Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Birth & Near-Death of Salsa
So, even if we know that most elements of salsa - which translates literally to 'sauce' -
were imported to Puerto Rico, how can it remain one of the country's most prideful ex-
ports? Much of that has to do with two artists in New York: Puerto Rican percussionist Tito
Puente and Cuban vocalist Celia Cruz. By the time these two became household names
in the 1960s, the Latin-/Caribbean-influenced style of big-band music, which used congas,
bass, cowbells (a Puerto Rican addition), bongos, maracas, a horn section, bass and mul-
tiple singers, had come to dominate American social dancing.
In 1964, Johnny Pacheco, a visionary producer, created Fania Records, a record label
that began to snap up talented Nuyorican musicians such as trombonist Willie Colón,
whose hip-popping music drew rave reviews from critics and brought crowds to the clubs.
The only thing the craze lacked was a name. Who came up with salsa? Depending on which
story you want to believe, the term itself was either coined in the 1930s by Cuban composer
Ignacio Piñerio and revived in the '60s in New York City's club scene, or a 1962 record
by Joe Cuba. It wasn't long before Charlie Palmieri, another Nuyorican, released an LP of
brightly accented tunes called 'Salsa Na' Mas.' If you're looking for a primer on the classic
salsa sound, start here; Palmieri shouts and swings through a set of tunes decorated with
lots of sassy flute lines and lilting stings. Scores of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Nuyorican
singers became household names in the '60s, and when Carlos Santana's now-ubiquitous
rock song 'Oye Como Va' hit the music stores in 1969, it may have marked the crest of the
Latin wave.
Though the craze left a mark on American pop and jazz traditions, the crowds dwindled
in subsequent decades as musical tastes shifted radically in the late 1970s. While Puerto
Rican youth turned to rock-and-roll imports from the US through the '80s, traditionalists
celebrated the sappy
salsa romantica
typified by crooners such as José Alberto.
THE 'BRIDGE' OF TITO PUENTE
Puerto Ricans and Cubans jovially argue over who invented salsa, but the truth is
neither island can claim to be the commercial center of salsa success. That honor be-
longs to the offshore colony known as El Barrio: the Latin Quarter, Spanish Harlem,
New York City. In the euphoria following the end of WWII, New York's nightclub
scene bloomed as dancers came in droves to the Palladium on 52nd St to bump and
grind to the sound of the mambo bands they heard, or dreamed of hearing, in the
casinos of Havana, Cuba. At the time, the music carried a basic Latin syncopated
