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Salsa music

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                                    Salsa
   Stylistic origins:     Primarily Cuban son, mambo, rumba and Puerto Rican
                          music
   Cultural origins:      1960s and 70s New York City Latin melting pot
   Typical instruments:   pianos, conga, trumpet, trombone, bass guitar,
                          claves, cowbell, timbales, guitar
   Mainstream popularity: Very popular in Latin America, Japan and United
                          States
   Derivative forms:      Timba
                                  Subgenres
                Salsa erotica - Salsa gorda - Salsa romantica
                                Fusion genres
      Charanga-vallenata - Mereng-house - Salsa-merengue - Songo-salsa -
   rock-salsa - vallenato-salsa- Salsaton
                               Regional scenes
   Colombia - Cuba - Japan - Mexico - Panama - Puerto Rico - United States
   - Venezuela
                                 Other topics
                          Salsa dancing - Musicians

   Salsa music is a diverse and predominantly Spanish Caribbean genre that
   is popular across Latin America and among Latinos abroad. Salsa
   incorporates multiple styles and variations; the term can be used to
   describe most any form of popular Cuban-derived genre, such as
   chachachá and mambo. Most specifically, however, salsa refers to a
   particular style developed in the 1960s and '70s by Cuban and Puerto
   Rican immigrants to the New York City area, and stylistic descendants
   like 1980s salsa romantica. The style is now practiced throughout Latin
   America, and abroad; in some countries it may be referred to as música
   tropical. Salsa's closest relatives are Cuban mambo and the son
   orchestras of the early 20th century, as well as Latin jazz. The terms
   Latin jazz and salsa are sometimes used interchangeably; many musicians
   are considered a part of either, or both, fields, especially performers
   from prior to the 1970s.

   Salsa is essentially Cuban in stylistic origin, though it is also a
   hybrid of Puerto Rican and other Latin styles mixed with pop, jazz,
   rock, and R&B. Salsa is the primary music played at Latin dance clubs
   and is the "essential pulse of Latin music", according to author Ed
   Morales, while music author Peter Manuel called it the "most popular
   dance (music) among Puerto Rican and Cuban communities, (and in)
   Central and South America", and "one of the most dynamic and
   significant pan-American musical phenomena of the 1970s and 1980s".
   Modern salsa remains a dance-oriented genre and is closely associated
   with a style of salsa dancing.

The word salsa

   Salsa means sauce in the Spanish language, and carries connotations of
   the spiciness common in Latin and Caribbean cuisine. More recently,
   salsa acquired a musical meaning in both English and Spanish. In this
   sense, salsa has been described as a word with "vivid associations but
   no absolute definitions, a tag that encompasses a rainbow assortment of
   Latin rhythms and styles, taking on a different hue wherever you stand
   in the Spanish-speaking world". The precise scope of salsa is highly
   debatable. Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants in New York have used the
   term analogously to swing or soul, which refer to a quality of
   emotionally and culturally genuine music in the African American
   community. In this usage salsa connotes a frenzied, "spicy" and wild
   musical experience that draws upon or reflects elements of Latin
   culture, regardless of the specific style.

   Various music writers and historians have traced the use of salsa to
   different periods of the 20th century. World music author Sue Steward
   has claimed that salsa was originally used in music as a "cry of
   appreciation for a particularly piquant or flashy solo". She cites the
   first use in this manner to a Venezuelan radio DJ named Phidias Danilo
   Escalona; Max Salazar traced the word back to the early 1930s, when
   Ignacio Piñerio composed "Échale Salsita", a dance song protesting
   tasteless food. Though Salazar describes this song as the origin of
   salsa meaning "danceable Latin music", author Ed Morales has described
   the usage in the same song as a cry from Piñeiro to his band, telling
   them to increase the tempo to "put the dancers into high gear". Morales
   claims that later in the 1930s, vocalist Beny Moré would shout salsa
   during a performance "to acknowledge a musical moment's heat, to
   express a kind of cultural nationalist sloganeering [and to celebrate
   the] 'hotness' or 'spiciness' of Latin American cultures".

   Some people object to the term salsa on the basis that it is vague or
   misleading; for example, the style of musicians such as Tito Puente
   evolved several decades before salsa was a recognized genre, leading
   Puente to once claim that "the only salsa I know comes in a bottle. I
   play Cuban music". Because salsa can refer to numerous styles of music,
   some observers perceive the word as a marketing term designed to
   superficially categorize music in a way that appeals to
   non-aficionados. For a time the Cuban state media officially claimed
   that the term salsa music was a euphemism for authentic Cuban music
   stolen by American imperialists, though the media has since abandoned
   this theory.

   Some doubt that the term salsa has any precise and unambiguous meaning.
   Peter Manuel describes salsa as "at once (both) a modern marketing
   concept and the cultural voice of a new generation", representative of
   a "crystallization of a Latino identity in New York in the early
   1960s". Manuel also recognizes the commercial and cultural dichotomy to
   salsa, noting that the term's broad use for many styles of Latin pop
   music has served the development of "pan-Latin solidarity", while also
   noting that the "recycling of Cuban music under an artificial,
   obscurantist label is but one more example of North American
   exploitation and commodification of third world primary products; for
   Latinos, salsa bridges the gap between "tradition and modernity,
   between the impoverished homeland and the dominant United States,
   between street life and the chic night club, and between grassroots
   culture and the corporate media".

   The singer Rubén Blades once claimed that salsa is merely "a concept",
   as opposed to a definite style or rhythm. Some musicians are doubtful
   that the term salsa has any useful meaning at all, with the bandleader
   Machito claiming that salsa was more or less what he had been playing
   for forty years before the style was invented, while Tito Puente once
   responded to a question about salsa by saying "I'm a musician, not a
   cook" (referring to salsa's original use to mean sauce). Celia Cruz, a
   well-known salsa singer, has said, "[s]alsa is Cuban music with another
   name. It's mambo, chachachá, rumba, son ... all the Cuban rhythms under
   one name".

   Music writer Peter Manuel claims that salsa came to describe a specific
   style of music in the mid-1970s "when a group of New York-based Latin
   musicians began overhauling the classic big-band arrangements popular
   since the mambo era of the 1940s and '50s", and that the term was
   "popularized" in the late 1960s by a Venezuelan radio station and Jerry
   Masucci of Fania Records. In contrast, Ed Morales cites the use of
   salsa for a specific style to a New York-based editor and graphic
   designer named Izzy Sanabria. Morales also mentions an early use of the
   term by Johnny Pacheco, a Dominican performer who released a 1962 album
   called Salsa Na' Ma, which Morales translates as "it just needs a
   little salsa, or spice".

Characteristics

   Though the term salsa music is not necessarily precise in scope, most
   authors use the term to refer specifically to a style created in the
   late 1960s and early 1970s. Author Ed Morales has said the obvious,
   most common perception of salsa is an "extravagant, clave-driven,
   Afro-Cuban-derived songs anchored by piano, horns, and rhythm section
   and sung by a velvety voiced crooner in a sharkskin suit".
   A trombone, sometimes considered a defining characteristic of salsa
   Enlarge
   A trombone, sometimes considered a defining characteristic of salsa

   At its root, however, salsa is a mixture of Spanish and African music,
   filtered through the music histories of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and
   adapted by Latin jazz and Latin popular musicians for Latino
   populations with diverse musical tastes. The basic structure of a salsa
   song is based on the Cuban son, beginning with a simple melody and
   followed by a coro section in which the performers improvise. Ed
   Morales has claimed that the "key staples" of salsa's origins were the
   use of the trombone as a counterpoint to the vocalist and a more
   aggressive sound than is typical in Cuban music; the trombone also
   carries the melody, while the rhythm is most generally provided by
   bongos, congas and timbales. Peter Manuel notes how New York and Puerto
   Rican salsa differs from the 1950s Cuban "son" in various ways, such as
   the greater use of timbales and trombones, the occasional use of Puerto
   Rican elements like the declamatory exclamation le-lo-lai, its frequent
   lyrics about barrio life in New York and elsewhere, the "smooth" sound
   of the salsa romántica style that emerged in the 1980s, and salsa's
   role as a soundscape for the Latino identity movement of the 1970s.

Songs and instrumentation

   A modern salsa band lineup including less traditional salsa instruments
   such as a saxophone and a full drumset.
   Enlarge
   A modern salsa band lineup including less traditional salsa instruments
   such as a saxophone and a full drumset.

   Salsa bands play a wide variety of songs, including pieces based on
   plenas and bombas, cumbia, vallenato and merengue; most songs, however,
   are modern versions of the Cuban son. Like the son, salsa songs begin
   with a songlike section followed by a montuno break with
   call-and-response vocals, instrumental breaks and jazzy solos.

   The most important instrumentation in salsa is the percussion, which is
   played by a wide variety of instruments, including claves, cowbells,
   timbales and conga. Apart from percussion, a variety of melodic
   instruments are commonly used as accompaniment, such as a guitar,
   trumpets, trombones, the piano, and many others, all depending on the
   performing artists. Bands typically consist of up to a dozen people,
   one of whom serves as band leader, directing the music as it is played.
   Two to four players generally specialize in horns, while there are
   generally a one or two choral singers and players of the bongo, conga,
   bass guitar, piano and timbales. The maracas, clave or güiro may also
   be played, typically by a vocalist. The bongocero will usually switch
   to a kind of bell called a campana (or bongo bell) for the montuno
   section of a song. Horns are typically either two trumpets or four
   trumpets or, most commonly, two trumpets with at least one saxophone or
   trombone.
   A cowbell, an important percussion instrument.
   Enlarge
   A cowbell, an important percussion instrument.

   Salsa essentially remains a form of dance music; thus many songs have
   little in the way of lyrics beyond exhortations to dance or other
   simple words. Modern pop-salsa is often romantica, defined partially by
   the sentimental, lovelorn lyrics, or erotica, defined largely by the
   sexually explicit lyrics. Salsa also has a long tradition of lyrical
   experimentation, with singer-songwriters like Ruben Blades using
   incisive lyrics about everything from imperialism to disarmament and
   environmentalism. Vocalists are expected to be able to improvise during
   verses and instrumental solos. References to Afro-Catholic religions,
   such as Santeria, are also a major part of salsa's lyrics throughout
   Latin America, even among those artists who are not themselves
   practitioners of any Afro-Catholic religion.

Rhythm

   A pair of claves, commonly used to play the clave rhythm.
   Enlarge
   A pair of claves, commonly used to play the clave rhythm.

   Salsa music is traditionally based on a 4/4 time signature, and is
   mostly phrased in groups of two bars (eight beats), such as recurring
   rhythmic patterns and main phrases of the chorus. Typically, the
   overall rhythmic patterns played on the percussion instruments are
   rather complicated, with several different patterns played
   simultaneously. The clave rhythm is an important foundation of salsa;
   all salsa music and dance is governed by the clave rhythm. The most
   common clave rhythm in salsa is the so called son clave, which is eight
   beats long and can be played either in 2-3 or 3-2 style. The 2-3
   version contains two clave strikes in the first half of the eight beats
   and three in the second, while the 3-2 has the halves reversed.

   Instrumentalists do not generally play out the exact clave rhythm,
   except when using the percussion instrument also known as claves. In
   most other cases, the clave rhythm simply functions as a basis for the
   instrumentalists and singers to use as a common rhythmic ground for
   their own musical phrases. The instrumentalists emphasize the
   differences of the two halves of the eight beat clave rhythm; for
   example, in an eight beat long phrase used in a 2-3 clave context, the
   first half of the phrase is given more straight notes that are played
   directly on beat, while the second half instead contains notes with
   longer durations and with a more off-beat feeling. This emphasizes that
   the first four beats of the 2-3 son clave contain two "short" strikes
   that are directly on beat, while the last four beats contain three
   "long" clave strikes with the second strike placed off-beat between
   beats two and three. Salsa songs commonly start with one clave and then
   switch to the reverse partway through the song, without restarting the
   clave rhythm; instead, the rhythm is shifted four beats using breaks
   and stop-time.

   Some percussion instruments have standardized patterns that reoccur in
   most salsa music with only minor variations. For example, this is a
   common rhythmic pattern called the cáscara based on the 2-3 clave, and
   is played on the shells of the timbales during the verses and less
   energetic parts of a song:
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.   (beats)
*.*.**.**.**.*.*   (* = cáscara strikes)

   During the chorus and solo parts, the timbalero often switches to the
   following rhythm, which is normally played on a cowbell mounted on the
   timbales set:
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.   (beats)
+.*.+++*.++*+.+*   (+/* = weak/accented cowbell strikes)

   The timbales pattern above is often accompanied by a handheld cowbell
   (bongo bell) also played during the chorus but by another person, using
   this simpler rhythm (in this example also based on the 2-3 clave):
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.   (beats)
+.*.+.**+.**+.**   (+/* = low/high-pitched cowbell strikes)

   The bass pattern often follows a distinct salsa rhythm pattern known as
   the tumbao which alternates between the fifth and the root of a chord.
   One side of the tumbao will be in near unison with the clave, while the
   other side is syncopated against the clave:
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.   (beats)
...5..8....5..1.   (5 = fifth of chord, 8 = high octave of chord, 1 = low octave
 of chord)

Lyricism

   Salsa lyrics range from simple dance numbers with little lyrical
   innovation and sentimental romantic songs to risqué and
   politically-radical lyrics. Music author Isabelle Leymarie notes that
   salsa performers often incorporate machoistic bravado (guapería) in
   their lyrics, in a manner reminiscent of calypso and samba, a theme she
   ascribes to the performers' "humble backgrounds" and subsequent need to
   compensate for their origins. Leymarie claims that salsa is
   "essentially virile, an affirmation of the Latin man's pride and
   identity". As an extension of salsa's macho stance, manly taunts and
   challenges (desafio) are also a traditional part of salsa.

   Politically and socially activist composers have long been an important
   part of salsa, and some of their works, like Eddie Palmieri's "La
   libertad - lógico", became Latin and especially Puerto Rican anthems.
   Many salsa songs use a nationalist theme, centered around a sense of
   pride in black Latino identity, and may be in Spanish, English or a
   mixture of the two called Spanglish.

History

   In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, Cuban music within Cuba was evolving into
   new styles derived primarily from son and rumba, while the Cubans in
   New York, living among many Latinos from Puerto Rico and elsewhere,
   began playing their own distinctive styles, influenced most importantly
   by African American music. Their music included son and guarachas, as
   well as tango, bolero and danza, with prominent influences from jazz.
   While the New York scene continued evolving, Cuban popular music,
   especially mambo, became very famous across the United States. This was
   followed by a series of other genres of Cuban music, which especially
   affected the Latin scene in New York. Many Latin musicians in New York
   were Puerto Rican, and it was these performers who innovated the style
   now known as salsa music, based largely off Cuban, and to a lesser
   extent, Puerto Rican music.

   Salsa evolved steadily through the later 1970s and into the '80s and
   '90s. New instruments were adopted and new national styles, like the
   music of Brazil, were adapted to salsa. New subgenres appeared, such as
   the sweet love songs called salsa romantica, while salsa became a major
   part of the music scene in Venezuela, Mexico and as far away as Japan.
   Diverse influences, including most prominently hip hop music, came to
   shape the evolving genre. By the turn of the century, salsa was one of
   the major fields of popular music in the world, and salsa stars were
   international celebrities.

Origins

   Salsa's roots can be traced back to the African ancestors that were
   brought to the Caribbean by the Spanish as slaves. In Africa it is very
   common to find people playing music with instruments like the conga and
   la pandereta, instruments commonly used in salsa. Salsa's most direct
   antecedent is Cuban son, which itself is a combination of African and
   European influences. Large son bands were very popular in Cuba
   beginning in the 1930s; these were largely septetos and sextetos, and
   they quickly spread to the United States. In the 1940s Cuban dance
   bands grew much larger, becoming mambo and charanga orchestras led by
   bandleaders like Arsenio Rodriguez and Felix Chappotin. In New York
   City in the '40s, at the centre for mambo in the United States, the
   Palladium Dancehall, and in Mexico City, where a burgeoning film
   industry attracted Latin musicians, Cuban-style big bands were formed
   by Cubans and Puerto Ricans like Machito, Perez Prado, Tito Puente and
   Tito Rodriguez. New York began developing its own Cuban-derived sound,
   spurred by large-scale Latino immigration, the rise of local record
   labels due to the early 1940s musicians strike and the spread of the
   jukebox industry, and the craze for big band dance music.

   Mambo was very jazz-influenced, and it was the mambo big bands that
   kept alive the large jazz band tradition while the mainstream current
   of jazz was moving on to the smaller bands of the bebop era. Throughout
   the 1950s Latin dance music, such as mambo, rumba and chachachá, was
   mainstream popular music in the United States and Europe. The '50s also
   saw a decline in popularity for mambo big bands, followed by the Cuban
   Revolution of 1959, which greatly inhibited contact between New York
   and Cuba. The result was a scene more dominated by Puerto Ricans than
   Cubans.

1960s

   The Latin music scene of early 1960s New York was dominated by bands
   led by musicians such as Ray Barretto and Eddie Palmieri, whose style
   was influenced by imported Cuban fads such as pachanga and charanga;
   after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, however, Cuban-American contact
   declined precipitously, and Puerto Ricans became a larger part of the
   New York Latin music scene. During this time a hybrid Nuyorican
   cultural identity emerged, primarily Puerto Rican but influenced by
   many Latin cultures as well as the close contact with African
   Americans.

   The growth of modern salsa, however, is said to have begun in the
   streets of New York in the late 1960s. By this time Latin pop was no
   longer a major force in American music, having lost ground to doo wop,
   R&B and rock and roll; there were a few youth fads for Latin dances,
   such as the soul and mambo fusion boogaloo, but Latin music ceased to
   be a major part of American popular music. Few Latin record labels had
   any significant distribution, the two exceptions being Tico and Alegre.
   Though East Harlem had long been a centre for Latin music in New York,
   during the 1960s many of the venues there shut down, and Brooklyn
   Heights' Saint George Hotel became "salsa's first stronghold".
   Performers there included Joe Bataan and the Lebron Brothers.

   The late 1960s also saw white youth joining a counterculture heavily
   associated with political activism, while black youth formed radical
   organizations like the Black Panthers. Inspired by these movements,
   Latinos in New York formed the Young Lords, rejected assimilation and
   "made the barrio a cauldron of militant assertiveness and artistic
   creativity". The musical aspect of this social change was based on the
   Cuban son, which had long been the favored musical form for urbanites
   in both Puerto Rico and New York. By the early 1970s, salsa's centre
   moved to Manhattan and the Cheetah, where promoter Ralph Mercado
   introduced many future stars to an ever-growing and diverse crowd of
   Latino audiences.

   The Manhattan-based recording company, Fania Records, introduced many
   of the first-generation salsa singers and musicians to the world.
   Founded by Dominican flautist and band-leader Johnny Pacheco and
   impresario Jerry Masucci, Fania's illustrious career began with Willie
   Colón and Héctor Lavoe's El Malo in 1967. This was followed by a series
   of updated son montuno and plena tunes that evolved into modern salsa
   by 1973. Pacheco put together a team that included percussionist Louie
   Ramirez, bassist Bobby Valentin and arranger Larry Harlow. The Fania
   team released a string of successful singles, mostly son and plena,
   performing live after forming the Fania All Stars in 1971; just two
   years later, the All Stars sold out Yankee Stadium. One of their 1971
   performances at the Cheetah nightclub, was a historic concert that drew
   several thousand people and helped to spark a salsa boom.

   Salsa quickly spread outside of New York City, to Miami, Cuba, Puerto
   Rico and Colombia. The city of Cali, Colombia became that country's
   major centre for salsa in the late 1960s, when salsa became a major
   part of the local Feria de la Caña de Azucar. Salsa also established
   itself in Guayaquil, Caracas and Panama City.

1970s

   From New York salsa quickly expanded to Cuba, Puerto Rico, the
   Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and other Latin
   countries, while the new style became a symbol of "pride and cultural
   identity" for Latinos, especially Puerto Ricans. The number of salsa
   bands, both in New York and elsewhere, increased dramatically in the
   70s, as did salsa-oriented radio stations and record labels. Popular
   performers like Eddie Palmieri and Celia Cruz adapted to the salsa
   format, joined by more authentically traditional singers like Willie
   Colon and Ruben Blades. Colón and Blades worked together for much of
   the 1970s and '80s, becoming some of the most critically and popularly
   acclaimed salsa performers in the world. Their lyricism set them apart
   from others; Blades became a "mouthpiece for oppressed Latin America",
   while Colón composed "potent", "socio-political vignettes". Their 1978
   album Siembra was, at that time, the best-selling Latin album in
   history.

   The 1970s saw a number of musical innovations among salsa musicians.
   The bandleader Willie Colón introduced the cuatro, a rural Puerto Rican
   guitar, as well as jazz, rock, and Panamanian and Brazilian music.
   Larry Harlow, the arranger for Fania Records, modernized salsa by
   adding an electric piano. By the end of the decade, Fania Records'
   longtime leadership of salsa was weakened by the arrival of the labels
   TH-Rodven and RMM. Salsa had come to be perceived as "contaminated by
   fusion and disco", and took elements from disparate styles like go go,
   while many young Latinos turned to hip hop, techno or other styles.
   Salsa began spreading throughout Latin America in the 1970s, especially
   to Colombia, where a new generation of performers began to combine
   salsa with elements of cumbia and vallenato; this fusion tradition can
   be traced back to the 1960s work of Peregoya y su Combo Vacano.
   However, it was Joe Arroyo and La Verdad, his band, that popularized
   Colombian salsa beginning in the 1980s.

1980s

   The 1980s was a time of diversification, as popular salsa evolved into
   sweet and smooth salsa romantica, with lyrics dwelling on love and
   romance, and its more explicit cousin, salsa erotica. Salsa romantica
   can be traced back to Noches Calientes, a 1984 album by singer José
   Alberto with producer Louie Ramirez. A wave of romantica singers,
   mostly Puerto Rican, found wide audiences with a new style
   characterized by romantic lyrics, an emphasis on the melody over
   rhythm, and use of percussion breaks and chord changes. However, salsa
   lost some popularity among many Latino youth, who were drawn to
   American rock in large numbers, while the popularization of Dominican
   merengue further sapped the audience among Latinos in both New York and
   Puerto Rico. The 1980s also saw salsa expand to Mexico, Argentina,
   Peru, Europe and Japan, and diversify into many new styles.

   In the 1980s some performers experimented with combining elements of
   salsa with hip hop music, while the producer and pianist Sergio George
   helped to revive salsa's commercial success. He created a sound based
   on prominent trombones and rootsy, mambo-inspired style. He worked with
   the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz, and developed a studio
   orchestra that included Victor Manuelle, Celia Cruz, José Alberto, La
   India, Tito Puente and Marc Anthony. The Colombian singer Joe Arroyo
   first rose to fame in the 1970s, but became a renowned exponent of
   Colombian salsa in the 1980s. Arroyo worked for many years with the
   Colombian arranger Fruko and his band Los Tesos.

1990s to the present

   Vallenato fusionist Carlos Vives in concert
   Enlarge
   Vallenato fusionist Carlos Vives in concert

   In the 1990s Cuban salsa became more prominent, especially a distinct
   subgenre called timba. Using the complex songo rhythm, bands like NG La
   Banda, Charanga Habanera, and Los Van Van developed timba, along with
   related styles like songo-salsa, which featured swift Spanish rapping.
   The use of rapping in popular songo-salsa was appropriated by Sergio
   George, beginning with his work with the trio Dark Latin Groove, which
   "breathed the fire of songo rhythms and the energy of rap and soul into
   salsa".

   Salsa remained a major part of Colombian music through the 1990s,
   producing popular bands like Sonora Carruseles, while the singer Carlos
   Vives created his own style that fuses salsa with vallenato and rock.
   Vives' popularization of vallenato-salsa led to the accordion-led
   vallenato style being used by mainstream pop stars like Gloria Estefan.
   The city of Cali, in Colombia, has come to call itself the "salsa
   capital of the world", having produced such groups as Orquesta Guayacan
   and Grupo Niche.

   Salsa has registered a steady growth and now dominates the airwaves in
   many countries in Latin America. In addition, several Latino artists,
   including Rey Ruiz, Marc Anthony, and most famously, the Cuban-American
   singer Gloria Estefan, have had success as crossovers, penetrating the
   Anglo-American pop market with Latin-tinged hits, usually sung in
   English.

   The most recent innovations in the genre include hybrids like
   merenhouse, salsa-merengue and salsaton, alongside salsa gorda. Since
   the mid-1990s African artists have also been very active through the
   super-group Africando, where African and New York musicians mix with
   leading African singers such as Bambino Diabate, Ricardo Lemvo, Ismael
   Lo and Salif Keita. Salsa is only one of many Latin genres to have
   traveled back and influenced West African music.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_music"
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