The Second Case of the Roots of Salsa

I recently returned from my third voyage to Cuba... time for another Latin theme week on The Adventures!

This time I am returning to the theme of Salsa Roots, with a big focus on Cuban music. Salsa is a dance step that originated in New York in the 1970s, and has since completely conquered Latin America. It is hard to find an American country south of the US that does not favor salsa as the dominant step on nightclub dance floors. Salsa dance and music has roots in many Caribbean traditions, and it was largely popularized via the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. But like anything in Latin music, the deepest roots always lead back to Cuba.

The Cuban rumba, originally known as "guaguanco," is often named as a precursor to salsa. True Cuban rumba is performed with percussion and vocals only, so it is not always an intuitive connection musically; but one can certainly see that the provocative hip-swaying movements of Cuban rumba dance have added a crucial ingredient that separates modern salsa from the more ballroom-flavored formalities of earlier Latin dance sensations such as mambo and cha-cha-cha. Musically, one frequently hears performers morph seamlessly from full band salsa into rumba percussion, and the common bass line idioms of salsa are easily transposed onto rumba drumming.

So we start today's show with early Cuban rumba. I begin with a couple sets of roots and guaguanco, then wind up the first hour with an infusion of uptown sophistication in the form of some fun son montuno. Second hour today begins with a sort of a slow jam set; I'll sample some moody exotica, including a couple torchy boleros. We move up toward modern salsa sounds after that. Note that no more than a half dozen songs today were recorded in the age of salsa dance hegemony... many songs here support the dance moves and tempo, but the vast majority of these pieces were not written for salsa dancing!!