Salsa music celebrates 50 years of history today

August 26, 2021 – 3:12 pm

Arsenio Rodríguez is the father of salsa, I do not doubt that, there is no consensus on the date of birth, but many point out that it is August 26, 1971, the night one of the concerts took place most important of the SALSA, that of the Fania All Stars in the Cheetah, in New York, where the SALSA was born, and this would not be discussed either, although Gabo has said that the salsa is Cuban music exiled in New York. (We recommend: Read another chronicle by Wilmer Zambrano about the Cali Fair in times of pandemic and virtuality).

There was nothing new in the music download proposed by the FANIA label tonight; the jam sessions they had been invented in Cuba, and in New York In Santiago under his seal Alegre had replicated these boards since 1961 where Johnny Pacheco himself had participated. FANIA would stay not only with the All Stars format popularized by A l’Santiago, but also with the Segell Alegre a few years later. It was also not the first time that FANIA brought together the most representative musicians of its label, the FANIA All Stars had already recorded a first “live session” in October 1968, it is known that it was at the Red Garter but not the day is known, from which came two albums as valuable as the two albums released from the “live” of the Cheetah concert. (More: Tribute from Petrit Baquero to Johnny Pacheco, Fania’s “silver fox”).

But by 1968, the year of the FANIA concert at the Red Garter, the word SALSA was not yet a massively used noun to refer to the musical genre that was being cooked on the Latin streets of New York, or to the same movement that involved in addition to the new sonority, a new street language, new ways of dressing and a visual concept of its own. Yes there had been some brushstrokes with the word SALSA, among them the most representative the album SALSA NA MA by Charlie Palmieri in 1963, with a song of the same name in which it was called SALSA hip movements of a mulatto. On the other hand, for that year 1968 Pacheco and Masucci still had a very local vision of the business, they produced music mainly for the Latins based in New York, so much so that it did not occur to them to record in video the concert of the Garter Network and thus be able to promote it en masse beyond the big apple.

But, although it did not have a clear name yet, the genre that would later be called SALSA since the mid-sixties was playing on the radio and on the streets not only of New York but of many Latin American cities, Joe Cuba and his sextet increasing the tempo of Latin rhythms and giving the vibraphone a lead role, Cortijo and his Combo modernizing the bomb and full, and Eddie Palmieri creating a new sound with his trombone string, among many others. They sounded different, the Cuban heritage was felt but it wasn’t are, mambo, guaracha, montuno or cha cha cha cha, each song was a mix of all, Richie Ray in 1968 heard him being called SALSA while in Venezuela and immediately went call New York so that on the album he had recorded with his eternal partner Bobby Cruz that was in production they would change the title of the hardest ones to SALSA I CONTROL, but the covers were already printed, so they chose to put the phrase as a subtitle at the bottom.

Those who were forceful with the use of the word SALSA to refer to this musical stir-fry were the Lebron Brothers, “Sauce and control, sauce and control, flavor with sauce,” the Lebrons sang a year earlier of the legendary Cheetah concert, they recorded it as SALSA and CONTROL for the 1970 album SALSA i CONTROL, and yet they were not considered to participate as a band or guest to any of its members at the’ jam sessions of the 26 of August of 1971, an unjust fact with one of the most representative orchestras of the SALSA.

1971 was the start of the salsa boom, one of the most valuable years for this movement that still resists from the neighborhood, Richie Ray would release the “Bestial Sound” with the impossible mix of sauce and Chopin, a masterpiece, Cheo Feliciano would sing “Anacaona” by Tite Curet, Ismael Rivera would turn a Brazilian prayer into a sauce called “my Bold” awaits me, Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe would return Christmas salseras with their “Christmas Assault”, Markolino Dimond would release an album of cult with eight own compositions that the same would fix, all successes, something unrepeatable in the sauce; and as a message for the future of salsa, in 1971 an album by Juan Formell and Els Van Van would first play American soil when it was brought as a gift by the Cuban delegation to the Pan American Games in Cali.

Jerry Masucci understood in 1971 that salsa could be a global phenomenon, so he accepted the proposal of filmmaker Leon Gast to film the CHEETAH concert, for the first time the world could see all his musical idols in the same stage through the giant screen; we saw it in Cali, in the mythical San Fernando theater where years before Andrés Caicedo organized his cinema club also founded in 1971.

La Salsa was not born in 1971, but on August 26 of this year, 50 years ago, it was his baptism, from there, everyone understood that it was La Salsa, the salsa movement germinated in many places in the world, and is still alive despite the ups and downs.

Arsenio Rodríguez the father of SALSA could not get to 1971, paradoxically he died on December 31, 1970, but his task was complete, and the fruits of the tree he planted were ripe. In 1971 the year the SALSA was christened the album was also recorded Tribute to Arsenio Rodríguez performed by Larry Harlow, “everyone is crying the great Arsenio died.”

* Music lover caleño, salser, twitter @salsachevere_