What makes salsa music

Thus from the s the main source of contemporary Salsa music were the Puerto Rican immigrants and the New York musicians that eventually merged. Remember Me. Username or Email. Salsa Music — History Salsa music is contagious. It can be pulsating, slow, suave, sensuous and foot-stomping. It's got the beat and the rhythm that are difficult to resist. Hearing Salsa music makes you unconsciously tap your feet to the beat.

Name change. Growing family of artists. Senegalese soldiers fighting for France in World War II brought home recordings of the latest cuban bands playing in Paris. The West Africans recognized something familiar in the music. The majority of the slaves transported to Cuba came from West Africa. These infectious new dance beats had their roots in the rhythms the slaves took to the New World. Contemporary West African salsa is wild — spacey electric guitar solos, swooping saxophone lines and wicked percussion.

Vocals may be in spanish, but are more likely to be on local tribal languages such as Wolof or Mandinga. The band were playing a Wolof version of the cuban classic El Carretero. The tama player launched into a high energy afrobeat dance at one point, lifting his knees into the air. Then he hitched up his long flowing robe, crouched, gave the crowd a big smile, and rotated his hips provocatively down, down, down.

Vocals are based on call and response chant. In many Hispanic communities, it remains today the most popular style of dance music. Salsa represents a mix of Latin musical genres, but its primary component is Cuban dance music. There, Spanish and Afro-Cuban musical elements were combined, both in terms of rhythm and the instruments used.

By mid-century, this music came to Havana where foreign influences were absorbed, particularly American jazz and popular music heard on the radio.

By the end of the ls, many Cuban and Puerto Rican people including musicians had settled in the U. This created the environment where salsa music completed its development. Many bands were formed; immigrants continued to make Afro-Caribbean music, but they adapted the sound to their new world.

They were influenced especially by American jazz. Gradually in the 50s and 60s, salsa as we know it today was emerging. The rise of salsa music is also tied closely to Fania Records which was founded in by the musician Johnny Pacheco and an Italian-American divorce lawyer named Jerry Masucci. The two met at a party in a NY hotel. Around this time, Latin musicians began to have an impact on mainstream U. Latin music was becoming trendy here and beginning to intrigue the rest of the world as well.

Both types of salsa remain popular today and with the popularity of the music, came the popularity of the dance. The key instrument that provides the core groove of a salsa song is the clave. It is often played with two wooden sticks called clave that are hit together.

For salsa, there are four types of clave rhythms, the and Son claves being the most important, and the and 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. There are other aspects outside of the Clave that help define Salsa rhythm: the cowbell, the Montuno rhythm and the Tumbao rhythm.

The cowbell is played on the core beats of Salsa, 1, 3, 5 and 7. The basic Salsa rhythm is quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow, in other words, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, which are very similar to the beats of the cowbell.

Recognizing the rhythm of the cowbell helps one stay on Salsa rhythm. 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. Tumbao is a rhythm in salsa that is played with the conga drums. Its most basic pattern is played on the beats 2,3,4,6,7, and 8. However, the historical development of timba has been quite independent of the development of salsa in the United States and Puerto Rico and the music has its own trademark aspects due to the Cuban Embargo and strong Afro-Cuban heritage.

It came into use as a music genre name, first as timba brava, around Historically, Casino traces its origin as a partner dance from Cuban Son dancing, and its rhythmic body motions from Afro-Cuban Rumba heritage.

Son is considered an older version and ancestor to Salsa. Son is danced on delay measure upbeat contra-tiempo following the clave Son Clave whereas Casino is usually danced on the downbeat break of 1 or 3 a-tiempo. In fact, during the s and s, Cuban artists brought Afro-Cuban son music into the USA, and it developed a strong following. The Afro-Cuban son combined with traditions from African American jazz to create a Caribbean jazz sound, containing a stronger beat than most American jazz styles.

In , When Fidel Castro claimed control of Cuba and turned it into a socialist nation, it resulted in a trade embargo from the United States. Which means that Cuban musicians could no longer come to New York to record their music, and Americans could no longer travel to Cuba. They refined it, formally incorporating it within American jazz traditions while also bringing in their native sounds and ideas.

The result was a new style of music, one which bandleaders and radio DJs would start to call salsa, about its distinctive and lively sound. No one knows exactly who started this practice, but it was probably meant only to liven up the crowd and encourage dancing.

Just like jazz music , salsa music disobeys stringent definition. Still, as time passed, it spread back across Latin America, and there it started to be re-interpreted by people all across the country. But what defines salsa as a music genre? Well, for starters, the most definitive trait of this genre is its basic rhythm, which they call the clave. This two-measure beat creates a somewhat alternating pattern of strong and weak measures that creates a pulsating and driving sensation, which makes salsa so danceable.

But to achieve this sound, you need to use the right instruments. Salsa music is just like many forms of Latin music, and it is defined by percussion.