Evolution of Salsa Music

Evolution of Salsa Music source:Wikipedia.org
Salsa dance and music comes from s´on. It was mixed and has evolved over time within the rich basin of music from Cuba. In the 1950’s, many Cuban s´on bands went to the USA, in particular to New-York to play (e.g. La Orquesta Arag´on). When the revolution came about in 1959-1960, many of these musicians had to return to their country and left a void to be filled later by the puerto-ricans in New York City in the 1970’s, meddled in the rising of black soul music, rock and later on, disco.
From there on, we have a split history of latin music evolving both within the island and outside the island. In Cuba, music remained traditional for quite a while and eventually, influences from outside were integrated into local music, which gave us various original styles, “songo”, “timba”. Even today, timba music is rarely widely played in the clubs outside of cuba, for it is very rich and jazzyfied with complex breaks, and most dancers are used to simpler music. Furthermore, Cuban salsa has enjoyed a rich input of the folkloric “rumba” music and traditions that are still very alive there, including that of the music of Santer´ıa. Inevitably all of the Cuban bands include some of these elements in their modern music, and a lot of the timba made today grooves to the rumba rather than the s´on clave.
The music having evolved outside of the island, which has developed a more homogeneous sound, built on a solid foundation that was created in the 1970’s with the Fania recording company (so important that, were it not for the existence of Fania, the development of latin music would have quite different today.) Incorporating influences of the “jamming” rock music from that era, a more modal style of salsa has emerged, based less on arrangements around melody and sections but rather more on long solos improvisations over a fast canvas. More recently, various styles have appeared, including pop-salsa which mixes non-traditional instruments and formats (e.g. Marc Anthony), and salsa incorporating elements of puerto-rican folklore: plena, bomba music.
Collectively, this music is what we now call “salsa”. “The sauce” is a widely encompassing moniker for music which varies quite a lot in its influences and development.
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2.2. EVOLUTION OF SALSA DANCING Latin Dance Study Guide

2.2 Evolution of Salsa Dancing
In parallel to the parallel evolution of both of these musics, dancing followed through equally with separate, parallel development. In Cuba, the popularity of “casino dancing” gave birth to what we call “rueda”. This is the main style of dancing danced to popular cuban music today, whether with a single partner or with a group in a circle. Many elements of folkloric dancing, like the solo male dance “columbia”, are often integrated by cuban dancers within their salsa-casino dancing. A new style, raw and dynamic, perhaps even a little rough, is current in Cuba. This style is rarely taught by Cubans emigrees; they usually settle for teaching a blend of what they see the gringos do and their own style. (S´on dancing is still very much alive in the eastern part of the island, although much fewer people know how to dance it properly.) Outside of Cuba, latin dancing evolved into mambo and social dancing the 1960’s and 1970’s. Over time, styles have been blended in various amounts in various places, which gave us the kind of salsa that is danced most everywhere else than the carribean today: a simple salsa danced on the downbeats, within the framework of a line an a few simple turns. Exceptions are: New-York-style dancing (mostly in the “dancer” community, not necessarily in the puerto-rican barrios), with its fast elegant turns, L.A.-style dancing, which spices it up with various dips and acrobatic figures, and finally “dancesport”, the evolution of social dancing into a sports-like competition of precision and speed. Even though there are clear differences, all of these styles have much in common. For lack of a better word, in this document I will call the common denominator
of all these styles “international salsa”. In this document we will consider the two tracks of dancing in separate parts.
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