With roots deep in the Caribbean and Latin America, Salsa is a mixture of many rhythms including Mambo, Son, Guaguanco, and Cha-cha. Originally created in Cuba and brought to New York City in the 50’s, today Salsa is important not only as a music genre but as a cultural icon.
AFROCUBAN DANCES
On the lessons, you are taught afrocuban religious dances like rumba and yoruba.
AFROCUBAN & MODERN THECNIQUE
This class is a mixture of afro and modern dance. Objective is to work on the movements of the upper body, turns, jumps and body vibrations typical for afro Cuban dances.
AFRODYNAMIC SHINES
A fusion of yoruba and other afro Cuban dances into salsa. The main objective is to teach traditional movements which can be used in salsa, interpret the music and rhythm with body movements.
CUBAMIX
A mixture of traditional and modern Cuban dances.
CUBATON
Cubaton is a subclass of reggaeton, it´s born in the midst of Cuban youth. Cubaton is a fusion of timba, salsa, reggaeton and hiphop.
COUPLE BACHATA
Bachata originates from Dominican Republic. It is slower than merengue and the character of the dance is achieved through sensual hip and body movements. You do not have to bring your own dancepartner.
COUPLE CHACHACHA
The chachacha is a Latin American dance of Cuban origin. The rythmic dance is more energetic than son.
COUPLE SALSA
On the lessons you are taught step figures and rhythm of salsa, the use of pelvis and body. You are also taught the leading and following technique. You do not have to bring your own dancepartner.
LADIES´ STYLE (Karem)
Salsa steps and figures especially for women! The emphasis is on practising the symbiotic lines of the legs and arms, as well as moving the body in space. This class will give women confidence in improvising and expressing the music with dance.
LOS ANGELES STYLE COUPLE SALSA
Los Angeles style salsa (LA style) is a very popular salsa style in southern Europa and North America. LA-style is more showlike than the cuban salsa.
MAMBOCHA
A class that combines mamboa and chacha, both are traditional Cuban dances.
MEN´S AND LADIE´S STYLE
Salsalessons, where women are taught feminine hand-and bodymoves
and men are taught foot technique and the use of pelvis and body.
REGGAETON
Reggaeton is currently the most popular dance in the nightclubs of Latin America.
The dance is a very sexy solodance where you get to use your whole body, especially the pelvis.
Reggaeton has its roots in afrodances, hip hop and traditional Caribbean and Southamerican dancestyles.
RUEDA
Couple salsa in a circle in which one man leads and others follow the directions. Couples change all the time. You do not have to bring your own partner. A list of rueda moves.
RUMBA COLUMBIA
Rumba columbia is a solo dance for men which includes also some acrobatic moves like lifting the hat from the floor with a summersault and lifting a hankerchief with the teeth.
SALSA
Salsa is a mixture of several Latin rhythms. The dance has inherited its rhythm and style from the famous Son Cubano, which has its origin in the East of Cuba, in the province of Oriente, at the end of the 19th century. In the 1920´s son conquered Havana, and later on the entire world.
To its present form salsa developed in New York, where several musicians started to create something new with a strong feeling of the old afro-Caribbean rhythms.
Salsa is a cheerful and enjoyable dance and it is suitable for everybody. Due to its vivid movements it will also serve as a form of body conditioning.
SALSATIMBA
Salsa and timba (”fast salsa”) combined.
TIMING
This class is full of Cuban rhytms! The main aim is to go through different rhytms in the music and find the instruments (like clave, congas and campanas) to which the dancing can be timed. A very usefull class for all levels.
History of Salsa
Tracing the Origins of Salsa Music
by Luis Alba
www.dancedancedance.com
The Latin music we hear today has its origins in Cuba where the blending of African drum rhythms and Spanish guitar evolved into a variety of Latin American music: Son, Danzón, the rhythms of Carnival, Cha cha cha, Mambo, Salsa…..even Tango came out of Cuba.
During the war in Cuba in 1898 US Soldiers got a taste for Cuban music. Later, during Prohibition in the USA, Americans went to Cuba where drinking alcohol was legal and they became infected with the Latin rhythms.
As early as 1909 radio recordings came out of Cuba. In 1932 American Radio came to Cuba to record Orquesta Anacoana. This amazing all-female orquesta consisted of 10 sisters. They were the first females in Cuba to openly play percussion, horns and other instruments. Locked in the house for days at a time during the war, they had nothing to do but practice. This group evolved into one of Cuba’s leading orchestras and one of the first to get top billing in New York. One sister, Graciela, went on to become the lead singer for Machito’s orchestra.
It wasn’t long before musicians in the USA began incorporating Latin rhythms into their own music. In 1900, W.C. Handy visited Cuba and began our legacy of Latin jazz here in the USA. Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Stan Getz and Cal Tjader have all followed the tradition by blending and evolving Latin jazz. Gillespie added a Cuban drummer named Chano Pozo to his band in 1938 and they began to compose together.
Even the less esoteric forms of music in the USA have sampled Latin rhythms and incorporated them with great success. Sam Cooke, The Diamonds, Johnny Otis, Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley and Nat King Cole all helped popularize Latin music with hits containing elements from Cuban music. Gloria Estefan is one of the most well-known contemporary popularizers of Latin music in the USA. She has very successfully blended English lyrics and and rock and roll style with her Cuban musical heritage.
To find the roots of Cuban music we look to West Africa where the slave trade thrived. The Yoruba, Congo and other West African people created rhythms in ancient times to call forth various gods. Sadly, these wonderful rhythms were brought over to the New World under dire circumstances. One drummer named Ijibwa was taken captive and placed on a slave ship for America. He was forced to play on deck to keep up the spirits of the prisoners so that the “merchandise” would arrive alive.
The slaves used the drum rhythms in Christian worship too. Slaves were forced to adopt Christianity upon arrival in the new World, but often called their own gods by Christian names so as to avoid punishment. A similar practice was the progenitor of the “Yo Mama is so…” jokes in existence today among African-Americans. “Mama” was actually a code word for “Master”. Hardly anyone telling these jokes today remembers what “Mama” actually stood for in slave times. In Latin music most of the listeners are not even aware that the drum rhythms we dance to are actually religious in meaning, dedicated to various African gods. Cabillolos (secret societies) still exist in Cuba and keep alive over 200 different rhythms for different African gods.
Troubadours from Spain brought Flamenco guitar music to Cuba. Out of this came Son. Rural Cubans brought the folk guitar to Havana after the war in 1898. Isaac Oviedo was one of the originators of son. He taught himself the guitar by watching other musicians and started the group Santiga Casana, a charuquita group; kettle drum (timbál), ceramic jog, accordion and guitar. In 1926 Oviedo brought the Matanza Sextet to Havana. Later on Emilio Orfe created the danzón style with violin, cello, flute and African drums. He started his first orchestra at age eleven!
Oreste Lopez helped create Mambo by combining danzón with African rhythms from the street. The dancing itself came out of rehearsals where couples would come over and improvise. Lope put together Arcanos Orchestra in 1938.
Xavier Cugat was another important figure in popularizing Mambo. Born in Spain and raised in Cuba, Cugat was initially trained in classical violin beginning at age 8. His music was a unique blend of Afro-Cuban and Flamenco influences. Cugat spent time in New York and Berlin before giving up music to become a cartoonist for the LA Times (!), but in the 1940’s Charlie Chaplin dragged him out of his musical retirement to compose a score for the Chaplin film City Lights. Cugat formed a group, “Cugat and the Gigolos” and found that he could make a living in Hollywood doing tropical music for films. He created a smooth Latin blend of music that was very popular with Busby Berkeley and Fred Astaire.
Don Aspiazu started the Rumba craze in 1930 with his Rumba dance team and full orchestra. Anglo-Americans were in a frenzy over the “fiery tempo and barbaric melody” and thought of Latin music as daring and fascinating. The film industry continued to popularize Latin music with Desi Arnaz and his orchestra singing such songs as “Babalu” and “Cumbanchero”. In 1940 he popularized the conga line dance.
Tito Puentes’ contribution to Mambo is well-known, as are the contributions of Willy Colon and Celia Cruz. Cruz was recorded on Cuban radio at age 7 and made her first record in 1951. One lesser-known figure is Arsenio Rodriguez, one of the true fathers of Salsa. A blind drummer in Cuba, he began to evolve the Salsa sound from Mambo in the early 1960’s.
People continually argue about the difference between Mambo and Salsa. Some say they are the same thing. Some say Salsa is something you eat! Some think Salsa is a generic label for all different types of Latin music. But if you listen to the early Mambo of Tito Puente, Machito, Beny More, Tito Rodriguez and the many greats who started playing before 1960, and then listen to some of the newer folks on the block, you’ll find a distinction there easily enough. As to whether to move the body or feet on the first or second beat, that is a whole subject all on its own.
For more information on Latin music, Descarga has an extensive line of recordings, videos and written works on the subject. “The Roots of Rhythm, narrated by Harry Belafonte, was the main source of information for this article. To order it from Descarga, call toll-free 1-800-377-2647.
HISTORY OF SALSA
Raíces/ Roots
The history of the Latin popular music known worldwide as “salsa” began centuries ago in the islands of the Spanish Caribbean, in a context of slavery and colonialism. Yet, it is inextricably tied to twentieth-century New York City and the growth of a thriving Latino community here. Its distinctive polyrhythm and vocal and instrumental call-and-response identify the Afro-Caribbean roots of Latin music –traditional and contemporary, sacred and secular.
The colonial Era
The story of Latin popular music reveals the triumph of the human spirit over the crushing forces of slavery and colonialism. For centuries, men, women, and children from West and Central Africa-the lands of the great nations of the Yoruba, Efik, and Bantu peoples, among others-were brought in chains to Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Thrown into encounters with diverse and heretofore unknown African, European, and indigenous peoples and cultures, they carved out ways to ensure their own survival and that of their cultural expressions. Though plantation life was harsh under Spanish rule, it allowed for the establishment of sacred and secular cultural institutions, such as religious houses and brotherhoods, in which tradition could be maintained and adapted and new traditions created. “Cimarron” (escaped slave) communities also provided a context for the preservation of traditional musical forms.
By the late nineteenth century, slavery had come to an end throughout the Caribbean region. The euphoria of freedom soon gave way to the reality of making a new life in the midst of economic and political upheaval. The Spanish American war of 1898 resulted in the end of Spanish colonial rule and the emergence of the United States as the dominant imperial power in the region. With the transformation of plantation economies into agribusiness, displaced agricultural workers migrated from countryside into town, and from island to island. Blacks, whites, and “criollos” arrived in Havana, bringing the rhythms of “Rumba” and “Changui”. To San Juan they brought “Bomba” and “Seis”, and to Santo Domingo, “Merengue” and “Carabiné”.
Transplanted and transformed in the urban settings, these and other sounds and styles were selectively brought to New York City in successive migrations.
New York City beginnings
While Puerto Rican settlement in New York began before 1898, migration increased once the island came under USA control. The first Puerto Rican “colonia” (neighborhood) developed in the area around the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By 1917, when the Jones Act made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens, east Harlem’s “El Barrio” had become the “colonia” of choice for new arrivals. An unforeseen result of citizenship was the earliest collaboration between African-American and Puerto Rican musicians and the earliest documented presence of Puerto Rican musicians in New York City, brought about by James Reese Europe (1881-1919), founder of the first booking agency for African-American musicians and director of the first African-American band to play in the Carnegie Hall.
With the outbreak of World War I, Europe enlisted in a black regiment of New York National Guard. When asked to organize “the best damn brass band in the United States Army”, Europe traveled to Puerto Rico to audition Island black musicians trained in municipal bands. The eighteenth men recruited included Rafael Hernández (1891-1965), who was to become one of Puerto Rico’s most famous and beloved composers. Europe’s band (later known as the 369th infantry “Harlem Hellfighters” band) is credited with introducing European audiences to Jazz. Back in New York City, its Puerto Rican members were the first Latinos to record and perform with African-American jazz in the city’s clubs and theater orchestras.
Other Island musicians and workers quickly followed, as the interwar decades saw continued economic hardship in the Caribbean and the rise of employment opportunities in New York City. Latino communities in New York supported dozens of Spanish-language theaters, dance, halls, nightclubs, social clubs, and music stores, all which fostered the development of a dynamic New York Latin music scene.
Latin music goes mainstream
From 1900 into the 1950s, popular stage, recording, film and broadcast media as well as Tin Pan Alley –the New York shorthand for publishers of popular sheet music- responded to the vibrant energy of Latin music. The introduction of the tango in stage and silent film production in 1931 gave rise to the popular image of the “Latin Lover”. New York publishers issued songs that became standards, such as Ernesto Lecuona’s “Siboney” (1929).
Latin music and dance grew steady in popularity during the interwar period. American tourists who flocked to the hotels and casinos of Havana in the 1920’s heard a new music called Son. In 1930, Don Azpiazu’s Havana casino Orchestra played Son and other Cuban dance music at New York’s Palace Theater, and introduced the classic “manicero” (The Peanut Vendor), which became a national hit. Under the gender of rumba, son became a national social dance craze. Spanish-born, Havana raised Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) and his orchestra opened the new Waldorf Astoria and became the hotel’s resident group, playing a mix of Latin and other popular tunes there from 1932 to 1947, mellowed for a broader American audience. The stage was set for the transition from son to salsa.
By the mid-1930’s American nightclubs were featuring the conga, a Cuban carnival tradition, and many Broadway musicals included Latin numbers. In 1939, two key Latino entertainers appeared on the New York stage, Brazilian singer-dancer Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) singing “South-American Way” in the Abbott and Costello revue On the streets of Paris, and Cuban-born Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) as a conga playing football player in the Rodgers and Hart musical Too many girls.
Cugat, Miranda, and Arnaz were among the many Latinos entertainers featured in Hollywood musicals with “south of the border” themes during the 1940’s. Teamed with Lucille Ball, Arnaz created the long running television comedy I Love Lucy. Featuring Arnaz’s character, New York based Latin band leader Ricky Ricardo, the show brought Latino music into homes nationwide beginning in 1951 and helped make mambo and cha-cha-cha the dance crazes of the 1950’s.
Latin + Jazz = the New York Sound
As El Rey Tito Puente (1923-2000) said, Latin Jazz is a marriage between Latin rhythms and Jazz harmonies. The connection that began with African-American and Puerto Rican members of James Reese Europe’s military band went on to forge a true New York sound. Seminal figures included Afro-Cuban Alberto Socarras, one of the first Cubans to play in a jazz band, and Mario Bauza, who played with both Latin and jazz groups. Bauza’s friendship with jazz great Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993), which began when both played trumpet in Cab Calloway’s band, profoundly influenced both jazz and Latin music. In 1940, Bauza and his brother-in-law Frank Grillo, “Machito” (1909-1984) formed Machito and his Afro-Cubans, the first group to incorporate African-American jazz musicians, harmonies, and concepts into Latin music. In 1947-1948, Gillespie collaborated with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo (1915-1948), marking the first genuine synthesis of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz.
By 1952, New York’s Palledium Ballroom at Broadway and 53rd Street has become the American center of the mambo dance craze, followed in 1954 by the cha-cha-cha. Created as an instrumental form in Cuba by Orestes and Israel “Cachao” López and Arsenio Rodríguez, mambo was popularized in the United States by Pérez Prado. Cha-cha-cha was the invention of Enrique Jorrín as a form of both dance and music. These dance forms brought “The Big Three” – Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez (1923-1973) – International renown.
And then they called “Salsa”
The musical excitement of the 1950’s flowed into the 1960’s. Alegre, the first Latino owned record label to record the “new” New York sound, rose to prominence. Charanga dance ensembles, with their distinctive string and flute sound, challenged the popularity of the mambo bands. Spearheaded by Dominican-born flutist Johnny Pacheco (b.1935), pachanga became a hot dance fad. Eddie Palmieri (b.1936) with Barry Rogers (1935-1991), Ray Barreto (b.1929), and Larry Harlow, developed innovative ensemble formats. Younger barrio musicians such as Joe Cuba, Johnny Colon, and Pete “Conde” Rodriguez created Latin bugalú, the first combination of rhythm and blues and Latin music. The Lebrón Brothers, Willie Colon (b.1950), and Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993) followed suit and moved into a hard-edged, urban sound.
Following the Cuban revolution, the United States ended diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. This action cut off the flow of music and musicians that had inspired the New York scene for decades. Four years later, immigration policy changes opened the door to migrations from previously excluded countries. Along with other demographic shifts, these two events altered the course of Latin music in ways that defined it even more sharply as a New York phenomenon. By the late 1960’s, the Dominican community had burgeoned, and rhythms such as the Dominican merengue, Colombia cumbia, and Puerto Rican plena and jibaro styles had become part of the New York music scene.
By the early 1970’s music once identified by specific forms and styles was clustered together under the salsa rubric. The tag gained commercial currency after “Fania” Records- the most influential record label in the field- adopted it to describe the New York music label produced. The name may have been new, but the sound of salsa is rooted in the rich mix of cultures, races and rhythms that is New York Latin music.
English
Salsa
With roots deep in the Caribbean and Latin America, Salsa is a mixture of many rhythms including Mambo, Son, Guaguanco, and Cha-cha. Originally created in Cuba and brought to New York City in the 50’s, today Salsa is important not only as a music genre but as a cultural icon.
AFROCUBAN DANCES
On the lessons, you are taught afrocuban religious dances like rumba and yoruba.
AFROCUBAN & MODERN THECNIQUE
This class is a mixture of afro and modern dance. Objective is to work on the movements of the upper body, turns, jumps and body vibrations typical for afro Cuban dances.
AFRODYNAMIC SHINES
A fusion of yoruba and other afro Cuban dances into salsa. The main objective is to teach traditional movements which can be used in salsa, interpret the music and rhythm with body movements.
CUBAMIX
A mixture of traditional and modern Cuban dances.
CUBATON
Cubaton is a subclass of reggaeton, it´s born in the midst of Cuban youth. Cubaton is a fusion of timba, salsa, reggaeton and hiphop.
COUPLE BACHATA
Bachata originates from Dominican Republic. It is slower than merengue and the character of the dance is achieved through sensual hip and body movements. You do not have to bring your own dancepartner.
COUPLE CHACHACHA
The chachacha is a Latin American dance of Cuban origin. The rythmic dance is more energetic than son.
COUPLE SALSA
On the lessons you are taught step figures and rhythm of salsa, the use of pelvis and body. You are also taught the leading and following technique. You do not have to bring your own dancepartner.
LADIES´ STYLE (Karem)
Salsa steps and figures especially for women! The emphasis is on practising the symbiotic lines of the legs and arms, as well as moving the body in space. This class will give women confidence in improvising and expressing the music with dance.
LOS ANGELES STYLE COUPLE SALSA
Los Angeles style salsa (LA style) is a very popular salsa style in southern Europa and North America. LA-style is more showlike than the cuban salsa.
MAMBOCHA
A class that combines mamboa and chacha, both are traditional Cuban dances.
MEN´S AND LADIE´S STYLE
Salsalessons, where women are taught feminine hand-and bodymoves
and men are taught foot technique and the use of pelvis and body.
REGGAETON
Reggaeton is currently the most popular dance in the nightclubs of Latin America.
The dance is a very sexy solodance where you get to use your whole body, especially the pelvis.
Reggaeton has its roots in afrodances, hip hop and traditional Caribbean and Southamerican dancestyles.
RUEDA
Couple salsa in a circle in which one man leads and others follow the directions. Couples change all the time. You do not have to bring your own partner. A list of rueda moves.
RUMBA COLUMBIA
Rumba columbia is a solo dance for men which includes also some acrobatic moves like lifting the hat from the floor with a summersault and lifting a hankerchief with the teeth.
SALSA
Salsa is a mixture of several Latin rhythms. The dance has inherited its rhythm and style from the famous Son Cubano, which has its origin in the East of Cuba, in the province of Oriente, at the end of the 19th century. In the 1920´s son conquered Havana, and later on the entire world.
To its present form salsa developed in New York, where several musicians started to create something new with a strong feeling of the old afro-Caribbean rhythms.
Salsa is a cheerful and enjoyable dance and it is suitable for everybody. Due to its vivid movements it will also serve as a form of body conditioning.
SALSATIMBA
Salsa and timba (”fast salsa”) combined.
TIMING
This class is full of Cuban rhytms! The main aim is to go through different rhytms in the music and find the instruments (like clave, congas and campanas) to which the dancing can be timed. A very usefull class for all levels.
History of Salsa
Tracing the Origins of Salsa Music
by Luis Alba
www.dancedancedance.com
The Latin music we hear today has its origins in Cuba where the blending of African drum rhythms and Spanish guitar evolved into a variety of Latin American music: Son, Danzón, the rhythms of Carnival, Cha cha cha, Mambo, Salsa…..even Tango came out of Cuba.
During the war in Cuba in 1898 US Soldiers got a taste for Cuban music. Later, during Prohibition in the USA, Americans went to Cuba where drinking alcohol was legal and they became infected with the Latin rhythms.
As early as 1909 radio recordings came out of Cuba. In 1932 American Radio came to Cuba to record Orquesta Anacoana. This amazing all-female orquesta consisted of 10 sisters. They were the first females in Cuba to openly play percussion, horns and other instruments. Locked in the house for days at a time during the war, they had nothing to do but practice. This group evolved into one of Cuba’s leading orchestras and one of the first to get top billing in New York. One sister, Graciela, went on to become the lead singer for Machito’s orchestra.
It wasn’t long before musicians in the USA began incorporating Latin rhythms into their own music. In 1900, W.C. Handy visited Cuba and began our legacy of Latin jazz here in the USA. Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Stan Getz and Cal Tjader have all followed the tradition by blending and evolving Latin jazz. Gillespie added a Cuban drummer named Chano Pozo to his band in 1938 and they began to compose together.
Even the less esoteric forms of music in the USA have sampled Latin rhythms and incorporated them with great success. Sam Cooke, The Diamonds, Johnny Otis, Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley and Nat King Cole all helped popularize Latin music with hits containing elements from Cuban music. Gloria Estefan is one of the most well-known contemporary popularizers of Latin music in the USA. She has very successfully blended English lyrics and and rock and roll style with her Cuban musical heritage.
To find the roots of Cuban music we look to West Africa where the slave trade thrived. The Yoruba, Congo and other West African people created rhythms in ancient times to call forth various gods. Sadly, these wonderful rhythms were brought over to the New World under dire circumstances. One drummer named Ijibwa was taken captive and placed on a slave ship for America. He was forced to play on deck to keep up the spirits of the prisoners so that the “merchandise” would arrive alive.
The slaves used the drum rhythms in Christian worship too. Slaves were forced to adopt Christianity upon arrival in the new World, but often called their own gods by Christian names so as to avoid punishment. A similar practice was the progenitor of the “Yo Mama is so…” jokes in existence today among African-Americans. “Mama” was actually a code word for “Master”. Hardly anyone telling these jokes today remembers what “Mama” actually stood for in slave times. In Latin music most of the listeners are not even aware that the drum rhythms we dance to are actually religious in meaning, dedicated to various African gods. Cabillolos (secret societies) still exist in Cuba and keep alive over 200 different rhythms for different African gods.
Troubadours from Spain brought Flamenco guitar music to Cuba. Out of this came Son. Rural Cubans brought the folk guitar to Havana after the war in 1898. Isaac Oviedo was one of the originators of son. He taught himself the guitar by watching other musicians and started the group Santiga Casana, a charuquita group; kettle drum (timbál), ceramic jog, accordion and guitar. In 1926 Oviedo brought the Matanza Sextet to Havana. Later on Emilio Orfe created the danzón style with violin, cello, flute and African drums. He started his first orchestra at age eleven!
Oreste Lopez helped create Mambo by combining danzón with African rhythms from the street. The dancing itself came out of rehearsals where couples would come over and improvise. Lope put together Arcanos Orchestra in 1938.
Xavier Cugat was another important figure in popularizing Mambo. Born in Spain and raised in Cuba, Cugat was initially trained in classical violin beginning at age 8. His music was a unique blend of Afro-Cuban and Flamenco influences. Cugat spent time in New York and Berlin before giving up music to become a cartoonist for the LA Times (!), but in the 1940’s Charlie Chaplin dragged him out of his musical retirement to compose a score for the Chaplin film City Lights. Cugat formed a group, “Cugat and the Gigolos” and found that he could make a living in Hollywood doing tropical music for films. He created a smooth Latin blend of music that was very popular with Busby Berkeley and Fred Astaire.
Don Aspiazu started the Rumba craze in 1930 with his Rumba dance team and full orchestra. Anglo-Americans were in a frenzy over the “fiery tempo and barbaric melody” and thought of Latin music as daring and fascinating. The film industry continued to popularize Latin music with Desi Arnaz and his orchestra singing such songs as “Babalu” and “Cumbanchero”. In 1940 he popularized the conga line dance.
Tito Puentes’ contribution to Mambo is well-known, as are the contributions of Willy Colon and Celia Cruz. Cruz was recorded on Cuban radio at age 7 and made her first record in 1951. One lesser-known figure is Arsenio Rodriguez, one of the true fathers of Salsa. A blind drummer in Cuba, he began to evolve the Salsa sound from Mambo in the early 1960’s.
People continually argue about the difference between Mambo and Salsa. Some say they are the same thing. Some say Salsa is something you eat! Some think Salsa is a generic label for all different types of Latin music. But if you listen to the early Mambo of Tito Puente, Machito, Beny More, Tito Rodriguez and the many greats who started playing before 1960, and then listen to some of the newer folks on the block, you’ll find a distinction there easily enough. As to whether to move the body or feet on the first or second beat, that is a whole subject all on its own.
For more information on Latin music, Descarga has an extensive line of recordings, videos and written works on the subject. “The Roots of Rhythm, narrated by Harry Belafonte, was the main source of information for this article. To order it from Descarga, call toll-free 1-800-377-2647.
HISTORY OF SALSA
Raíces/ Roots
The history of the Latin popular music known worldwide as “salsa” began centuries ago in the islands of the Spanish Caribbean, in a context of slavery and colonialism. Yet, it is inextricably tied to twentieth-century New York City and the growth of a thriving Latino community here. Its distinctive polyrhythm and vocal and instrumental call-and-response identify the Afro-Caribbean roots of Latin music –traditional and contemporary, sacred and secular.
The colonial Era
The story of Latin popular music reveals the triumph of the human spirit over the crushing forces of slavery and colonialism. For centuries, men, women, and children from West and Central Africa-the lands of the great nations of the Yoruba, Efik, and Bantu peoples, among others-were brought in chains to Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Thrown into encounters with diverse and heretofore unknown African, European, and indigenous peoples and cultures, they carved out ways to ensure their own survival and that of their cultural expressions. Though plantation life was harsh under Spanish rule, it allowed for the establishment of sacred and secular cultural institutions, such as religious houses and brotherhoods, in which tradition could be maintained and adapted and new traditions created. “Cimarron” (escaped slave) communities also provided a context for the preservation of traditional musical forms.
By the late nineteenth century, slavery had come to an end throughout the Caribbean region. The euphoria of freedom soon gave way to the reality of making a new life in the midst of economic and political upheaval. The Spanish American war of 1898 resulted in the end of Spanish colonial rule and the emergence of the United States as the dominant imperial power in the region. With the transformation of plantation economies into agribusiness, displaced agricultural workers migrated from countryside into town, and from island to island. Blacks, whites, and “criollos” arrived in Havana, bringing the rhythms of “Rumba” and “Changui”. To San Juan they brought “Bomba” and “Seis”, and to Santo Domingo, “Merengue” and “Carabiné”.
Transplanted and transformed in the urban settings, these and other sounds and styles were selectively brought to New York City in successive migrations.
New York City beginnings
While Puerto Rican settlement in New York began before 1898, migration increased once the island came under USA control. The first Puerto Rican “colonia” (neighborhood) developed in the area around the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By 1917, when the Jones Act made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens, east Harlem’s “El Barrio” had become the “colonia” of choice for new arrivals. An unforeseen result of citizenship was the earliest collaboration between African-American and Puerto Rican musicians and the earliest documented presence of Puerto Rican musicians in New York City, brought about by James Reese Europe (1881-1919), founder of the first booking agency for African-American musicians and director of the first African-American band to play in the Carnegie Hall.
With the outbreak of World War I, Europe enlisted in a black regiment of New York National Guard. When asked to organize “the best damn brass band in the United States Army”, Europe traveled to Puerto Rico to audition Island black musicians trained in municipal bands. The eighteenth men recruited included Rafael Hernández (1891-1965), who was to become one of Puerto Rico’s most famous and beloved composers. Europe’s band (later known as the 369th infantry “Harlem Hellfighters” band) is credited with introducing European audiences to Jazz. Back in New York City, its Puerto Rican members were the first Latinos to record and perform with African-American jazz in the city’s clubs and theater orchestras.
Other Island musicians and workers quickly followed, as the interwar decades saw continued economic hardship in the Caribbean and the rise of employment opportunities in New York City. Latino communities in New York supported dozens of Spanish-language theaters, dance, halls, nightclubs, social clubs, and music stores, all which fostered the development of a dynamic New York Latin music scene.
Latin music goes mainstream
From 1900 into the 1950s, popular stage, recording, film and broadcast media as well as Tin Pan Alley –the New York shorthand for publishers of popular sheet music- responded to the vibrant energy of Latin music. The introduction of the tango in stage and silent film production in 1931 gave rise to the popular image of the “Latin Lover”. New York publishers issued songs that became standards, such as Ernesto Lecuona’s “Siboney” (1929).
Latin music and dance grew steady in popularity during the interwar period. American tourists who flocked to the hotels and casinos of Havana in the 1920’s heard a new music called Son. In 1930, Don Azpiazu’s Havana casino Orchestra played Son and other Cuban dance music at New York’s Palace Theater, and introduced the classic “manicero” (The Peanut Vendor), which became a national hit. Under the gender of rumba, son became a national social dance craze. Spanish-born, Havana raised Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) and his orchestra opened the new Waldorf Astoria and became the hotel’s resident group, playing a mix of Latin and other popular tunes there from 1932 to 1947, mellowed for a broader American audience. The stage was set for the transition from son to salsa.
By the mid-1930’s American nightclubs were featuring the conga, a Cuban carnival tradition, and many Broadway musicals included Latin numbers. In 1939, two key Latino entertainers appeared on the New York stage, Brazilian singer-dancer Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) singing “South-American Way” in the Abbott and Costello revue On the streets of Paris, and Cuban-born Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) as a conga playing football player in the Rodgers and Hart musical Too many girls.
Cugat, Miranda, and Arnaz were among the many Latinos entertainers featured in Hollywood musicals with “south of the border” themes during the 1940’s. Teamed with Lucille Ball, Arnaz created the long running television comedy I Love Lucy. Featuring Arnaz’s character, New York based Latin band leader Ricky Ricardo, the show brought Latino music into homes nationwide beginning in 1951 and helped make mambo and cha-cha-cha the dance crazes of the 1950’s.
Latin + Jazz = the New York Sound
As El Rey Tito Puente (1923-2000) said, Latin Jazz is a marriage between Latin rhythms and Jazz harmonies. The connection that began with African-American and Puerto Rican members of James Reese Europe’s military band went on to forge a true New York sound. Seminal figures included Afro-Cuban Alberto Socarras, one of the first Cubans to play in a jazz band, and Mario Bauza, who played with both Latin and jazz groups. Bauza’s friendship with jazz great Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993), which began when both played trumpet in Cab Calloway’s band, profoundly influenced both jazz and Latin music. In 1940, Bauza and his brother-in-law Frank Grillo, “Machito” (1909-1984) formed Machito and his Afro-Cubans, the first group to incorporate African-American jazz musicians, harmonies, and concepts into Latin music. In 1947-1948, Gillespie collaborated with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo (1915-1948), marking the first genuine synthesis of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz.
By 1952, New York’s Palledium Ballroom at Broadway and 53rd Street has become the American center of the mambo dance craze, followed in 1954 by the cha-cha-cha. Created as an instrumental form in Cuba by Orestes and Israel “Cachao” López and Arsenio Rodríguez, mambo was popularized in the United States by Pérez Prado. Cha-cha-cha was the invention of Enrique Jorrín as a form of both dance and music. These dance forms brought “The Big Three” – Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez (1923-1973) – International renown.
And then they called “Salsa”
The musical excitement of the 1950’s flowed into the 1960’s. Alegre, the first Latino owned record label to record the “new” New York sound, rose to prominence. Charanga dance ensembles, with their distinctive string and flute sound, challenged the popularity of the mambo bands. Spearheaded by Dominican-born flutist Johnny Pacheco (b.1935), pachanga became a hot dance fad. Eddie Palmieri (b.1936) with Barry Rogers (1935-1991), Ray Barreto (b.1929), and Larry Harlow, developed innovative ensemble formats. Younger barrio musicians such as Joe Cuba, Johnny Colon, and Pete “Conde” Rodriguez created Latin bugalú, the first combination of rhythm and blues and Latin music. The Lebrón Brothers, Willie Colon (b.1950), and Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993) followed suit and moved into a hard-edged, urban sound.
Following the Cuban revolution, the United States ended diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. This action cut off the flow of music and musicians that had inspired the New York scene for decades. Four years later, immigration policy changes opened the door to migrations from previously excluded countries. Along with other demographic shifts, these two events altered the course of Latin music in ways that defined it even more sharply as a New York phenomenon. By the late 1960’s, the Dominican community had burgeoned, and rhythms such as the Dominican merengue, Colombia cumbia, and Puerto Rican plena and jibaro styles had become part of the New York music scene.
By the early 1970’s music once identified by specific forms and styles was clustered together under the salsa rubric. The tag gained commercial currency after “Fania” Records- the most influential record label in the field- adopted it to describe the New York music label produced. The name may have been new, but the sound of salsa is rooted in the rich mix of cultures, races and rhythms that is New York Latin music.
For: “Raices” Latin Music Museum.