Salsa music is a popular style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical componentes predates the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montuno, with elements of mambo, Latin jazz, bomba, plena and guaracha. All of these elements are adapted to fit the basic son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa.
Ray Barretto was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican ancestry. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Latin jazz. His first hit, "El Watusi", was recorded by his Charanga Moderna in 1962, becoming the most successful pachanga song in the United States. In the late 1960s, Barretto became one of the leading exponents of boogaloo and what would later be known as salsa. Nonetheless, many of Barretto's recordings would remain rooted in more traditional genres such as son cubano. A master of the descarga, Barretto was a long-time member of the Fania All-Stars. His success continued into the 1970s with songs such as "Cocinando" and "Indestructible." His last album for Fania Records, Soy dichoso, was released in 1990. He then formed the New World Spirit jazz ensemble and continued to tour and record until his death in 2006.
Carlos Manuel "Charlie" Palmieri was a renowned bandleader and musical director of salsa music. He was known as the "Giant of the Keyboards".
A descarga is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it was developed in Havana during the 1950s. Important figures in the emergence of the genre were Cachao, Julio Gutiérrez, Bebo Valdés, Peruchín and Niño Rivera in Cuba, and Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Bauzá in New York. Originally, descargas were promoted by record companies such as Panart, Maype and Gema under the label Cuban jam sessions. From the 1960s, the descarga format was usually adapted by large salsa ensembles, most notably the Fania All-Stars.
Enrique Arsenio Lucca Quiñones, better known as Papo Lucca, is a Puerto Rican multi-instrumentalist best known for his pianist skills. His main musical genres are Salsa and Latin Jazz. He ranks with the late Charlie Palmieri, as one of the best piano instrumentalists in Latin Jazz and Salsa. He is the co-founder with his father Don Enrique "Quique" Lucca Caraballo of the Puerto Rican band La Sonora Ponceña. He has also played and recorded with the Fania All-Stars, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colón, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Bobby Valentín, Ismael Quintana, Gloria Estefan, Adalberto Santiago, Andy Montañez, Pablo Milanés, and Rubén Blades. He is also a well-known music arranger.
Grupo Niche is a salsa group founded in 1978 in Cali, Colombia. Currently based in Cali, Colombia, it enjoys great popularity throughout Latin America. It was founded by Jairo Varela and Alexis Lozano. Varela remained with the group throughout his life, serving as producer, director, songwriter, vocalist and guiro player. Alexis Lozano, trombone player and arranger later left to form Orquesta Guayacán. The group also included Nicolas Cristancho "Macabi" on the piano, Francisco Garcia "Porky" on the bass, Luis Pacheco, on the congas, and vocalists Jorge Bazán and Hector Viveros.
Larry Harlow(néLawrence Ira Kahn; born 20 March 1939, Brooklyn) is an American salsa music performer, composer and producer. He was born into a musical American family of Jewish descent.
Oscar Hernández is an American pianist, arranger and producer of Puerto Rican descent.
Juan Pablo Pacheco Knipping, known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican-American musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer. He became one of the leading exponents of a new dance in the late 1950s called the pachanga, a blend of Cuban rhythms and merengue, which propelled him to worldwide notoriety, and had an important role in the evolution of Latin music.
Seguida is a Latin Rock Group from New York., who were winners of the 1976 Latin NY Magazine "Best Latin Rock Album" award.
Adalberto Santiago is an internationally known Salsa singer.
Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez is a Cuban drummer and percussionist. He has played alongside Latin jazz pianists such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés, Eddie Palmieri and Hilario Durán.
Rebeca Mauleón is an American pianist, composer, arranger and writer, specializing in salsa and other Latin American and Afro-Caribbean music.
Samuel Torres is a Colombian percussionist composer and arranger. He was born in Bogotá, and started playing at age twelve and became involved with different bands in his hometown. Torres' musician credits includes collaboration for 2013 Latin Grammy nominated Alejandro Sanz "La Música No Se Toca" (2013). Although, he received classical training, Torres was intrigued by the different styles and rhythms of the Latinamerican and jazz sounds. He graduated from the University of Javeriana in Music Composition.
Roger Dawson is a jazz percussionist, conga drummer, bandleader and jazz composer. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the US and acknowledged as at the forefront of New York's salsa music explosion of the seventies and early eighties. He was the creator of the long running "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series at New York's Village Gate club.
Bobby Sanabria is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, producer, educator, radio host of Puerto Rican descent who specializes in jazz and Latin jazz. An 8X Grammy nominee as a leader, he is the musical director of Quarteto Aché, Sexteto Ibiano, Ascensión, and his Multiverse Big Band. He is on the faculty of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, NYU and for 20 years was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Seven of Sanabria's albums have been nominated for a Grammy Award: Afro-Cuban Dream: Live & In Clave!!! (2000), 50 Years of Mambo - A Tribute To Damaso Prado (2003), Big Band Urban Folktales (2007) Kenya Revisited Live!!! (2009), Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! (2011), Multiverse - nominated for two Grammys (2012), West Side Story Reimagined (2018) which was also named Record of The Year by the Jazz Journalist's Association (2019). He has received numerous awards and accolades including the 2018 LeJENS of Latin Jazz Award Keepers of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his leadership and innovation in Latin jazz and the 2019 New York International Salsa Congress David Melendez Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary contributions to Latin music as a musician, teacher, historian, radio host and dedication to preserving the art of Latin music and Latin jazz. He was named "Padrino (Godfather) of the 2019 National Puerto Rican Day in New York City.
Gilberto "Pulpo" Colón Jr. is a pianist, composer, and band leader. He is credited for working with all three of the "Big 3".
Israel Tanenbaum-Rivera is an American pianist, music producer, composer, arranger and audio engineer who has produced more than 50 albums and participated in over 100 recordings.
Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz, having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
Zoho Music is a Latin jazz independent record label based in New York, founded by Joachim Becker in 2003. In 2005, the label expanded to blues, R&B, Southern and classic rock on the Zoho Roots imprint. The catalog consists of over 180 CD releases, which includes three Grammy Award-winning albums and three Latin Grammy Award-winning albums.
