salsa

Tumbadoras (conga drums), one of the basic instruments of salsa music

Salsa is a style of dance music with origins that lay in the rural eastern Oriente province of Cuba, paticularly Santiago de Cuba . Salsa music's direct origins lay in the Son Montuno genre developed by Arsenio Rodriguez in the 1940s, though it's core rhythms and cultural essence are rooted in the musical traditions of West and Central Africa. Africans, principally from the Kongo, Yoruba, various Bantu, and other related peoples, introduced polyrhythms, call and response singing, talking drums as well as percussion rituals to the Caribbean, particularly Cuba and Puerto Rico. These components combined with Spanish musical influences were also part of the genesis of other Cuban genres such as son, rumba, and mambo long before Salsa had rose to prominence in New York City. Most songs considered salsa are primarily based on the afore mentioned Son Montuno, with elements of Bolero, Bomba, Cha-Cha-Chá, Mambo, Merengue, Plena, Pachanga, Rumba and Son Cubano. All of these earlier genres were adapted and fused to accomplish smooth and seamless transitions between them when performed within the context of salsa.