Salsa
Caribbean-derived dance music shaped in 1960s/70s New York, built on the clave.
What it means
Salsa is a highly rhythmic dance music based on Cuban and Puerto Rican precursors such as son and guaracha, consistently built on the rhythmic grid of the clave.
Musical use
A typical line-up includes brass, piano, bass, several percussion instruments such as congas, bongos and timbales, and vocals, often alternating between a lead singer and a chorus. Salsa established itself as a distinct umbrella term mainly from the 1960s and 1970s in the Puerto Rican and Cuban community of New York, partly through the record label Fania Records. Salsa is distinct from son, from which it takes essential musical elements: as a marketing and umbrella term, salsa gathers together several Caribbean styles, whereas son denotes an older, narrowly defined Cuban genre.
Performance practice
Internalise the clave pattern first, before practising the bass and piano parts, since in salsa every voice must stay exactly aligned with this underlying grid.