Later on, while based in Mexico City, the musician Beny Moré would shout salsa during a performance to acknowledge a musical moment's heat, making a connection with the hot salsa (sauce) made in the country. Back in Cuba, influenced by spicy food salsas, he named his group Conjunto Los Salseros, with whom he recorded a couple of albums for the Panart and Egrem labels. In the mid-1940s, Cuban Cheo Marquetti emigrated to Mexico. The phrase is seen as a cry from Piñeiro to his band, telling them to increase the tempo to "put the dancers into high gear". The musicologist Max Salazar believes the origin of the connection lies in 1930 when Ignacio Piñeiro composed the song Échale salsita (Put some sauce in it). The origin of the connection of this word to a style of music is disputed by various music writers and historians. The word Salsa means sauce in the Spanish language. Graciela on claves and her brother Machito on maracas Machito said that salsa was much like what he had been playing from the 1940s. Though limited by an embargo, the continuous cultural exchange between salsa-related musicians inside and outside of Cuba is undeniable. ĭuring the same period a parallel modernization of Cuban son was being developed by Los Van Van, Irakere, NG La Banda, Charanga Habanera and other artists in Cuba under the name of songo and timba, styles that at present are also labelled as salsa.
These musicians included Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, Johnny Pacheco, Machito and Héctor Lavoe. The music style was based on the late son montuno of Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín and Roberto Faz. The first self-identified salsa bands were predominantly assembled by Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians in New York City in the '70s. Originally the name salsa was used to label commercially several styles of Latin dance music, but nowadays it is considered a musical style on its own and one of the staples of Latin American culture. All of these elements are adapted to fit the basic son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montuno, with elements of mambo, Latin jazz, bomba, plena and guaracha. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Salsa music is a popular style of Latin American music. Tumbadoras (conga drums), one of the basic instruments of salsa music