Where does Salsa come from?
‘Salsa’ itself means ‘sauce’. It’s a Spanish word, it means ‘sauce’. It’s a term that came about in the 70’s by the Fania All Stars who were based in New York. Basically, did their own take on Cuban Salsa and they coined the phrase ‘Salsa’. Which incorporated a lot of different rhythms from Latin American styles of music. It was designed to make it easier to package it for consumption by the West. So basically, when you’re looking at Salsa in the UK, I think you’ll be looking at a blend of Son and Rumba and Salsa that’s come out of New York, Puerto Rico, Cuba. I think you could trace it back to the times of slavery when the Spanish discovered Latin America. You had a great influx of African slaves from Nigeria, a lot of slaves from Senegal. They were forced to give up their religion, everything else. And all that was left really was music. So they took over their drums, and I think maybe once a week they were allowed to celebrate their own type of music off the plantations. Then you’ll
