Salsa (music)
Salsa ( Spanish for "sauce", f. ) Is a style of Latin American music that emerged in the United States in the 1960s as a hybrid of several styles from the Caribbean . Salsa music and salsa dancing are particularly in the Spanish-speaking world of the American continent and the Caribbean popular , moreover, lovers, dancers and musicians of salsa found worldwide, especially in the big cities .
prehistory
In the first half of the 20th century, Cuba was the center of Latin American music and the most important source of musical inspiration for all countries bordering the Caribbean , especially Mexico and the USA . Cuba was the Americans' favorite vacation and leisure paradise - there was a lively musical exchange and musical innovations quickly found their way into the US music market. At the beginning of the century, the Danzón came from Cuba to Mexico and from the 1920s onwards increasingly established itself in Mexico City and Veracruz . In the 1930s, rumba made its triumphant advance from Florida to New York City , starting with El Manisero by Don Azapiazu y su Havana Casino Orquesta, the first rumba hit in the USA. From the 1940s Latin rhythms mixed with the increasingly Louisiana - Jazz - under the influence of bebop and big band jazz formed up the so-called in the US "Latin big bands.". New York in particular became a center of Latin jazz ( Palladium , José Curbelo wrote Familia and Mambo y cha cha cha in 1952 , Tito Rodríguez , Tito Puente , Israel “Cachao” López ). The mambo took a different route at the end of the 1940s: the Cuban Dámaso Pérez Prado had been playing mambo rhythms in Mexico for some time until the breakthrough came in 1949 with the hit Qué rico el Mambo .
In 1955, a slower rhythm derived from danzón celebrated an overnight success in New York: the cha-cha-cha . It was the time of the great dance orchestras and charangas that played in the dance palaces ( Beny Moré , ex-singer of Pérez Prado and Celia Cruz with the Tito Puente Orchestra). Two Puerto Rican musicians, Ismael Rivera and Rafael Cortijo , got together in 1948: they mixed the Afro-Caribbean rhythms Bomba and Plena with Latin big band music, which was new for the time. With their group "Cortijo y su combo" they achieved great popularity in the USA and Puerto Rico .
With the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the subsequent American blockade policy, the fruitful musical connection with Cuba came to an abrupt end. Many Cubans fled to the USA, and Cuban music in the USA had its last heyday in the early 1960s. From 1962 the USA tried to push back the cultural influence of Cuba, the legendary Palladium dance palace in New York had to close. Rhythms from Brazil , such as bossa nova and samba , were supposed to fill the gap. In 1964 a group came to New York that revolutionized the music world internationally: The Beatles . The influence of rock music was unstoppable. Then a new fusion of Latin American rhythms and rock music was created based on the model of the twist : the boogaloo . It had its short heyday from 1966 to 69 and was the direct forerunner of salsa in terms of music history. The other important musical strand towards salsa comes from Latin jazz .
Development of Salsa
precursor
In 1963 Tito Rodríguez played with his orchestra for the last time at the Carnival in Venezuela ; then he dissolved it. His former pianist Eddie Palmieri , Charlie's younger brother, then formed his own group “La Perfecta”: as a basis, he set two trombones in addition to vocals, piano , bass , tumba (= congas ) and bongos . He wrote the arrangements, in which he inserted jazz elements and improvisations , himself. He took the model of concentrating on the trombones as the only accompanying instruments for the rhythm from the Puerto Rican Mon Rivera. This made him a lonely pioneer of salsa music. He broke away from the pomp and glitz of big Charanga -Orchester with their classic line, at the same time he also broke away from the Son - Conjuntos where the trumpets occupied the implementation scheme, never the trumpets. The place of music was no longer the dance palaces, but the small clubs and bars in the barrios . The arrangements with the trombone riffs became more aggressive and the lyrics incorporated the social and political conflicts of the time.
The 1970s
In 1964, Johnny Pacheco , an American band leader with Dominican roots, founded the independent record label Fania . It was initially used to promote his self-produced music. Three years later his partner, the American-Italian lawyer Jerry Masucci, took over the management . Fania began to sign her own musicians, such as rock and jazz pianist Larry Harlow and bassist Bobby Valentín , but also promoted young, unknown up-and-coming artists, such as the 15-year-old trombonist Willie Colón and the singers Ismael Miranda and Héctor Lavoe . In 1968 the Fania musicians made their debut in the “Red Garter” in Greenwich Village and organized a “descarga jazzística” (= jam session ), in which many of the then well-known Latin American music artists presented the new mix of boogaloo and Latin jazz . However, the movement did not last, most musicians were only invited and then dispersed again. From 1968 Fania began to build up her own house band, the so-called Fania All-Stars . With these, Fania gave a concert in the Manhattan dance salon "Cheetah" in 1971 , which formed the basis for four LPs and for the first salsa film "Nuestra Cosa Latina", which were subsequently released. A year later, the PROLAM (“Puerto Rican Organization for Latin American Music”) organized a free open-air concert with the Fania All Stars in Central Park , which attracted 50,000 spectators. A year later, in 1973, Fania gave the first concert at the sold-out Yankee Stadium in the Bronx - a concert with a festival character. At the same time, under his new promoter Izzy Sanabria , Fania operated extensive marketing of the new style of music under the term "Salsa" in the press, radio and television. During these years, Fania musicians made specific trips abroad to Colombia and Venezuela to present their music. In 1975 Sanabria organized the “Latin NY Music Awards”, the first award ceremony for salsa music, whereupon the NARAS (= the organizing committee of the Grammy Awards) was forced to include a separate category for Latin American music from 1976 (which Eddie Palmieri won). A new film from the Yankee Stadium concert, simply titled "Salsa," was released in 1976 by Columbia Pictures . Little by little, Fania bought up all competing record labels that also distributed Latin American music, thus securing a monopoly on the marketing of salsa music in the USA. The Fania All-Stars finally established themselves as the top salsa group. 1977 Willie Colón took from Panama coming Ruben Blades as a singer. With his talent, Fania was able to increase her success again over the next six years and make Salsa known across Latin America beyond the borders.
The 1980s
The 1980s were often viewed as a decadent decline for salsa. To Fania , the center of salsa music, it was quiet, the former Fania musicians started solo careers. In the search for innovations one experimented with rock instruments, in particular synthesizers were included in the salsa bands. In 1980 Rubén Blades designed a so-called “concept album”: Maestra Vida I and II , in which each song is linked to the next and in this way all songs are linked to form an overall story. But that was an exception. The urge for musical creation, as the salsa musicians of the 1970s still knew it, subsided.
The cable television reached early 80 Puerto Rico and the MTV era with rock , pop , metal and New Wave . The range of musical alternative rhythms multiplied abruptly and increasingly displaced salsa from the media. Instead, another Caribbean rhythm filled the void: the merengue ! For some time now, Puerto Rico has experienced an increasing wave of immigration from Dominicans , who fled the unrest to the neighboring island and brought the merengue with them. The wave was accompanied in particular by a singer: Wilfrido Vargas , who in 1983 kicked off a whole series of merengue hits with El Africano and made him internationally popular.
Interest in salsa music, on the other hand, generally waned. In order to bring them back to mainstream radio, older songs, ballads etc. began to be rearranged and given salsa rhythms. Salsa pieces became love songs in this way, often with a frivolous appeal. The subject of "sex" in the texts was deliberately used for commercial success. What one would never have dared to say personally could be sung about openly in music: sexual desire, incitement to infidelity, incitement to make love, etc. So salsa had its first sub-category: salsa erótica was born.
The best known representatives of this era are Eddie Santiago in Puerto Rico ( Tú me quemas, Tú me haces falta, Todo empezó ) and from New Jersey native Frankie Ruiz ( Desnudate mujer, La rueda, Primero fui yo, Tú con él, Esta cobardía etc .). Other well-known salsa successes were Héctor Tricoches Lobo domesticado , David Pabon's Aquel viejo motel or the classic Ven devórame otra vez by Lalo Rodríguez. However, by far the most popular song, omnipresent and apparently timeless, is Lluvia by Eddie Santiago.
The salsa piece most played in the US Latino charts in 1986 was El gran varón by Willie Colón . It is a story about the social consequences of the HIV virus, recently discovered at the time, with an appeal to beware of the deadly disease.
Current
In 1987 a young, hitherto unknown trobador from Nicaragua sought contact with Eddie Santiago in Puerto Rico and, after a short but very fruitful collaboration with him (1989–1991), initiated the end of "salsa erótica": Luis Enrique . He turned to calmer and softer tones in salsa, which he understood as a conscious counter-concept to “salsa vieja”. This salsa style found its way into salsa history as salsa romántica and continues to the present day. The currently most commercially successful salsa singer and at the same time representative of the "salsa romántica" is Marc Anthony .
Origin of the term
Izzy Sanabria, journalist and promoter of the famous Fania record label , introduced the term “salsa” in 1974 to describe the new musical genre. In his magazine "Sanabria", the "Latin NY Magazine" and as host of the salsa TV show "'73" he has increasingly used the term to categorize and describe the new style. In the 1975 Fania film "Salsa" the term was finally established in the title. This caused an enormous increase in awareness, which means that the beginnings of salsa are often set in the mid-1970s.
In retrospect, an attempt was made to trace the origin of the term “salsa” as a name for music: In 1933 the Cuban composer Ignacio Piñeiro wrote the Son Échale Salsita . The term became independent in the course of time as a cheering call for the dancers (similar to "azúcar"). In the 1950s, Beny Moré often opened his shows with the greeting "Hola, Salsa!" In 1962 there were the first songs with the term “Salsa” in their title: Salsa y Bembé in Joe Cuba Sextet's LP “Steppin 'Out” and Pupi Legarreta's debut LP “Salsa Nova”. And don't forget: Salsa y Dulzura by Ray Barretto (on the album: “El Ray Criollo”): a son montuno , but with an extended trombone and trumpet section (= “charanga moderna”). In 1963, the pianist Charlie Palmieri and his orchestra released an entire album under the title "Salsa Na 'Ma'". However, one should not confuse this. "Salsa Na 'Ma'" was a typical Charanga LP with traditional Cuban rhythms - the piece of the same name Salsa Na 'Ma' was a son montuno with the classical violin and flute instrumentation . None of this had much in common with “salsa” in today's sense.
Nevertheless, the term "salsa" propagated by Fania as a name for the new musical genre did not emerge out of a vacuum: In 1967 Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz published their song Salsa y Control . This was a hybrid form, often referred to as "salsa boogaloo". In 1970 there was a cover version of the Lebron Brothers under the Fania - label , which then entered the salsa history: suddenly emerged in the 70s in the United States a variety of clubs and dance schools, the "Salsa y Control" called themselves. In addition, Latin American music groups traditionally had close ties to Venezuela . At that time Venezuela was the country with the largest carnival celebrations in the Caribbean. Annual tours to Caracas were therefore part of the regular program for Latin American musicians. In 1966 "Federico y su Combo" published the title Llegó la Salsa in Venezuela . In 1967 the Venezuelan radio presenter Phidias Danilo Escalona broadcast his radio program “La hora del sabor, la salsa y el bembé”. Groups like Ricardo Ray's presented the boogaloo in Venezuela in 1967 (Caracas was just celebrating the 400th anniversary of the city's foundation) and discussed the new music with Escalona in interviews, so that it is no longer possible to determine whether the term “salsa” is now was minted in New York or Caracas (see also: Bobby Cruz). Even Johnny Pacheco , musical director of Fania, and the musicians of the early salsa era have traveled in 1973 to the carnival in Venezuela and should have taken from there the term "Salsa" with back to New York.
The boogaloo was also received with sustained enthusiasm in Colombia, where it was particularly impressive compared to the cumbia with its fast rhythm. The boogaloo is still valued in Colombia today ( Sonora Carruseles , Grupo Galé ). This explains how salsa was created around the same time at the end of the 1960s in various centers in the USA, Puerto Rico , Colombia and Venezuela .
meaning
Initially, it was often claimed that salsa was just a label for marketing the music and thus a fad. Basically, it just hides the old traditional Cuban rhythms , spiced up with jazz elements for better commercialization . Both are not tenable. Of course, the music industry needs a name for a new style of music and uses it to categorize it. What raises a form of music above a short-term fashion is the degree of identification of the musicians and listeners with the music.
The 1960s was the time of political upheaval ( Kennedy assassination , Vietnam War , the protests of the black civil rights movements and the rebellion of the beatniks ). In New York , Puerto Rican youths formed the Young Lords , who did not shy away from violence in their struggle for equality and recognition. In general, the Latino community as a minority in New York suffered from identity problems: the Anglo-American culture seemed overwhelming, Puerto Rican families were now in the second generation in New York and the children and adolescents naturally adopted the American way of life, especially the English language. American rock music dominated the mass media . The salsa set a counterpoint in this situation and created a space of cultural identity based on one's own origin and the special living conditions in the “ barrio ”.
The " Barrio " in New York, consisting of Spanish Harlem and the South Bronx , was mainly inhabited by Puerto Ricans . They naturally recorded salsa as their own music. But the Latin American community in New York in the 1960s was already changing and was changing noticeably as a result of the migrants from Cuba , Panama and the Dominican Republic . They all contributed to the creation of the new music.
The fact that the social conflicts in the metropolitan areas of New York can also be transferred to other cities in Latin America has contributed to the spread of music in the Caribbean . In addition, the influence of English-language rock music outside the USA was enormous: Venezuela at the end of the 1960s was a musically divided country: in the east, young people devoted themselves almost exclusively to " surf " (= Venezuelan expression for rock music from the USA), in the west of the “salsa”. Listening to salsa always meant turning to one's own traditions and culture. Not only was the Spanish language closely connected with this, but the lyrics themselves also took on a greater significance for the music (for example, in contrast to the mambo , where the pieces of music got by in rows without any text). "If you can't get into the lyrics you're missing at least 75% of its significance." (Willie Colón).
The political significance went even further: For Rubén Blades, salsa is “a test of the wonderful things that Latin Americans can do. It is the musical identity of the one 'Gran Colombia'. ” Simón Bolívar's dream of a merger of all Latin American countries due to the common language and cultural roots came to the fore in Salsa time and again (for example in Rubén Blades Plástico or Gloria Estefans Hablemos el mismo idioma ), as well as dealing with colonial history with its discrimination and racism.
Musical design
instrumentation
Based on the beginnings of salsa in the 1970s, the following observations can be made: Salsa bands have been drastically reduced compared to the Charanga orchestras, mostly to a maximum of eight or nine musicians. In addition to the bass , the piano and the singer, a brass section of two trombones or two trumpets was recorded.
The first pioneers of salsa music, such as Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colón, "Dimensión Latina" in Venezuela or "The Latin Brothers" in Colombia, relied on a single trombone setting and thus decisively shaped the classic salsa sound. Trombones have been a cornerstone of salsa music ever since - and that was new. In the traditional Son-Conjunto, a trumpet always played the leading role. In spite of the reduced line-up, the salsa seems much more voluminous and aggressive compared to traditional Cuban music. Sometimes you will also find a mixture of trombones and trumpets, but almost never saxophones , which with their soft sound are only used in larger orchestras to reinforce the brass. The Cuban Arsenio Rodríguez is considered to be a innovator of Son montuno . He reinforced the trumpet section in his son conjunto to three players. Fania took a middle course: three trumpeters and three trombonists were included in the “Fania All-Stars”.
A guitar is often part of the classical instrumentation of a son conjunto. In Cuban music it was mostly the tres, a string instrument with three double strings and an unmistakably high, almost piano-like sound. Rodríguez used both tres and guitar in his conjunto to accompany his “charanga moderna”. That of course predestined the Tres for salsa music. In the early 1970s, however, it was already difficult to find good Cuban musicians in the USA. Fania hired the Puerto Rican Yomo Toro, a virtuoso on many string instruments, who, however, preferred the Puerto Rican Cuatro . The Tres, on the other hand, largely disappeared from the soundscape of salsa music. It is traditionally played in Mexican salsa up to the present day.
Music thrives on innovations, demarcations and mixtures. As early as the 1970s, Puerto Rican groups used saxophones to stand out from the salsa sound of the USA. In the 1980s, attempts were made to integrate rock instruments ( electric guitar , synthesizer , drum set ) into salsa bands. Under the influence of Colombian folklore, the accordion found its way into salsa music. In the 1990s, with the resurgence of Cuban influences, the classical Charanga instruments ( flute , violins and other string instruments ) were increasingly used.
Timba, tumba, bongó: the rhythm section in salsa
Arsenio Rodríguez reduced the rhythm in his conjunto to just one conga and one bongo player. There was a similar combination in the 1950s in Latin Jazz (Cachao) and most recently in Boogaloo . This shift in emphasis also had an impact on salsa:
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The rhythm section of a salsa band essentially consists of three instruments: the tumbadora (= congas ), the bongos and the timbales . The classic salsa sound arises from the inseparable interplay of "tumba-bongó". In addition, there is a timbalero, which is clearly upgraded in its role. While the timbales were often integrated into a drum kit in Latin jazz and in Cuban groups, the classic drum set is initially dispensed with in salsa . The timbales are only supplemented by a cowbell that is attached to the pair of drums.
The reduction in the number of musicians also had an impact on the rhythm. The güiro , the claves and the maracas are only part of the rhythmic occasional instruments in salsa. Most affected by this degradation was the Güiro, who used to be played by a separate musician in the Charanga orchestras. Now it is only used occasionally - the singer picks up the Güiro while he sings. The same applies to the wooden claves, which are extremely important in Cuban music and which provide the basic rhythmic structure. Maracas are used relatively frequently by singers because, in contrast to the more complicated claves and guiro, they are relatively easy to use in addition to singing.
| Are only occasionally used in salsa: | |||
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All rhythm instruments simultaneously underlay the music with different layers and thus play together in a polyrhythmic (the so-called " patterns "). Congas and bongos emphasize the tradition of Swing fourth counting in 4 / 4 - clock with light by emphasizing the second beat. Singing and all musical instruments, on the other hand, emphasize the first counting unit according to European tradition, with a lighter emphasis on the third beat. In this way, salsa music creates a constant rhythmic tension between singing and musical accompaniment on the one hand and the rhythm instruments on the other.
Even if the claves are not used that often as an instrument in salsa music, the clave figure is of central importance in Cuban music . It marks a rhythm unit over two bars according to the scheme of the Cuban son . The clave rhythm is the key to Afro-Latin American music that the other instruments follow.
Other salsa rhythms are the Martillo rhythm on the bongos , the Cascara rhythm on the timbales and the Campana rhythm on the bongo bell. The slap notes on beats 2 and 6 of the Tumbao rhythm struck on the conga are a good orientation for dancers who dance "On-Two".
speed
With its 40 to 60 TPM (corresponds to 160 - 240 bpm ), salsa covers an unusually wide speed range and thus moves continuously on a scale between calm ballads and driving pieces that are too fast to be danceable. However, it is precisely this variability that increases the popularity of the music as it adapts to different moods.
The speed of a salsa song can also vary. The reason for this lies in the Montuno . The Montuno was originally the final part of the Danzón - a slightly accelerated and lively finale towards the end of the song. In Son montuno this final part was given more and more space and developed into an improvisational part . The intensity of the rhythms was increased and driven by special rhythm instruments such as the cowbells. The Montuno was also the location of the instrumental solos. Many salsa musicians imitate this scheme by putting their improvisation part at the end of the arrangement . The tempo increases and band members who are not playing can support the Montuno with additional rhythm instruments.
The centers of salsa
new York
In the USA, salsa has been found mainly in New York since the beginning ; the "Salsa Festival" takes place here every year in Madison Square Garden .
Miami
Due to the many Cuban exiles who fled to Florida after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Miami has become the second major salsa stronghold in the USA after New York. Most of the Cuban immigrants settled in a district of Miami called “La pequeña Habana”. Every year people look forward to the “Carnaval en la Calle Ocho” in March. It was celebrated for the first time in 1978 - it now runs over 23 Avenidas and has become the largest street festival in the USA. The “Premio Lo Nuestro” music festival has been held there since 1988, older than the Latin Grammy and the most important competition for Latin American music in the USA.
The Miami Carnival is also politically oriented. Cuban emigrants often hold a deep grudge against the Castro regime. Many artists are active in human rights movements. You are conservative. Music groups from Cuba that are suspected of being connected to the Cuban government or that they have received state funding will not be invited to the carnival. Here the salsa is an expression of the longing for a free Cuba without Fidel Castro .
The most famous salsa singer from Miami is certainly Gloria Estefan . With her album Mi tierra (1993) she hit the melancholy mood of the Cubans in exile and made Cuban salsa popular in the USA. Even Celia Cruz remained of the Cuban community in Miami always connected.
Against this background, Miami is a popular magnet for Latin American salsa musicians, especially Cuban emigrants ( Willy Chirino , Manuel Gonzalez and others). The legendary Colombian Grupo Niche is now also based in Miami.
Puerto Rico
Even in the 1970s, Puerto Rico was still under the star of old masters Rafael Cortijo and Ismael ("Maelo") Rivera . In 1975 they met for a concert at the "Coliseo Roberto Clemente" in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and together they played their old hits again ( El bombón de Elena, Quítate de la vía Perico, Oriza, El negro bombón, Maquinolandera, etc.) . With: Rafael Ithier on the piano, Roberto Roena on the bongos, Cortijo himself on the timbales and Rivera vocals. The reunification did not last, however, the musicians separated and returned to their old groups: Cortijo to his combo, Ithier to El Gran Combo , Roena to "El Apollo Sound" and Rivera to his "Cachimbos".
“Cortijo y su Combo” failed to achieve a resounding commercial success. El Gran Combo with the singers Pellín Rodriguez and Andy Montañez became the counterpart to Fania in New York and grew to become the most important salsa group in Puerto Rico. They worked independently under the "Coco" label. In 1973 Rodriguez left the group and was replaced by Charlie Aponte. The duo Aponte / Montañez then also sang in 1973 at the opening of the famous concert at Yankee Stadium in New York. In 1977 Montañez surprisingly left El Gran Combo to move to Venezuela to join the salsa orchestra "Dimensión Latina". Jerry Rivas came for him.
In addition to El Gran Combo and “Cortijo y su Combo” are Roberto Roena and “El Apollo Sound”, Bobby Valentin (with lead singers Marvin Santiago and Luigi Texidor), Ricardo Ray & Bobby Cruz and, last but not least, the famous group La Sonora Ponceña from Papo Lucca the salsa stars of the 1970s in Puerto Rico.
Since 1952, Puerto Rico has been an "associated Free State" of the USA, which makes Puerto Ricans de facto American citizens (without the right to vote). This results in a lively musical exchange between the island and the mainland. Puerto Rican immigrants such as the New Jersey- born salsa singer Domingo Quiñones are returning to Puerto Rico or vice versa, while singers born in Puerto Rico are looking for success in the USA (Cheo Feliciano, Tito Nieves and others). In addition, Puerto Rico has traditionally always been a point of attraction for Latin American emigrants, especially Dominican ones (José -El Canario-Alberto) and recently again for Cubans (Rey Ruiz). Puerto Rico is also known for its salsa singers, in Puerto Rico (Choco Orta), but especially in the USA ( La India , Brenda K. Starr and Helena Santiago).
In the 1980s, the center of salsa shifted from New York to Puerto Rico, especially around Eddie Santiago and Frankie Ruiz, who were very popular at the time .
Gilberto Santa Rosa and the newcomers of the 1990s, Jerry Rivera and Victor Manuelle , are currently among the most famous salsa singers in Puerto Rico.
Cuba
Calling Cuba a “salsa center” in the 1970s would be premature. Salsa was developed outside of Cuba and is still made for the most part outside of Cuba to the present day. Despite the USA's blockade policy , salsa reached Cuba relatively quickly via Puerto Rico - El Gran Combo was also known in Cuba. Still, musicians in Cuba were left to fend for themselves. Up until the 1980s it was next to impossible to get a travel visa and there was no exchange with other countries. Profits earned by music groups abroad were simply taxed away and Cuban radio, television and music publishers were nationalized and strictly centralized. That only changed at the beginning of the 1990s when, with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union , economic aid to Cuba was also no longer available. This forced the Cuban government to liberalize the music market, to recognize the US dollar as a means of payment (1993-2004) and to promote tourism. Cuban musicians have enjoyed limited travel freedom since 1993, are allowed to market some of their music themselves and even have a contract with a foreign record label.
The Cuban government has always had a tense relationship with salsa: Salsa was considered an invention of the “ class enemy ” in the USA. Officially, salsa consisted of rhythms that had always been played in Cuba, but were re-labeled by the imperialist US music publishers in order to obscure their true Cuban origins. The term "salsa" was therefore not used in Cuba for more than 20 years, instead one spoke only of "música bailable" ( Spanish: dance music ). As the influences of salsa in the late 70s were growing in Cuba, the United EGREM (= the state record label Cuba) Cuban musicians to the group "Las Estrellas de AREITO" that the counterpart of the Fania All-Stars was designed . In addition to playing traditional Cuban music, you should be playing Cuban salsa as well. Since a distinction in the rhythm was not feasible, an attempt was made to achieve this in the line-up ( flute , string instruments ) and in the texts, in which Cuban places and Cuban rhythms ( son , guaguancó , guaracha etc.) were sung more and more. Potpourris were preferred , in which the salsa was integrated into other Cuban rhythms.
When salsa became more and more popular internationally in the 1990s, Cuban music had been in increasing demand since 1997 at the latest with the Buena Vista Social Club and even Cuban musicians used the term "salsa cubana" more and more frequently, the EGREM committee began increasingly using Cuban musicians under the To market the label " Timba ". The name “Timba” was supposed to give Cuban salsa its own identity, which was welcomed by many Cuban musicians. At the present time, however, it is very controversial whether the timba really is a separate Cuban sub-category or just a further development of salsa.
The great father of Cuban salsa music is Juan Formell with his group Los Van Van (1969). He achieved what only a few Cuban musicians were able to do in the 1970s: he was allowed to leave Cuba and travel to Peru with his group . From there he brought surf rock and reggae with him. Afterwards he was not afraid to include electric guitar , electric bass and drum set in his group (a synthesizer was unaffordable in Cuba at the time). He called the new rock and reggae sounds mixed with traditional Cuban Charanga music Songo . The big time for Juan Formell y Los Van Van didn't come until the 1990s. Together with the Cuban group Irakere they mixed jazz elements into their arrangements and from then on also called the music "Timba". The music hit the international scene like a bomb ( Te pone la cabeza mala [1997], Aqui llegó Van Van , Temba Tumba, Timba [1998]) and hit the salsa scene of the world at a sensitive point. Starting in the USA and Puerto Rico, the "salsa romántica" was on its highs. But the new Cuban music showed a clearly different path: Salsa is not only gentle and romantic, but also fast and lively. In keeping with the “Timba music”, there was also a special dance style against hip stiffness: Despelote . Since the turn of the millennium, Juan Formell has dedicated himself to building up a “Cuban All Star” musician troupe in special collaboration with the NG La Banda group . Their ex-singer Issac Delgado has now started a successful solo career and even signed a contract with a US label. He has lived with his family in Florida since 2006.
Like Juan Formell y Los Van Van, several Cuban salsa groups benefited from the new freedom in the 1990s. A well-known example is the pianist Manolo Simonet, who founded his group Manolito y su Trabuco in 1993 . In addition to the typical trombone and trumpet section, he also included the classic Charanga instruments flute , violin and cello in his band. The group's greatest success was in 1998 Marcando la distancia .
Other new Cuban salsa groups are Bamboleo (1995), Orlando Valle, known as “ Maraca ” (1995), ex-flutist from Irakere , the formation Charanga Habanera (1996) or Azúcar Negra (1997).
In Cuba in 2000, the winning of the Grammy in the category of best salsa performance, which Los Van Van won with their album "Llegó Van Van", met with an enthusiastic response.
Relations between Cuba and the US deteriorated again under the Bush administration; since 2004 no Cuban musician has received an entry visa for the USA.
See also: Timba
Venezuela
Federico Betancourt with his combo and the group "Sexteto Juventud" pioneered salsa in Venezuela in the 1960s. It all started in 1966 when Federico published his title Llegó la salsa . But the groups have not yet found the appropriate response to generate a real boom in Caribbean music in Venezuela.
In 1972 the group Dimensión Latina was created based on the Puerto Rican / New York model with a trumpet set as the only management instrument. Oscar D'León was there as bassist and singer . Within two years, Dimensión Latina rose to become Venezuela's leading salsa band. Fania's visit to the 1973 and 74 carnivals also contributed to this . There was mutual exchange, El Gran Combo attended the Caracas Carnival in 1975, and Dimensión Latina visited New York in 1976 for the Salsa Festival in Madison Square Garden . But at the height of its success, Oscar D'León unexpectedly left the group in 1976 and founded his own formation La Salsa Mayor . Dimensión Latina only recovered from this blow when the singer Andy Montañez moved from El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico to Venezuela in 1977 . With him, the group then set clear accents in salsa music, but could not really stop the slow decline. Later, in 1978, a second well-known singer moved from El Gran Combo to Venezuela and strengthened La Salsa Mayor after it had also fallen out with Oscar D'León: Pellìn Rodriguez. The move of Puerto Rican singers to Venezuela was no coincidence: Venezuela, at that time unusually wealthy for Latin American standards due to its oil deposits, was the leading world market for salsa music from the mid-1970s. Following the example of the Fania All-Stars and the Puerto Rico All-Stars, the percussionist and arranger Alberto Naranjo tried to bring about a union of salsa musicians in Venezuela in 1977, called Trabuco Venezolano , but only with limited success.
In contrast, Oscar D'León rose to become the Venezuelan salsa legend . He has shaped Venezuelan salsa like no other and his fame continues to affect the present: Oscar D'León, the "Salsa Devil", the "Salsa Lion", the "King of Musicians" (1992) and the " World musician ”( sonero del mundo , 1996). His myth has made him almost the sole salsa representative of Venezuela, out of whose shadow it is for other groups such as Los Dementes , Federico y su Combo , Los Satélites , Billo's Caracas Boys , Watusi , Grupo Mango and many others, despite the salsa boom was impossible to step out.
To make matters worse, Venezuela found itself in a persistently severe economic crisis from 1983. Hyperinflation, over-indebtedness and political unrest did not remain without effects on the salsa scene. Those who could sought success abroad.
One of the groups that succeeded in this was certainly Naty y su Orquesta (Josè Natividad Martínez) in the 1980s , as well as the 18-member group Guaco , which became internationally known in the 1990s under its singer and director Gustavo Aguado is. Two youthful Venezuelan salsa groups that have attracted attention in the recent past are Adolescent's Orquesta (1994) under the direction of pianist "Porfi" Baloa. The Orquesta Pasión Juvenil (with singer Wilmer Lozano, 1997) emerged from this after internal disputes .
Colombia
Since 1957 , the Feria de Cali has been celebrated every year at the end of December in Cali , the third largest city in Colombia . In 1968 - a year after his visit to Caracas - Ricardo Ray traveled to Cali and presented the Boogaloo there. In 1971 he returned with his partner Bobby Cruz and presented his new piece Sonido Bestial . In the following years, the musicians from Fania increasingly visited Cali to promote their music there ( Héctor Lavoe , Johnny Pacheco , Eddie Palmieri , Cheo Feliciano , Henry Fiol , Celia Cruz and others).
Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincón, originally from Medellín , traveled to New York in 1968 with the cumbia group “Los Corraleros de Majagual” , where he encountered the new salsa / boogaloo rhythms. Then in 1970 he founded the group Fruko y sus Tesos , the first salsa band in Colombia. In the beginning they played the songs of Fania and were not very successful with their own arrangements ; it took a few years until "Fruko" and his Tesos rose to become Colombia's leading salsa band. In 1976 Estrada also founded a second salsa band: The Latin Brothers . With her two trombones she was to build on the successes of the great salsa orchestras of Willie Colón and Oscar D'León . As lead singer, he took over from Cartagena originating Joe Arroyo , who since 1973 already at "Fruko y sus Tesos" sang. In 1981 he went into business for himself, founded his own group “La verdad” and became one of the great salsa legends of Colombia. La Octava Dimensión (1974) and La misma gente (1978) are also among the notorious salsa bands of this time .
In 1980, Jairo Varela Martínez from Bogotá founded his group Grupo Niche . It would become Colombia's most popular and successful salsa group. Many well-known musicians worked with Grupo Niche before they went self-employed and founded their own groups. Alberto Barros (trombonist and arranger at Grupo Niche) founded “Los Titanes” in 1982. From 1986 Tito Gómez sang with Grupo Niche, ex-singer of Sonora Ponceña , with the Puerto Rican pianist Israel Tannenbaum. In 1986 composer and arranger Alexis Lozano left and founded his own group Orquesta Guayacán . In 1987 Grupo Niche split up and most of the band members at that time formed anew in the "Orquesta Internacional Los Niches" (short: "Los Niches"). To make up for the loss, Varela u. a. the well-known Cuban bassist Israel "Cachao" López and the percussionist Diego Galé from Medellín. Years later, the latter founded the groups La Sonora Carruseles (1995), Grupo Galé (1997) and Quinto Mayor (2000). Tito Gómez left Grupo Niche in 1990, followed by the singer Charlie Cardona - six years later he started a solo career in the USA.
Although so many musicians have changed over the course of time, Grupo Niche is for many Latin Americans the role model with which the typical sound of salsa music is identified.
The severe economic crisis in Venezuela led to the musical rise of the neighbor in the 80s: From then on, Cali saw itself as the secret capital of salsa, and the new strongholds of salsa arose on the Caribbean coast of Colombia: Barranquilla and Cartagena . "El Carnaval de Barranquilla" is now considered the second largest carnival in the world, combined with the annual salsa competition "festival de orquestas". Joe Arroyo alone has won it eight times, Grupo Niche five times.
In addition to the carnival, Colombia has a rich folklore tradition (gaita, porro, fandango, chandé, currulao, bambuco, abosao and jalaito). The most famous rhythms are the cumbia and the vallenato . These styles have flowed into salsa music. But folklore always includes dance, which has made Colombia one of the most original and independent countries of origin of salsa, not only in terms of music, but also in terms of dance style .
As in many Caribbean countries, music in Colombia takes place outside e.g. B. in the Salsódromo in Cali . Salsa was brought to the streets through folklore and carnival. Of course there are also dance halls and night clubs , but the dance often begins during the day in public places in so-called matinees .
This musical background makes the country an almost inexhaustible source of salsa groups and musicians, with such well-known names as Jorge Herrera (ex-bassist of "La misma gente"), Galy Galiano, Kike Harvey, Jerry Galante, the women's salsa band Orquesta Canela , the Salsera Yolanda Rayo , the groups Wganda Kenya, La Cali Charanga, Grupo Caneo, La Gran Banda Calena, Son de Cali (Willy García + Javier Vásquez, ex-singer of Grupo Niche), La Orquesta D'cache , Las estrellas del ayer (with Alvaro del Castillo, ex-singer from Niche), the Colombians by choice Alfredo de la Fé and Luis Felipe Gonzalez and the young musicians Grupo Raices (2000), Jimmy Saa (2003) and Paquito Barón (2005) .
Japan
A specialty in Japan are the so-called "Nikkeijin" ( Japanese : people of Japanese descent ). These are people whose Japanese ancestors emigrated to Latin America for economic reasons at the end of the 19th century . Although they do not have Japanese citizenship, they enjoy a special legal status: unlimited visits to relatives in Japan, work permits and, since 1990, permanent residence permits. The number of “Nikkeijin” has risen continuously since the 1980s. In fact , they are Peruvian citizens who (together with the Brazilians ) form the largest and almost only Latin American minority in Japan, which is traditionally a country with little immigration.
This has resulted in a great surge of Latin American culture in Japan and made Japan a significant enclave of salsa music.
The oldest Japanese salsa group is Orquesta del Sol (1978), who introduced their listeners to their own salsa arrangements in the early 1980s, some of which they even sang in Japanese at the beginning. For the next 20 years they played monthly in various music clubs in Tokyo , slowly building up a salsa scene and preparing the way for other groups. The peak of her musical work was in the 1990s. In 1985 the women's salsa group "Chica Boom" was added, who attended the Carnival in Havana every year from 1988 to 1992 and then in 1992 also presented their first album with Japanese salsa. Another female salsa group from the recent past are “Son Reinas” (1994), but from 1997 they started looking for their success more in the clubs of New York.
By far the most successful Japanese salsa band is Orquesta de la Luz , which released a new salsa album every year from 1990 to 1995. Lead singer Nora Suzuki continued after the group broke up; In 1999 she briefly formed the new salsa group "Estrellas del Japón". The classic among many successes of “Orquesta de la Luz” was I am a piano (1991), a song sung in Spanish and Japanese.
Salsa in Germany
The beginnings of the "salsa movement" in Germany can be traced back to the 1980s. Before 1980 salsa music was rarely heard or played in Germany. Exceptions were US barracks in Germany with a high proportion of Puerto Ricans and groups of immigrants from South America who had received political asylum in Germany in the 1970s due to political developments in their home countries (e.g. from Chile ). Various bands in the metropolises of Berlin and Munich and in the Rhineland ( Cologne - Bonn - Düsseldorf ) played a leading role in the introduction of salsa music . As early as the late 1970s, the Cuban double bass player Victor “Vitico” Cruz was thrilling audiences with his Berlin based band “Sugar Cane”. In 1979 the Colombian percussionist Daniel Bazanta founded the group “Yamambo” in Cologne . After a trip through Puerto Rico, trombonist Rudi Fuesers founded the band "Conexion Latina" in Munich in 1980. The first band with a purely German line-up was founded in 1981 in Düsseldorf under the name " Salsa Picante ". In 1982, the Peruvian singer Mario Reynoso founded the band "Salsa Latina" in the then federal capital Bonn. The singer Jorge Anchieta from El Salvador and the German percussionist Leonard Gincberg founded “Bongo Tropical” in Cologne in 1983.
Parallel to the increasing appearances of salsa bands in Germany, record mail order companies established themselves which imported the music, which at that time was difficult to obtain in Germany. In 1984, Wolfgang Gihr's “Musica Latina” was the first Latin music mailing service in Frankfurt am Main . In addition, the first "salsa discos" were opened in various cities. In Munich, DJ Chuck Herrmann has been playing salsa in the “Pop Club” and “Cadillac” since 1976. However, the big crowd came from 1984 (in the " Domicile " and later in the "Max Emanuel Brewery").
Catalysts for the further development and popularity of salsa music in Germany were various festivals in the 1980s such as the Tanzbrunnen in Cologne or the Cirkus-Krone -Bau in Munich. In 1982 in West Berlin , at the second Horizonte Festival of World Cultures , Machito , Alfredo 'Chovolate' Rodriguez , Rubén Blades , Willie Colón , Celia Cruz , Eddie Palmieri , Tito Puente , Johnny Rodriguez , Mongo Santamaría played in front of 12,000 listeners in the Waldbühne .
From the mid-1980s salsa music was present in almost all major German cities. For a long time, the battle for the rank of the “secret capital of salsa” in Germany was fought between the salsa bands from Berlin, Munich and Cologne. Because the Latino scene was concentrated in the Rhineland at the end of the 1980s, it finally became Cologne. After various festivals and performances, musicians stayed with their bands in Cologne or founded new salsa bands. So z. For example, the Peruvian singer Manuel Ramirez with his band “Yambequé”, the Venezuelan percussionist Felipe “Mandingo” Rengifo with his band “Kimbiza”, the Colombian singer Jorge Bazan Cuero, who founded “Bazan y la verdad” in Cologne, the Colombian composer and arranger Francisco Zumaqué (played with Eddie Palmieri ), who reorganized the band “Macumbia” in Cologne-Bonn, or Carlos Santana's ex-Timbalero , Nicky Marrero. The meeting point of the music scene was and is still today the practice rooms of the Stollwerck cultural center in Cologne-South.
The largest Afro-Caribbean festival in Europe has been taking place every year on the second weekend in August since 1982 in Hoogstraten (Belgium), where all the major salsa stars were / are represented.
Parallel to the opening up of the Caribbean for mass tourism in the 1990s, salsa music became popular across Germany.
See also
- List of salsa performers
- Salsódromo (grandstand street in Cali, Colombia)
literature
- John Storm Roberts: The Latin Tinge. The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States. 2nd Edition. 1999.
- Frances R. Aparicio: Listening to Salsa (Music / Culture). University Press of New England, 1998.
- Arne Birkenstock, Eduardo Blumenstock: Salsa, Samba, Santeria. Latin American music. With audio CD. dtv, 2002, ISBN 3-423-24341-4 . (Detailed overview of the historical development of Latin American music).
- César Miguel Rondón: El Libro de la Salsa. Colombia 2004 (Spanish).
- Hernando Calvo Ospina: Salsa. Havana Heat - Bronx Beat. Butterfly Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-89657-395-0 .
- Tanja Lindner: Salsa - pure lust for life… blv Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-405-16658-6 . (Dance course Rhythm Emocíón with a foreword by the Cuban choreographer Requena Delgado)
- Barbara Balbuena: El Casino y la Salsa en Cuba. 2005, ISBN 959-10-0997-6 (Spanish; The History of Salsa in Cuba)
- Barbara Balbuena: El Casino y la Salsa en Cuba. 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-8267-8 . (The history of salsa in Cuba)
- Raul A. Fernandez: From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz (Music of the African Diaspora). 2006.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Afro-Caribbean Festival: Antilliaanse Feesten