New York salsa

Although the salsa genre borrowed most of its elements from Cuban music, currently, it is a genre on its own. It was established in the 1960s in New York. The Afro - Cuban music developed by the Bantus was the main root of the salsa genre. However, the high influx of Caribbean and Latin into New York City led to the introduction of different cultural practices and music genres, including the Cuban salsa. As the Americans adapted to the new music, they incorporated various elements from the European and African American cultures to restructure the music's rhythm and sounds, creating the modern salsa. Therefore, the immigrant communities in New York played a critical role in nurturing the genre by combining rhythms from afro Caribbean, Cuban, and Latin to create a unique rhythm. It also links elements of cha- cha- cha, rumba, jazz, guaracha, son montuno, mambo, and Cuban danzon (Pacini Hernandez, 2017). Like the Cuban son, the salsa genre quickly underwent various changes. It adapted to the various changes in fashion and music content in different locations combining with other non-Cuban styles such as funk, R&B, and rock, among others, to enhance the music's uniqueness (Pacini Hernandez, 2017). However, although the salsa genre created in New York is similar to Cuban music, the two differ in the sounds produced, the rhythms, the speed, and the dance styles. However, most of the instruments are shared between the two genres. Therefore, salsa music is a genre on its own. However, it retains some of Cuban music's heritage and cultural influences, including rhythms, instruments, and dance movements.

However, despite salsa music being a distinct genre currently, its origin is the Cuban son, and it contains various elements of the Cuban dances and music. The modern salsa emerged from the presence of Latin dances in New York City. The Cuban and Puerto Rican residents/immigrants in NY made their music and cultural heritage popular with the Americans. The Americans, in turn, transformed the local sounds such as funk, jazz, R&B, and rock to create a unique sound (Salsa music 2022). Some music fascinated Americans, including the cha- cha- cha, mambo, and pachanga. In the 1960s, most Latinos, African Americans, political activists, and organizations embraced the new unique music texts from a blend of different cultural groups and popularized the genre as Cuban son. However, the modern salsa gradually developed into a distinct genre from Cuban son music. However, the Fania records company was critical in promoting the genre through live performances and airways (Salsa music 2022). Cuban musicians considered salsa as one of the various genres they had established. Still, their effort to promote it globally under the "salsa Cubans" title failed, leading to the controversy of whether it was a piece of Cuban music or a distinct genre. The Cubans believed salsa has a Latin heritage and wanted to retain its highly inclusive, fluid, and broad nature (Valle, 2016). However, upon arrival in New York, salsa music incorporated a blend of African American and European cultural influences resulting in its evolution to become a distinct genre. It involved the influence and contribution of the Latino, non- Latino and other ethnic and racial groups hence losing some of the influence from Cuban music, although some remained (Valle, 2016). For instance, in the 1980s, Cuban musicians changed the rhythm and sound of the salsa by utilizing some jazz elements. It later evolved into "salsa erotica" and "salsa romantica," creating the music's more emotional, slower, and soothing nature. Later it involved concepts and elements of hip hop, soul, and R&B music genres (Flores, 2016). Therefore, despite the efforts by Cuba to retain its heritage in today's salsa, it has evolved to be a separate genre. Therefore, although the various elements of salsa are embedded into its Cuban culture and heritage roots, it evolved by combining different cultures, sounds, and rhythms for a unique tune establishing itself as a distinct genre.

However, there are differences between salsa and Cuban music in terms of their performance and rhythm. The main difference is that the modern salsa and the Cuban salsa (casino) are the origins and cultural influences. Cuban music was influenced highly by Puerto Rican and Latin culture. In contrast, European, African, and other racial and ethnic groups influenced salsa in New York (Perna, 2017). However, other differences include the dance styles where Cuban salsa involves movements that revolve around an imaginary circle. In contrast, the couple follows an imaginary perpendicular " line" in the NY salsa dance movements. In addition, modern salsa involves fast turns and twists. In contrast, the Cuban salsa dance concentrates on hip motion and slower leads (Román-Velázquez, 2017). Another difference is evident in the body motions where the New York style involves letting the hands and arms flow, while in Cuban, the main focus is swinging the hips and the entire body. Another difference is in the speed and rhythm of the music. In contrast, in New York salsa, there is a dramatic shift in speed and energy, including weight changes and pauses, and the music is speedy, while Cuban dance is constant, following the same rhythm and speed throughout (Román-Velázquez, 2017). In addition, although both styles are different, they are both complex. For instance, in the modern salsa, simultaneous twists are performed in a row, while in the Cuban salsa, they could incorporate complex arms intertwining and knots in the circles. Therefore, it could be challenging for a New York salsa dancer to adapt to the Cuban dance movements and vice versa due to the differences despite the two genres being similar.

Although most Cuban music elements are pronounced in the salsa music genre, there are various salsa-defining elements. One of the elements is bell patterns, where the handheld claves create the pattern and rhythm. Another element is the increased use of rhythms borrowed from afro- Cuban trends linked to west and central Africa (Perna, 2017). For instance, conga drums, bongos, and timbales used in salsa were among the instruments used in West Africa. It also involves the ostinato patterns, similar to the clave patterns (Laneri, 2017). In addition, the bass timbales, a clave neutral, Spanish lyrics, and Latin American styles influence. However, salsa dance is determined by the conga drum and the bass guitar's patterns, and the dancers change their moves depending on the sound and rhythm of the music. However, various roots contribute to salsa music, including the precursor music including, Kiribati, rhumba, nengon, and changui (Laneri, 2017). Other contributors include the emergence of American salsa, the Fania record's contribution to the marketing of the genre, and its ability to integrate Latin jazz, hip hop, pop, R&B, and funk to create the current salsa (Pareles, 2017). The medium to fast tempo allows the dancers to illustrate complicated body and foot movements enhancing the music's entertainment. Therefore, the modern salsa characteristics overlap with the Cuban salsa characteristics as most styles and rhythms are borrowed. Although most of the instruments used in salsa music collide with other genres such as Cuban music, the main instruments include piano, trumpet, vocals, congas, trombone, Guido, claves, and bongos, saxophone, guitar, maracas, and timbales. Since Cuba was the root of salsa music, the traditional Cuban instruments, including charango (string-based), and son conjunto (horn-based), were used during its early time (Ruiz Vega, 2019). However, some initial instruments were exchanged, and other new instruments were incorporated to generate energetic sounds. For instance, son conjunto was highly embedded in salsa's early stages of development. It consisted of trumpets, bass, trombone, trees, bongos, piano, congas, and handheld instruments such as claves, maracas, and Guiro salsa (Guide to salsa music: A brief history of the salsa genre - 2022 2021). On the other hand, string charango contributed a set of instruments consisting of flute, bass, piano, and timbales. In New York, where the salsa genre took its form, timbales, congas, and bongo were the main instruments used to create the bell patterns. The three instruments established the salsa's foundational sounds and rhythms, where the percussion style was spread worldwide salsa (Guide to salsa music: A brief history of the salsa genre - 2022 2021). However, the music structure consisted of a five-stroke design including calves, guajeo, Mona’s, percussion, and bass tumbao. Therefore, the New York salsa involves five strokes and uses different instruments, including piano, trumpet, vocals, congas, trombone, Guido, claves, bongos, saxophone, guitar, maracas, and timbales.

    Salsa music is a genre on its own, although it retains some of Cuban music's heritage and cultural influences, including rhythms, instruments, and dance movements. The influx of Caribbean and Latin into New York City led to the introduction of different cultural practices and music genres, including the Cuban salsa. As the Americana adapted to the new music, they incorporated various elements from the European and African American cultures to restructure the music's rhythm and sounds, creating the modern. Therefore, the modern salsa gradually developed into a distinct genre from Cuban son music. For instance, in the 1980s, Cuban musicians changed the rhythm and sound of the salsa by utilizing some jazz elements. It later evolved into "salsa erotica" and "salsa romantics “creating a more emotional, slower, and soothing nature of the music. Later it involved concepts and elements of hip hop, soul, and R&B music genres. Therefore, although the various elements of salsa are embedded into its Cuban culture and heritage roots, it evolved by combining different cultures, sounds, and rhythms to form a unique tune establishing itself as a distinct genre. However, in modern salsa, simultaneous twists are performed in a row, while Cuban salsa could incorporate complex arms intertwining and knots in the circles Therefore, it could be challenging for a New York salsa dancer to adapt to the Cuban dance movements and vice versa due to the differences despite the two genres being similar. The New York salsa involves five strokes and uses different instruments, including piano, trumpet, vocals, congas, trombone, Guido, claves, bongos, saxophone, guitar, maracas, and timbales. However, the differences between Cuban and New York salsa include the dance movement where the Cuban moves involve circular motions while the New York salsa involves vertical movements. Also, the New York dance style is speedy and involves complex row twists, while the Cuban music is slow and mainly involving body and hip movements.

References

Flores, J. (2016). Salsa rising: New york latin music of the sixties generation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Guide to salsa music: A brief history of the salsa genre - 2022. (2021, November 2). masterclass.com/articles/guide-to-salsa-music#what-is-salsa-music

Laneri, R. (2017, July 14). How New Yorkers' obsession with Cuba gave rise to Salsa. nypost.com/2017/06/14/how-new-yorkers-obsession-with-cuba-gave-rise-to-salsa

Pacini Hernandez, D. (2017). Race, ethnicity and the production of Latin/O popular music. Global Repertoires, 57-72. doi:10.4324/9781315093543-6

Pareles, J. (2017, June 15). 'rhythm & power': A little bling, a little politics, a lot of Salsa (published 2017) .nytimes.com/2017/06/15/arts/design/rhythm-power-salsa-in-new-york-exhibition.amp.html

Perna, V. (2017). Timba: The sound of the Cuban crisis. Routledge.

Román-Velázquez, P. (2017). The making of latin london: Salsa music, place and identity. London, England: Routledge.

Ruiz Vega, O. (2019). Jewish-Americans in New York’s Latin music scene: An analysis of Larry Harlow’s career, 1965–1979. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue Canadienne Des études Latino-américaines Et Caraïbes, 45(1), 83-103. doi:10.1080/08263663.2019.1662664

Salsa music. (2022). Retrieved August 21, 2022, from dancefacts.net/salsa/salsa-music/

Valle, M. (2016, May 01). "El baile del pueblo:" A 60-year legacy of performing a history of Cubans of African descent through Casino Salsa oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/157091