salsa [key], American popular music developed largely in New York City during the 1970s; its name is derived from the Spanish word for hot sauce. It is a mixture of various elements: rhumba, mambo, chacha, and other Latin dance forms; Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latin American strains; rock music; and jazz. During the 1980s the style also became popular in Miami as well as in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia. Salsa is chiefly performed, and often simultaneously danced, by singers, percussionists, keyboardists, brass players, and guitarists. Prominent salsa musicians include bandleaders Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco (who formed Fania Records and led the related Fania All-Stars), and pianist Eddie Palmieri (who added trombones to his band to replace the softer violins); singers Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, La India, and Marc Anthony; and instrumentalists such as Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, and Bobby Valentin.
See studies by C. Gerard (1989); V. Boggs (1992); J. Flores (2016); D. L. Washington (2017); videos Salsa: Latin Pop Music in the Cities (1988); Celia Cruz and Friends: A Night of Salsa (2004).
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