SALSA MUSIC

Origin

Salsa music is originated in African bell and drum rhythms. These rhythms are carried to Cuba in early 1700’s by slave ships. Then, it is influenced by many other sounds from Caribbean, Puerto Rican, and Latin Jazz.

In 1920’s and also 1950’s many Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York bringing the Cuban flavor to United States.

Salsa music is a blend of many different kinds of musics such as; cha cha cha, son, pachanga, mambo, rumba, guaracha, bolero, danzon…

Although, the term Salsa is not necessarily precise in scope, most (almost all) salsa songs have some music properties in common.

Salsa music is played in 4/4 time, and has 4 beats to the measure or bar. As dancers we used to measures and count 8 beats when we are dancing, where as percussions see it as two 4 beat measures, while melodic phrases span 8 or 16 beats.

The Clave

The clave is an instrument consisting of two wooden sticks which are struck together to make a clicking or tapping sound. Clave is the basis of salsa music; all other instruments in the band are guided by the clave which determines the tempo. Nowadays, the original clave is mostly replaced by other instruments played by the drummer such as; cowbell, woodblock, cymbal, timbales or even side of a drum.

Most common clave in salsa music is the son clave. There are two types of son clave: 2-3 and 3-2. In 2-3, clave hits the beats 2, 3, 5, 6 1/2, 8 which can be read as . 2 3 . 5 .and.8  As you notices numbers 1, 4, 6 and 7 are silent but a syncopated beat is used as 6 and a half.

In 3-2, clave hits the beats 1, 2 1/2, 4, 6,7 which can be read as 1 .and. 4 . 6 7 . Now the numbers 2, 3 , 5 and 8 are silent.

The instrumentalists emphasize the differences of the two halves of the eight-beat clave rhythm; for example, in an eight-beat-long phrase used in a 2-3 clave context, the first half of the phrase is given more straight notes that are played directly on beat, while the second half instead contains notes with longer durations and with a more off-beat feeling. This emphasizes that the first four beats of the 2-3 son clave contain two “short” strikes that are directly on beat, while the last four beats contain three “long” clave strikes with the second strike placed offbeat between beats two and three. Salsa songs commonly start with one clave and then switch to the reverse partway through the song, without restarting the clave rhythm; instead, the rhythm is shifted four beats using breaks and stop time. So whenever there a shift in the rhythm occurs while we are dancing, we need to re-adjust our steps by doing a transition step according to the style we are dancing.

Example: If we are dancing on1 (breaking on1), when this shift occurs in the music, it means we are not stepping forward on 1 anymore, it changed to 5, so we need to adjust our steps and change it so we will be able to step forward on 1 again. Same concept in dancing on2; with 2 and 6.

The Tumbao

The tumbao refers to the rhythms accented by the conga drum player in main stream classical salsa music. In every salsa song congas have a classical pattern even though we cannot hear sometimes. It hits open tones (O) on 4, 4 1/2 and also 8, 8 1/2. And there are slaps (S) on 2 and 6 which are used mainly by New York style dancers since those are the beats they break and change direction on their basic steps.

. S . OO. S . OO

1 2 3 4&5 6 7 8&

SALSA STYLES

On1 style (Los Angeles style) salsa

Dancing on1 means breaking on the first and fifth beats (breaking on down beats 1 and 5) of the music. Guys start forward (while ladies start backward with their right) with their left foot on the first beat and go back on 5 with their right where as ladies go forward with their left.

Most important characteristics of this style of this dance can be summarized like this; it is danced on a line (or a slot), most of the moves are based on the move named cross body lead where the man leads the lady across his body in linear motion. This style of salsa is also mostly influenced by jazz, hip hop, swing and even ballroom dancing. It is all about speed, flashiness, power. There are not much steady place complicated arm movements. Most of the moves are done sharp and consuming a lot of dance space. You can see many poses, neck drops, lift and tricks in the routines of on1 dancers.

Pioneers of this style of salsa are Vasquez brothers and Salsa Brava, Josie Neglia, Eddie “the Salsa Freak”.

There are also many other versions of on1 style dancing such as millennium style developed by Al “Liquid Silver” Espinoza, Sosa style developed by Fernando Sosa from Tropical Gem…

On2 Style (New York style) salsa

New York style salsa is danced on a line as well and cross body leads are the main structure of this style too. However, as far as timing, it is completely different. Guys start with their left foot in place on 1 and then go back and break on 2 with their right, where as ladies start in place with their right and go forward and break on 2 with their left. So on2 dancers use the down beats to initiate their basic but use the conga slap and clave to emphasis the change of direction on the basic step which is on 2 and 6. Therefore, this style of salsa is more with the rhythm, where as LA style is more with the melody, and as said by Cuban Pete “LA style is dancing TO the music; however New York style is dancing IN the music.”

This timing, gives much more elegance to the New York style dancers. Their technique, interpretation of the music and smoothness are the well known characteristics of this style. The control of their moves and their leading gives incredible comfort to ladies and make them look beautiful and elegant. Since they are using the timing different then on1 dancers, it gives them the opportunity of using time more efficiently for body movements. They also dance real close to each other instead of making big steps or fancy open breaks facing to the audience. This style of salsa is more intimate, and requires a good understanding of technique and music to be able to follow the complicated arm movements as well as the contra-moves. Clean execution of moves and smooth leading makes them look continuous and flawless.

This stylish dance is influenced mainly by the afro-Cuban or afro-Caribbean rhythms, rumba and pachanga.

Well-known dancers in this style are Eddie Torres ” Mambo King” ( he is the one who developed on2 style salsa while dancing to the music of Tito Puente ), Ismael Otero, Frankie Martinez, Juan Matos, Hache y Machete, Mario B., Yamulee and many other New Jersey- New York area dancers.

Others (Cuban, Miami, Rueda de Casino…)

Cuban style salsa is also known as on3 style since they start in place or to the sides on one and two and then step back together men and women on3 with the push and pull action (the basic step is usually named as “guapea”) as the basis of their leading. This style is not danced on a slot; in fact, it is dance in a circular motion. It is characterized by complicated arm movements and multiple spins to either side. Confident walk for the lady is important since guy usually refers to the axis of the couple and lead the lady walk around.

The leading of the man is more solid and stronger and the hip action is more obvious which is highly influenced by merengue.

Miami style, AKA Rueda de Casino, is danced as a group in a circle, where they have one dancer calling the names of the moves out. The dancers in the circle look in unison, and synchronized throughout the whole song.