Salsa music
Salsa music is a style of Latin American music, combining elements of Cuban and Puerto Rican influences. 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, with elements of cha-cha-chá, bolero, rumba, mambo, jazz, R&B, bomba, and plena. All of these elements are adapted to fit the basic Son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa.
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.
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 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.
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.
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. 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". 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 made in the country.
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 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.
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. 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." 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." 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 ".
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". 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”.
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.
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 to the traditional Son cubano ensemble; which typically contained bongos, bass, tres, one trumpet, smaller hand-held percussion instruments usually played by the singers, and sometimes a piano. Machito's band was the first to experiment with the timbales. These three drums 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, 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 and are ordinarily clave-neutral.Nonetheless, some bands instead follow the Charanga format, which consists of a string section, tumbadoras, 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 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 that are hit together. Every instrument in a salsa band is either playing with the clave or playing independent of the clave rhythm. Melodic components of the music and dancers can choose to be in clave or out of clave at any point.
For salsa, there are four types of clave rhythms, the 3-2 and 2-3 Son claves being the most important, and the 3-2 and 2-3 Rumba claves. Most salsa music is played with one of the son claves, though a rumba clave is occasionally used, especially during rumba sections of some songs. As an example of how a clave fits within the 8 beats of a salsa dance, the beats of the 2-3 Son clave are played on the counts of 2, 3, 5, the "and" of 6, and 8.
There are other common rhythms found in salsa music: the chord beat, the tumbao, and the Montuno rhythm.
The chord beat emphasizes the odd-numbered counts of salsa: 1, 3, 5 and 7 while the tumbao rhythm emphasizes the "off-beats" of the music: 2, 4, 6, and 8. Some dancers like to use the strong sound of the cowbell to stay on the Salsa rhythm. Alternatively, others use the conga rhythm to create a jazzier feel to their dance since strong "off-beats" are a jazz element.
Tumbao is the name of the rhythm that is typically played with the conga drums. Its most basic pattern is played on the beats 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8. Tumbao rhythm is helpful for learning to dance contra-tiempo. The beats 2 and 6 are emphasized when dancing On2, and the Tumbao rhythm heavily emphasizes those beats as well.
The Montuno rhythm is a rhythm that is often played with a piano. The Montuno rhythm loops over the 8 counts and is useful for finding the direction of the music. By listening to the same rhythm, that loops back to the beginning after eight counts, one can recognize which count is the first beat of the music.