On 2 for dancers by adding even more syncopation to the dance steps and hustle (disco) moves to the dance. New York salsa is linear and filled with turns and shines. Caribbean salsa is much more relaxed and more circular. Now there is great confusion. Is your salsa on 1 or 2 and if it’s on 2, does your style start forward or back? Just dance.

Salsa dancing is most often a social dance, but in Cali, Colombia, a stage form of salsa has become a Caleño cultural tradition. “Las Caleñas son como las flores.”

¡Azúcar!

tropical Music

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The project is led by Keith Widyolar, a marketing and communications consultant who builds brands and businesses through public, media and government relations. He was named a “key Hispanic journalist” and “Hispanic travel market influencer” by NYC & Company, New York City’s official branding and tourism agency. He also works with Discover Puerto Rico.

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