Salsa (Fania era)

Salsa wasn't one new rhythm so much as a name and a scene — and a brilliant act of branding laid over music that already existed. In late-1960s and 1970s...

Salsa wasn't one new rhythm so much as a name and a scene — and a brilliant act of branding laid over music that already existed. In late-1960s and 1970s New York, a marketing umbrella stretched over conjunto-rooted dance music — son, guaracha, mambo, guaguancó, bomba, plena and jazz, reassembled with a Nuyorican accent. Johnny Pacheco, Fania Records and promoter Izzy Sanabria sold the word; Pacheco defended it as a sauce made of many ingredients, while Tito Puente scoffed that salsa is something you eat. The music became real because barrio audiences in New York, Puerto Rico and beyond poured into it their stories of migration, pride and hard city life. It is the convergence point of this whole house.

Era

Fania-Era Salsa

Traits

Commercial/marketing term for conjunto-rooted, mostly Cuban-derived NY dance music revived c.1970, dominated by Fania Records and the Fania All-Stars. The word 'salsa' was popularized partly by Cal Tjader's 'Soul Sauce' (1964) and by Pacheco/Fania. Several pioneers (Puente, Palmieri) disliked the term.