Baltimore Salsa Blog

How does a new salsa night start?

1. Promoters scope out venues such as restaurants, clubs, galleries, and studios that are appropriate for salseros. On rare occasions, the venue owner seeks out the instructors or promoters.
2. Owners and promoters negotiate a business deal each expecting to make money. The deal may include the owners paying the expenses for the night (staff, DJ, instructor, cashier) while making a profit from the cover charge and bar tab.  Or, promoters may collect the cover charge and then pay the instructor, DJ, and cashier. Or, the instructor simply keeps money collected for the lesson. Scenarios are endless.
3. After many weeks and possibly months of  negotiations, a deal is cut so that everyone will be rewarded financially.
4. A marketing campaign is created.
5. A grand opening is held.
6. A crowd shows up.
7. People dance.
8. Success.

Genealogy of Salsa – Part 1

By Rafael Rios

One of the stories that I have heard about the origins of the use of the term Salsa is that the Disk Jokey Phidias Danilo Escalona used to have a radio program in Venezuela called La hora de la Salsa  el Sabor y el Bembe. It was a very popular program as it played during dinner time. He explains that he included the term Salsa for the name of the program because in Venezuela at that time Salsa was part of the ingredients used to condiment the food that was being eaten. At the same time Sabor (flavor) and Bembe are terms that transfer from the idea of eating to music being Bembe used to refer to the richness that afro-cuban and carribean music will bring which was the music that was mostly played on the program. This name inspired one young musician by the name of Fransisco Betancourt to called the first album that he recorded with his band of afro-cuban and carribean rithms Llego la Salsa which was played frequently after its appearance on the program. This is dated to 1966. The term was not used beyond Venezuela.

The other story  that I have heard about the origin of the use of the term Salsa is the following: in a television interview of Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz they were asked how the term “Salsa” came about to be used for the music that they played they recall that the term originated during a radio interview done in Venezuela in 1967. The Disc Jockey Phidias Danilo Escalona interviewing them in the his program La hora de la Salsa el Sabor y el Bembe made a criticism of the music that their band played; it was not Cha Cha Cha , nor Pachanga, nor Guaguanco , nor Guaracha nor Son Cubano. He asked what they called the music that they were playing? Richie Ray answered him with a joke. “We called it ketchup”. Escalona, not knowing what ketchup was, asked them “What is that?” and Bobby Cruz answered “It is the sauce - “Salsa” - that you put on the hamburgers.” So Escalona said “I understand now what you mean,” and shouted through the microphone of the radio station “Salsa!” He immediately started playing the hit by the band called Jala-Jala from the album entitled Jala-Jala and Boogaloo. The first time that the term Salsa appeared on an album was in the Llego la Salsa by Fransico Betancourt y su combo latino or Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz album Los Durisimos, Salsa y Control album. From this we can say that the first tune to which the term Salsa was either Cocolia from Llego la Salsa or is Jala-Jala from the Jala Jala y Bogaloo record. I mention both because we can say that the term Salsa was firt used locally in Venezuela and the expansion to used world wide came with the second story. Both of them being important in the application of the term.

At the same time, in Puerto Rico, the editor of the magazine Farandula was writing that the Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz band should be referred to as the “Assassins of Latin Music” since what they were doing was introducing elements of Jazz, Rock and Roll, Swing and Bogaloo to Latin Music and that their creation was corrupting roots of Latin Music in a way that would eventually kill it. However, that editor misjudged how popular this music would become and how it would be embraced by the Latin people. In 1974 The Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz band won the title "The Kings of Salsa" at the "Coliseo Roberto Clemente" in San Juan, Puerto Rico. For a period of 12 hours, 24 bands had competed for the coveted title, and Ray and Cruz emerged triumphant.

In what follows, each one of the above popular Latin music terms will be defined and from the definitions we will draw a simple line that will link Salsa with its origins. At this point, the place and year the term Salsa originated has been mentioned, but where did this music come from? Many of the definitions were directly taken from Wikipedia.

Starting with the cha-cha-cha (in Spanish cha-cha-chá and also known simply as the cha-cha) is a style of dance music. In 1951, Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín introduced the cha-cha-chá to Cuban dance floors while playing with Orquesta América. According to Jorrín, the sound made by the shoes of the dancers on the floor sounded like "cha-cha-cha", while they tried to follow the new rhythm that, at the beginning, was simply called "mambo-rumba". In 1953, his La Engañadora and Silver Star became recorded hits. In early days, this dance and its music were both known as "triple mambo" or "mambo with guiro rhythm". The guiro is one of the instruments used in traditional Puerto Rican music and are believed to have originated with the Taino people. The guiro, is a notched hollowed-out gourd, which was adapted from a pre-Colombian instrument.

The Pachanga is a type of Latin American music and dance originating from Cuba in the 1950s. The dance briefly replaced the cha-cha in popularity, but ultimately was short lived. It still remains very popular, however, in Cali, Colombia, where the original hits of this genre can be heard any day of the week on various radio stations and, in the weekends, at dozens of dance clubs. Outside of Cuba, a 'pachanga' is the Spanish term for an informal gathering or party.

The Guaguancó is one sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a highly complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:

• three conga drum parts, namely the tumbadora (lowest), tres-dos (middle, playing a cross-clave counter rhythm), and quinto (highest, solo drum). These parts are also often played on cajones, wooden boxes.
• claves is a percussion instrument (idiophone), consisting of a pair of short (about 20-30 cm), thick dowels. Traditionally they were made of wood, but nowadays they are also made of fiberglass or plastics due to the longer durability of these materials. When struck they produce a bright clicking noise.
• palitos (wooden sticks striking the side of the drum) or guagua (kind of woodblock)
• a solo singer
• the coro (choir)
• two dancers, one male, one female

Dance, lead vocal and quinto interact in a complex manner.

Some historians have suggested that the guaguanco may be derived from the "yuka", a secular dance of the Bantu people. It became distinct from other forms of rumba, such as yambu and columbia, in the mid-1800s. Usually danced by a male-female couple, it represents a flirtatious, enticing game and includes a distinctive body movement called the vacunao (pelvic thrust) performed by the male dancer (also found in other African-based dances from Latin America). Remnants of guaguanco are evident in the hip and pelvic motions of modern salsa dancers, and references to guaguanco are often made in the lyrics of salsa music. It is interesting to note that the vacunao move was made famous in the United States by Elvis Presley.

"The couple begins to dance -- the male dancer is more active as he circles around her without touching her. The dance climaxes as the male attempts to give the vacuano when the female is unprepared to avoid it. Much of her dancing expertise resides in her ability to entice the male while skillfully avoiding being touched by his vacunao." (Vernon Boggs, Salsiology, 1992)

The dance originated in Spain, evolved largely in Cuba and was traditionally an early form of peasant street music with satirical lyric content somewhat in the Son rhythm style. In Cuba, it is now use as a loose term for a general, medium-tempo Son Montuno or a little brighter-style tune or groove.

The Cuban Guaracha derived from the fusion of a vast cloud of rhythms during the mid 1950s in Cuba. It started as a descarga-like musicalization (in fact, called descarga) provided by various bands. But it was actually the Sonora Matancera orchestra who put a seal of perfection when Celia Cruz joined it. Because she was mainly a Santeria (Afro Cuban) singer, she was able to integrate her style to further enrich this mixture of all Cuban rhythms. Following the Sonora Matancera, others, like Beny Moré, Roberto Faz, Pío Leyva, Riverside and Rumba Havana expanded it to exhibit it in New York, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and other countries. At the mid 1960s, the Guaracha name started to fade away without losing its popularity. By the end of the 1960s, Guaracha would have acquired a new name and style: Casino, what many people outside Cuba refer to as Salsa.

The Puertorican Guaracha. Originating in Spain, the old Spanish version was a dance in two sections. One is the triple and the other double. It originally was played in 4/4 time. The Spanish guaracha came to Puerto Rico from Cuba in the 1850's, and developed into its current modern jazz, salsa style. Now it is generally played with a bolero section in 2/4 time and a clave section in either 6/8 or 3/4 time, although the order of these sections is sometimes reversed. The guaracha then ends with a rumba section.

Cortijo Y Su Combo, Ismael Rivera, Mirta Silva, a prime singer of La Sonora Matancera better known as "La Reina de la Guaracha" the Queen of the Guaracha where great examples of Puerto Rican guaracheros. Anothers example is Corneta sung by Daniel Santos.

The Boogaloo is a genre of Latin music and dance that was very popular in the United States in the late 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans and Puerto Ricans. The style was a fusion of popular African American R&B, rock and roll and soul with mambo and son montuno. Boogaloo entered the mainstream through the American Bandstand television program.

So far we have touched on the earliest roots of Salsa music. In following article, we will continue to trace the now rapidly developing growth in what would become Salsa.