This is undoubtedly one of the greatest misunderstandings in the history of music. If you’re not Latin American or you’re not an avid dancer and someone says salsa, what do you think? At best, perhaps, a great dance. At worst, you consider that it is a portmanteau word which designates any more or less Latin music that operates on a Caribbean rhythm. And in this case, it’s the so-called “romantica” salsa you’re thinking of.
Real salsa is decidedly New York. It was also born in the same conditions and the same neighborhoods as hip-hop ten years later, that is to say in the Bronx at the turn of the 70s and all the singers who created it. invented are in the vast majority first English-speaking. Salsa, “it’s not a rhythm, it’s a project of inclusion” says Willy Cologne, one of those who formalized it and this episode will attempt to remove this misunderstanding.
Birth of salsa
We are in 1970, Sauce and Control is an absolutely brilliant song which will give its name to this extremely broad genre which has actually existed de facto for almost more than 40 years on Broadway, in the Bronx, in Harlem. This type of music which mixes Latin American jazz and jazz is Cuban. Until then, a whole series of trends called mambo, son montuno, guaracha, guaguanco, cha-cha-cha, bougalou, were these genres born from the encounter between imported Latin American cultures by immigrants, whether Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican or Venezuelan, with the New York American world. All these styles that had followed one another, which were often worn by the same musicians, continued to evolve with them without having a name. This name will become salsa. It could have, César Miguel Rondón tells us in his book “The Book of Salsa”, be azúcar, sugar, calor. Because salsa simply means sauce.
Eddie Palmieri, Miles Davis of salsa
He’s Charlie’s little brother who himself had a big big bang which worked very well in the 50s where we played cha-cha-cha, rumba, mambo. Eddie, for his part, will stand out and will never stop giving little nudges to what is happening musically, daring to do almost everything, introducing new instruments, in this case trombone, which he will make omnipresent in his music. He will be a king of boogaloo, the sound of New York, a very permeable sound, with pop airs. It is considered that Bougalou was born with a title called Micaela and which was sung by Pete Rodriguez: A title with lyrics which juggle several languages and which is also inspired by rock, this genre which has conquered Latin youth but also the whole world.
Musical references and archives
- The Lebron Brothers, Sauce and Control
- Tito Puente and His OrchestraThe King of the Timpani
- Archive : Tito Puente interviewed by Hudson Music
- Machito, Tanga
- Arsenio Rodriguez, Sandwiches (Guaracha)
- Celia Cruz, The Happy Guajirito
- Chano PozoBuy, buy, buy
- Machito, pigeon soup
- Fajardos and his all star orchestra, The Parkers
- Eddie Palmieri, Oh how rich
- Ray Barretto, El Watusi
- Joe Cuba, Peace
- La Lupe and Tito Puente, What I asked you
- Archive : Johnny Pacheco defines salsa in the film “Salsa Connexion”
- Johnny Pacheco, A fan
- Willie Colon et Hector Lavoé, What what Cole
For further
The Salsa Book by César Miguel Rondon published by Allia, translated by Maxime Bisson.
2024-03-31 18:37:02
#real #salsa #story #Latin #jazz #boogaloo #sound #York
