SALSA GLOSSARY

Below is a VERY BRIEF ClaveConChi glossary of terms, particularly related to salsa’s instrumentation, elements of connection, and Chi.

ajiaco (lit. “stew”) - Cuban culture as defined (1930s) by Fernando Ortiz, formed by the disintegration of formative African and Spanish elements into a new mixture of race and culture.

bachata – Sensual Dominican dance and music style that originated in rural and marginal neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic in the 1960s. Influenced by rhumba and son, it holds its own distinctive guitar-dominated sound, with bongo, guira and vocals. Listen for the low bongo note on “4” to sync your hip-hit with it.

bass – The first bass notes in Cuban son songs were blown from a hole in the side of the big round earthenware bottles used to store cooking oil. These botijas were eventually replaced with the marímbula, a cedar box with a hole cut into and metal tongues bolted to one side and producing a deep, earthy voice, also eventually replaced with the more versatile string instrument called the double bass.

batá – Hourglass drums played in the sacred rituals of Afro-Cuban santería, and since the 1930s joined to latin jazz arrangements. Drumheads are made with male goatskin, one much larger head (enu) than the other (chachá), laid horizontally across the thighs and played with bare hands. Said to mimic the tonal speech patterns of the Yoruba language, the Cuban set includes three drums: iyá (largest), itótetele (middle), and okónkolo (small).

bomba – Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric rhythm, and the drum which plays it. It was adapted by Cortijo in the mid-1950s into a popular dance style, and the rhythm in particular has been taken up by salsa musicians.

bongo – A pair of small Cuban drums often made of cedar wood with goat skin heads to give a bright, light, pinging sound, usually held between the knees and played with the fingers. The smaller drum is called the macho and the larger drum is called the hembra.

bongo bell – See cencerro.
Boricua – Puertorican, from the indigenous language of the island.

Borinquen – Puerto Rico, from the indigenous language of the island.

botija – A clay jug tuned by filling it with varying amounts of water. It played the bass part in the early son groups, replaced by the marímbula, and the string base.

cascara (lit. “rind, shell”) – Two measure pattern played with two sticks (“palitos”) on the side of the conga or on a woodblock in rumba set-ups, or on the sides of the timbales in a salsa group. Other names are gua-gua, cata, palitos and paila.

cencerro – Metal cowbells originally welded together in pairs. Today’s single bells yield two distinctive tones: a high note near the handle and a deeper note from the open bell. They add a driving, tick-tocking, cantering beat to salsa. (Also called campana.)

cha-cha-chá – A slowed down and “sweetened” mambo developed in Cuba in the 1950s (Enrique Jorrin is credited with the first in 1951). It gathers its personality, rhythm, and charm from the major dance sources, being also a stepchild of the Swing. The name is said to have come from the sound produced by the dancers’ sliding feet.

charanga – In Cuba, a style of ensemble featuring flute and violin. Charanga orchestras came into being near the turn of the 20th century, with the advent of the danzón.

Chi – Most simply, Chi is energy, what circulates in the universe, through us in connection with it, and through our connection in the dance. Chi permeates all things, and our aware, aligned, efficient, and graceful use of Chi can be learned and is one of the keys to dancing effortlessly.

clave – Salsa’s most basic and fundamental tool, consisting of a pair of smooth wooden cylindrical sticks, and which play the base rhythm called clave. There are various clave rhythms for different kinds of Cuban, Brazilian, and West African Music, but here we will use it as shorthand for son clave, or the 2-3 pattern described at length in Moving con Clave.

conga – Originally a single, large, portable drum played in carnival parades (still honored with the “conga line”) and religious ceremonies, modern versions work in sets or “nests” of generally two to four differently tuned drums. Different sizes include the quinto (smallest, highest pitch) used for soloing, the conga or segundo (middle) and the larger, lower tumbadora. Congas signify Africa; they were first introduced to the dancehall in the 1940s by Cuban guitarist Arsenio Rodríguez, and were a shocking reminder of the African presence.

conjunto – Generically meaning “group” or “ensemble,” but more specifically in Cuban music the term describes a line-up popular between 1940 through 1946, comprising clave, maracas, two trumpets, tres, piano, bass, bongo, and congas.

conjuntos guaracheros – "White" conjuntos i.e. groups who played music for consumption by whites and social elites. Their repertoires were dominated by the faster-paced guarachas and were rhythmically sparse, lacking interweaving patterns (eg. Sonora Matancera).

conjuntos soneros – "Black" conjuntos were ensembles who played for black and working-class audiences. Their playlists were built around the slower styles like the son montuno with a rhythmically dense sound (eg Arsenio Rodríguez y Su Conjunto).

contradanza – A line dance popular in the Spanish court and brought to the colonies. Its fast 2/4 tempo uses the cinquillo pattern later adopted by the danzón.

coro (lit. “chorus”) – Backing vocals who provide the framework for the sonero (lead singer) to improvise lyrics. Also, the section of a song featuring this interplay between coro and sonero. Also called the “montuno section” or simply “montuno.”

cumbia – A Colombian folk dance popularized in the 1950s across Latin America, especially in Mexico. Cumbia’s evolultion is variously traced to the melding in Colombia of the indigenous peoples, the Spanish/Moorish, and African slaves, while others claim that it began as a courtship dance among the slave population. Its rhythms are simpler, more “country,” than salsa’s and do not involve the clave, but instead a repeating count of 4 beats. Salsa singers will often trout out a cumbia section of the song by calling “a caballo,” or, “on your horse.”

dantien – There are several dantien (or tantien), in the lower, middle, and upper abdomen, and are considered in T’ai Chi practice as places where energy is stored through efficient breath and focused awareness. We use the word here as a collective term for this core energy-storing area.

danzón – Music style near the turn of the century in Cuba which fused the son with more courtly instruments such as piano, flute and violin, and popular as a dance of the upper classes.

descarga (lit. “unloading”) – Jam session format in Latin music in which the musicians “unload” their best licks. Developed by Cuban musicians in the late 1950s and going strong today.

Fania – Record label created in New York in 1964 by Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco to promote Latin music. The Fania label, known as “The Latin Motown,” is synonymous with the rocketed popularity of the music through the late 70s, which fused Cuban standards with modern lyrics and the buzz of jazz, soul, r’n’b and rock.

frame – The base of connection in salsa dancing, it can be open or closed, but always involves an intimate circle of conscious energy. Helpful metaphors include a suspension bridge, or a slightly elastic chalice V -ing between the two partners. See also masacote.

guaguancó (folkloric) – Up-tempo flirtation or sexual courtship dance of the Cuban folkloric rumba complex that sometimes mimics the motions of rooster and hen. Also, the melodic rhythm behind it, often brought into salsa music, which originatied in Matanzas circa 1880, and is traditionally sung a capella in call-and-response pattern, with claves, palitos and three congas including a soloing player on quinto.

guajeo – Repeated rhythmic cycle of notes or chords (a.k.a. montuno or vamp) played on stringed instruments like tres, guitar and violin. This is the rhythmic stream that propels the son and similar Cuban music.

guajira – In music it refers to a rhythm and style that incorporates a tres guitar or two, a piano, and slow, smooth percussion. Its exuberant, escapist style usually includes a celebration of the beauties of nature and of women, often coaxed along by a liberal flow of rum and cigars. Can also refer to a woman from the country as in the Cuban classic, “Guantanamera.”

guaracha – Cuban form similar to the son, but higher in tempo and adhering strictly to a four line verse structure. Possibly deriving its name from guaracheonce a mainstay of Cuban comic theater, the guaracha includes playful, roguish and sometimes bawdy lyrics.

guira – A metal version of the guiro, originally a pointed metal cylinder designed to grate vegetables but transformed into an upbeat timepiece when vigorously scraped with a metal stick or Afro haircomb in merengue and bachata groups.

guiro – A legacy of the Caribbean Indians, these serrated gourds are scratched with a stick, used especially in cha-cha-chá.

Jibaro – Caribbean term for a person from the country, the hills, people normally regarded as humble, unsophisticated, hard working—the salt of the earth, if you will. Sometimes a certain music indigenous to the Islands, especially Puerto Rico, is called “Jibaro music.”

lao gung – Energy points in the center of the palm, important to consider and feel as part of your partner connection. Try gathering a “Chi ball’ by slowly drawing your palms together without touching, pulsing the palms gently but with intention.

macho – A term describing strong or potent “peformative intent” as pertaining to musical rhythmic force and affective interplay between musicians and dancers. Afro-Cuban religious beliefs attribute such power to both female (Ochún, Yemayá) and male Orishas (Ogún, Elleguá).

malanga – Dance or party, derived from the nickname of a famous Cuban rumbero also known as José Rosario Oviedo, who died tragically and mysteriously in the 1930s.

mambo – Most commonly, it refers to a New York style of dancing “On2” (with the break step happening on the second beat of the music), kept largely alive through the teaching of Eddie Torres, but now spread into almost all evolved salsa communities around the globe. The term also refers to a Haitian priestess in the Palo Monte religion, as well as their chants.

maracas – Another legacy of the Caribbean Indians, these small, round dried gourds or coconuts with beans inside and handles attached are a greatly underestimated instrument. When shaken by a virtuoso, the seeds or pellets inside smash against the head in a single sharp note, as precise as any electronic pulse. Found throughout the Americas as well as Africa, in modern Salsa music the maracas became important percussion instruments as they add a driving pulse in the high frequency spectrum, like the high-hat in pop/rock.

marimba, marimbula –The powerful marímbula with its deep, earthy voice, replaced the botijas in the role of bass. Its cedar wood box with metal tongues bolted to one side and a sound-hole cut above the prongs derives from the thumb pianos known as mbiras and sanzas, found all over Africa.

masacote - A word with Cuban origins, it is the sound and feeling you get from merging the basic percussion instruments in salsa, as when you can hear and feel all those complex polyrhythms tugging as one. Moreover, it refers to your own fusion into this process, when two or three, or many, become one.

merengue – National dance of the Domincan Repulic, made so by Trujillo’s presidential campaign in the 1930s, though its origins go back as far the second half of the 18th century. The folkloric merengue is performed at a fast temp by singers, accordion, the tambora and guira. In modern popular (electrified) bands a very “busy” piano replaces the accordion while horns such as brass and saxophones throw out sharp, darting, interchanging rhythmic punches. Its lively, swinging two-step is a great way to improve your hip motion—and though the dominant pulse is very straight, it has underlying relation to (usually 3-2) clave.

montuno – Repeated rhythmic cycle of notes or chords played on the piano that underpins modern salsa and timba. Also, section featuring the call and response interplay between the coro and sonero. Also, more loosely, any section featuring instrumental improvisations. Compare with guajeo.

moña – Riffs performed on trombones and trumpets, usually spontaneously improvised; also a section of a salsa arrangement in which these riffs are performed. Moñas serve to heighten the sonic energy of a salsa arrangement, and contribute to its climactic story-telling.

Orishas – Deities in the Yoruba-derived Santéria religion practiced in Cuba and Puerto Rico (also called orixas in the Brazilian equivalent of candomblé). They are gods of natural and human energies, as you can see from this partial list: Babalu Aye – deity of disease and illness. Elegua – trickster and messenger between human and divine. Obatala – father of orishas and humankind. Ogún – deity of iron, war and labor. Orunmila – deity of wisdom, divination and foresight. Oshún – goddess of rivers, love, fertility and art. Oyá – goddess of wind, hurricanes, and the underworld gates. Changó – warrior god of thunder, fire, and drums. Yemayá – goddess of the sea and Mother of mankind.

piano – Piano solos arrived in Latin dance music through the improvisations woven in to courtly Cuban danzóns in the late 19th century. By the 1930s they replaced the quieter tres guitar used in the son sextets and septets.

plena – Puerto Rican music and dance form originating in the 1920s from the lower class regions of the island's southern coast. Topical and often satirical, it combined the Spanish verse structure with African call-and-response and percussive emphasis.

ponche – The upbeat pulse of merengue played on conga or tambora, giving a little lift or lilt on the fourth beat of each bar.

quatro - Evolving from the Spanish guitar, the quarto is the Puerto Rican counterpart to the Cuban tres, with four instead of three strings, and central to plena music.

rhumba – Often confused with rumba, but nothing like it. It’s a generic term for a much slower style of son, and the dance which evolved into the ballroom box, a much slower and politer (read Puritanical) version of the sexually explicit and much quicker rumbas of Cuba.

resistance – While Cuban writer Antonio Benitez-Rojo considers clave and the polyrhythmic music grown up around it as an instance of healthy cultural resistance to European domination and its “apocalyptic” culture, we mean it here merely as the form of equal and opposite energies in the body that connect center to periphery and that allow two partners to cohere (see also frame). It involves fluid response, and a solid base, as if together you and your partner were both the cup and the brimming liquid it holds.

rueda de casino – Circular style of Cuban group salsa, danced with a caller and from two couples to however many the room will fit. “Rueda de Casino” means “roulette wheel,” which is what the circle of dancers can look like, but it also refers back to the dance’s origins, when couples began performing together in the hotel and casino “Casino de la Playa” in 1953. Also called “rueda” or “casino style.”

rumba – Cuban percussion-based music and dance complex comprising: yambú, the slowest “old person’s” dance; guaguancó, a quick tempo partner dance featuring a sexual motif; and rumba columbia, a virtuoso solo dance performed by males sometimes with blades or other prop to extremely fast and mind-bogglingly polyrhythmic percussion. Rumba also describes the “party” occasion when any of these dances are performed.

salsa clunk – This term of infinite precision describes the action of dancers dancing technically on time, but completely off of the feel of salsa music. “Clunk” is caused by undue emphasis given to the break step on 1 and 5, when emphasis is not in the music. Also called the “salsa sag” or “salsa mountain” because the clunk can come from dancers dragging or sagging on the 1 and 5 because too erect in the pause steps of 3 and 7.

salsa dura – Style of salsa that stylistically has a core arrangement scheme similar to the son montuno (as popularised by Arsenio Rodríguez) i.e.: contratiempo, climactic energy, sonic power and density, timbral heterogeneity, and space for instrumental solos.

salsa romantica – A dominant style of salsa in the mid- to late-80s which wrapped languid bolero vocals around catchy if often formulaic salsa tunes. Some of archetypes of the style are Jerry Rivera, Rey Ruiz, Lalo Rodriguez and Eddie Santiago.

samba – Extremely fast Brazilian dance and rhythm built out of a very wide range of percussion, from the enormous booming surdus to the high tiny tambores, quicas, shakers and bells. “Street Samba” gives a nod to the forms of Brazilian carnival, versus the style codified for ballroom partner dancing.

son – “Son is salsa,” it’s said, as these wandering guitar and percussion trios were the traveling taproot of the music that became mambo and salsa. It involves a distinctively Cuban synthesis of African percussion and call-and-response tradition, and melodic rhythms melding with the creolized Spanish guitar, language and poetic heritage.

soneo – Vocal rhythmic improvisation of the main singer in son, rumba and salsa groups, deriving from African traditions of call-and-response. Also called pregón.

sonero – Main singer in son, rumba and salsa groups, as distinguished from the coro, or back-up, singers. Soneros not only need base vocal talent, but skills in rhythmic vocal improvisation in the soneo-and-coro sections, always hanging their improvisations on and around clave.

songo – Cuban dance rhythm developed in the late 1960s which features a drumset performing timbale figures and the conga player playing a busy-sounding variant of guaguancó.

son montuno (lit.: “mountain-son” “sound from the mountains”) – A son that begins on the coro section, so there is no first "verse" to it. (For instance, “Que Bueno Baila Usted.” This is different from, say “Son De La Loma” which has a whole verse section before it gets to the coro. According to musicologists the verse section shows the influence of European music with its closed for, while the coro/soneo section reveals the African influence with its open form (i.e., the singer improvises until they’re done and then takes it out).

synergy – The magic of truly interactive dancing. It means leads are not only leads, follows not only follows, but both both. Leads are attentive and responding to (following) follows, and follows taking the lead by tossing provocations to make the lead take heed. Who knows where such spiraling exchange may take you?

T’ai Chi (lit “Supreme Ultimate”) – A Chinese martial art form developed during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) and consisting of slow, circular and stretching meditative motions that develop bodily balance and increase life energy (Chi).

tambora – This essential merengue drum is double-ended and held on the lap, allowing a driving, thrumming triple rhythm to be stoked by the left hand’s palm and fingers while the right hand produces a backing beat with a stick. Tambora and saxophones often set up a darting call-and-response relationship which drives the dance.

timba – Energetic, unruly wave of Cuban dance music beginning in 1980s Havana, it augments the already dense Latin percussion setup with a set drummer layering in further syncopations, drawing from son, songo and rumba as well as jazz, pop, funk and rap.

timbales – A descendent of the round-bottomed kettle drums (tympani) brought by Italian opera companies to Cuba in the 19th century, it was adopted by military brass bands and commandeered by the charanga orchestras which played danzóns. In modern salsa bands, being the loudest drums and accompanied by the cutting woodblocks, bells, cymbals and even snare drums, they operate most closely to a set-drummer’s role in rock and pop.

tres – A creolized evolution of the Spanish guitar, the Cuban tres has three double strings, a smaller head, and carried the son style.

trumpet, trombone & saxophone – More fitting with the city’s brashness, these instrument transformed the early Cuban rural sweetness with sometimes searing solos. Their integration into son is largely attributed to the Big Band craze and its influence in Havana in the early 1930s.

tumbao – Used variously to refer to the “anticipated” bass line in salsa songs as well as the conga part (which links with the bass part on the 3-side of clave). It also refers to the rhythmic sway of hips, say, just walking down the calle.

vallenato (lit. “music of the valleys”) – The term refers more to an orchestration than a specific rhythm. A traditional vallenato group consists of an accordion, a scraper called a guacharaca, and a hand drum called a caja vallenata. Vallenato groups traditionally play four rhythms called son, paseo, a 6/8 merengue and puya.

yambú – Slowest song and dance form of the folklori rumba where couples, dancing around each other, use softer movements in imitation of the gait of old people.

Sources

Carpentier, Alejo. La musica en Cuba. Havana: Ediciones ARTEX, 2001.

Gerard, Charley. Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music. Tempe: White Cliffs Media, 1998.

Steward, Sue. Musica! The Rhythm of Latin America: Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.

Sweeney, Philip. Dictionary of World Music. London: Henry Holt, 1991.

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Salsa Groups and Artists: A Short List with Comments

Africando – Didn’t even know there was such a thing as African salsa? This group, which means in Wolof “Africa Reunited,” has been rockin’ it since 1992, with a lot of good slower songs, a distinctively African guitar, and lyrics in various African languages and French.

Alfredo de la Fe – Fantastic violinist during the Fania era, he’s out on the road again with his five-string electrified violin.

Aventura – Wonderfully sultry and “steet” bachata group, with occasional merengues and reggaeton. “Un beso”—yum.

Jose Alberto – Called “El Canario” for his trilling, whistled melodies, “the canary” can make you believe it’s a real flute till you see him on stage whistling these lines himself, or dueling with his favorite flautist and sparring partner, Dave Valentín.

Marc Anthony – Crossover hearththrob, he’s been groomed in the RMM studios to be a great success, and he has been since his first solo album, Otra nota (1993).

Ray Barretto – This conga master has worked behind the great jazz soloists since the fifties, and is himself one of the handful of key bandleaders from that era onward. Called “hard hands” for his tough, attacking technique, he is also somewhat of a purist, continuing to play his jazzy mambo right through the disco, merengue and rap crazes. His “Indestructible” will destroy you.

Rubén Blades – Blades pioneered the deal between rock and salsa, and is definitely one of the more versatile, experimental writers and musicians that salsa has heard. One of the few salsa singers not content to sing throwaway lyrics, his is Latin fusion music with an edge, and message. Find a handful of classics on Caminando (1991), but every recording has something special, and often quite different.

Jimmy Bosch – A regular on the salsa congress circuit, his rockin’ trombone gets any group up and pumpin’. As director of his own group and member of Spanish Harlem Orchestra, he’s compiled some great CDs in the New York salsa dura vein.

Willie Colón – Salsa’s perhaps best known trombone player, and inspiration for Bosch, Colón was colossally important to salsa for the contributions of his horn as well as collaboration with Rubén Blades and Héctor Lavoe during the Fania era.

Conjunto Céspedes – Though out of San Francisco, you’ll think they were singing straight from Cuba (the singers are Cubans), and with authentic guaguancó to back it up.

Elvis Crespo – His few salsas are just okay, but he’s hands down the man to go to for slow but energetic merengue, particularly off of his first solo album—does Suavemente ring a bell? Pintame is great too, and it’s worth checking out the group he cut his teeth in, Grupo Mania. In El Jefe he tried to get tough (and failed) and made those slow merengues TOO slow.

Celia Cruz – Called “La reina de la salsa” (the queen of salsa), no one in Latin music has ever approached the status of Cruz in her over 50-year reign. Listen for her trademark call, “Azúcaaar!” Her discography would take pages, spanning the evolution of son to mambo to salsa and even rap.

Joe Cuba –In 1954 Joe Cuba formed his first sextet with a honey-voiced singer named Cheo Feliciano, and soon became the toast of the Palladium. Cuba’s appeal then, and still 50 years later, lay in his punchy, modern jazzy arrangements, and his innovative inclusion of vibraphone in the Latin lineup. His rollicking 1966 boogalú hit, “Bang Bang” became Latin music’s first million-seller. Listen also for the haunting “La Palomilla.”

Oscar D’Leon – Synonymous with Venezuelan salsa, D’Leon is a compelling performer. Since the debut of his first band, Dimensión Latina in 1972, he developed a passion for plush, rhythmic trombone choruses which have continued to infuse his immaculately polished orchestras ever since.

DLG (Dark Latin Groove) – If you like funked-up salsa, you’ll love this groovy (though now defunct) group. Also good for practicing, with a very clear, and often slow beat, especially on their first CD.

Gloria Estefan – If you haven’t heard from her since the disco days of Miami Sound Machine, listen again. She’s made some wonderful Latin music in many styles, though dominantly Cuban-inflected.

Henry Fiol – New York singer with a hypnotic guajiro’s voice playing more traditional son.

Fruko –Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincon is also called the “Godfather of Colombian salsa,” for his talent in pumping out hits not only as a singer, but in his smooth grooming of other Colombian legends including Joe Arroyo (“Rebelión,” “Pa’l Bailador”) and The Latin Brothers.

El Gran Combo – Along with La Sonora Poncña, El Gran Combo pretty much defines Puerto Rican style salsa: smooth, mathematically precise, more akin to the sophisticated, brassy forties Swing bands injected with syncopated Cuban rhythms. Their list of hits across a 45-year career would fill a page or so. They have got the formula down.

Wayne Gorbea – Driving and jazzy, Gorbea leaves wide-open spaces in the music for improvised solos—which is why many DJs don’t play him, though it’s stomping good dance music, and a fixture for dancers On2.

Larry Harlow – One of the diehard Cuban music aficianados who tweaked and reworked the brassy mambo model into the Fania brand of salsa.

Grupo Niche – As El Gran Combo is to Puerto Rico, so is Niche to Colombia, particularly the more romantic songs of the late-80s and 90s. Probably Colombia’s most influential and best-loved pure salsa band.

Juan Luis Guerra – Along with his group 4.40, Juan Luis Guerra has created some of the most beautiful bachatas and slow merengues around today, with an occasional salsa and cha-cha-cha thrown in for good measure. His taste for the Beattles and Manhattan Transfer infuses the Latin base with beautiful harmonies and some breathtakingly poetic lyrics. In a continuing age of frenzied and electrified merengue, his slower, more thoughtful pace and authentic percussion is refreshing.

La India – Introduced to the New York scene by none other than Eddie Palmieri, La India’s searing and throaty vocals will catch you. Her second album, Dicen que soy (1994) is full of very slow, obviously rhythmed songs good for practicing, if you can wait through the sleepy introductions.

La 33 – Their take on Mancini’s “Pink Panther” (“La pantera mambo”) is fantastic, jazzy and sharp, and just about every song they’ve done is an On2-dancer’s dream.

Héctor Lavoe – His legend precedes him. “El cantante de los cantantes,” Lavoe’s jíbaro singing style and Fania backing catapulted him into salsa fame. He’s made scores of classics, such as “El Cantante,” “Juana Pena,” “Todo tiene su final,” “Borinquen” and “El Todopoderoso,” but the quality of recordings out there greatly varies—be sure to listen before you buy.

Victor Manuelle – Part of the late-90s generation of salseros, his soupy ballads rocked the charts with the slick backing of New York studio musicians and RMM’s Sergio George. Try a “Best of” CD and you’re sure to get a dozen good ones.

Melcochita – West coast singer, sings in the nasally style of “los viejitos,” has done some excellent collaborations with his L.A. based band and Seattle’s Cambalache.

Orishas – Cuban roots with extremely funky overlays of rap and hip-hop. Though it stretches the definition of salsa, many have a good kick on 3 and 7 and are great fun for rueda de casino.

Orquesta de la Luz – From the land of the rising sun, Japan, this group has been traveling the Congress circuit for years singing in Spanish (though reportedly none of them speak it). Not only a curiosity, they play some seriously jamming salsas and descargas.

Eddie Palmieri – A precocious musical talent, along with his brother Charlie, Eddie began his career with Tito Rodriquez and then his own charanga orchestra. Eddie has been making his eccentrically jazzy, manic brand of salsa for 40 years, often prefacing his songs with long, impressionist solos. Crucial as a composer, bandleader, and for bringing many talents up through his groups. Go “Bilongo.”

Johnny Pacheco – Though he’s best known for co-owning the legendary Fania label (with divorce lawyer Jerry Masucci), he was also one of the important band directors and a multi-instrumentalist performer in the phenomenal Fania All Stars super-group.

La Sonora Ponceña – From the southern town of Ponce in Puerto Rico, it was founded in 1954 by Enrique ‘Quique’ Lucca and his been directed since the sixties by his son, the pianist “Papo” Lucca. Listen for “Fuego en el 23,” “Cancion,” “Nica’s Dream,” “Night in Tunisia” and “Remembranza,” to name just a few.

Johnny Polanco – Prime representative of “West Coast” salsa, he’s got a slick and rootsy style. “Guaguanco con Rumba” everyone should have the pleasure of dancing.

Tito Puente – Like Celia Cruz, Puente was reigning royalty for decades, “el rey de los timbales.” His crackling timbale solos predated the Fania craze by a good twenty years, swinging mambo, boogalú, bolero, rumba, and cha-cha-cha at the Palladium since the late 40s and 50s. His 40s instrumental “Ran Kan Kan” is probably the archetypal mambo and has been repeatedly revamped. Of all the Palladium graduates Puente took Latin the furthest into the mainstream with his series of latin jazz hits, and continued participation in the more rock-oriented Fania endeavors as well as those of its succeeding label, RMM.

Domingo Quiñones – Popular Puerto Rican singer, hand-percussionist, and composer. Originally back-up for José Alberto, he also wrote and song some of the more memorable salsa romanticas of the late-80s and after, such as “Te Propongo.”

Puerto Rican Masters – I’ve only come across one album from these guys, a live one, but wow, what an album it is.

Puerto Rican Power – Although they lost a great singer in Gilberto Santa Rosa, their own track record is nothing to shake a stick at. Decades of great, polished, generally up-tempo hits.

Jerry Rivera – Rivera’s boyish looks got him the name “El niño de la salsa,” emerging in the 80s with some excellent salsa romanticas. He tried to refashion himself into “el chico malo”—not. But still, the boy can sing.

Roberto Roena – Bongo player extraordinaire, he’s gathered some amazing groups around him, and left some classics for posterity.

Frankie Ruiz – Though his career was short (dying at 40 from decades of drug abuse), his legacy remains in recordings of his pained, romantically husky voice (“Bailando,” “Mirandote”).

Gilberto Santa Rosa – A towering figure, this big, mustachioed man, decidedly of the pre-rap generation, possesses a rich, dark, romantic tenor. His voice was made for salsa romantica, and he continues to keep it fresh.

Sonora Carruseles – Like it fast? Like it a little boogalú? This Colombian group is for you. “Micaela” is one you’ve no doubt danced to already.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra – Formed in 2000, this group at the heart of NYC is archetypal salsa dura. With fantastic instrumentalists including Jimmy Bosch and Chino Nuñez, and singer Ray de la Paz, and a sound both modern and historic and a swing that could revive the dead, this orchestra keeps things hot and solid.

Michael Stuart – New-wave salsero and dancer who emerged in New York the late-90s. Has done a lot of reggaeton crossover, some of it better than others. For slow and low and “street,” hear “Mi tumbao.”

Cal Tjader – West Coast jazz vibes player, and drummer of Dave Brubeck’s original “Take Five” trio, Tjader has made many classics on the “vibe” side, like “Cubano Chant” and “Viva Cepeda.” More recently he sparked the resurgence of interest in salsa’s Cuban roots with his project The Buena Vista Social Club. Look for his groundbreaking collaborations with conga monster Mongo Santamaria.

Eddie Torres – Not only is he a great teacher of New York On2, Eddie Torres has compiled a fantastic album, Eddie Torres and His Mambo Kings, for those that like the jazzy, sharp New York style.

Los Van Van – In the wake of the Cuban Revolution Juan Formell’s Los Van Van revolutionized dance music with a new rhythm and dance called songo and the addition of a drumset to the Latin percussion mix. Los Van Van has evolved with Formell’s enthusiasms, including synthesizers and electronic drums in the late 80s to topical Santeria and American rap in the 90s. The mother of all timba music in Cuba, Los Van Van has influenced several generations of new groups and musicians, including NG La Banda, and the solo projects of Mayito Rivera and Cesar Pedroso. Other key Cuban groups on today’s scene include Paulito F.G. Adalberto Alvarez, Issac Delgado and David Calzado’s Charanga Habanera.

Carlos Vives – If you don’t hold it against him that he was a star of Colombian soap opera, you will love his accordion-based, joyful vallenato style.

Individual Songs? Sure, I’ve got my favorites, but if you’re coming to classes or out to the Atomic Cowboy, you’re hearing them. Here’s what a few others have to recommend:

Links to Salsa Forums

"http://www.salsaforums.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1527"

"http://www.urbansalsa.com/songlistings.html"

"http://www.salsanewyork.com/guide/song_list.htm"

"http://www.justsalsa.com/music/"

"http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/salsa/resources/links.html"

This last one is a great “clearinghouse” site with links to many other salsa sites.