by caballoballo » Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:46 pm
Salsa is a mix of rhytms, it was created like David mentioned by Fania as a marketing, yes it evolve from Cuban Son but lots of different influences were added by PuertoRicans,Cubans,Jews,Italians,Mexicans,Colombian,Venezuelan to name a few. When I said a mix, is for example how a Salsa Theme may have Bomba & Plena or jibaro music incorporated as well of some R & B or some rock added to the flavor or some other rhytm from the folklore of the country where the band is from. Cuban music which is the root of salsa sound a lot difference from the one play from P.R, N.Y, Colombia and Venezuela. I as a Dj have lots of Cuban music,Colombian Salsa,Venezuelan Salsa and of course N.Y & P.R, Cuban style is different even to dance.
The Conga will play the basic Tumbao and the Bongó will play in and out of the Martillo accentuating the singer lyrics. Then during the montuno the conga may improvise from the tumbao to add flavor to the cuisine. The Bongocero Campana will lead the tempo. I remember in another post how JC & BNB were questioning what else the Bongocero could do other than play Martillo, HUMMMMM cojelo que ahi te va. In this post the Conga salsa player plays only straight tumbao,the Bongocero is the flavor added to the rhytm and then during the montuno he lets go of the Bongó and dances with his campana . Have you people seen how Roberto Roena dance and play campana ?
Dancing salsa, here in the beautiful Island of P.R first you are going to learn the CLAVE because you will dance in sync with her.You may hear a count like 1,2,3 & 5,6,7 . 4 and 8 are transitions points in the rhytm so all 8 counts of the clave are present. Some people may dance in one, others like N.Y & P.R style will dance on 2. On 1 means you step with your left foot on the count 1 of the clave or 3/2 clave, on 2 you step with your left foot on the 2 count or like in 2/3 clave. I hope I am not too far from the true on the last sentence. This is salsa dance 101.
To me the first thing a Salsa Musician ( I dance in clave ,on 2 style ) should learn is to dance, that way the dancer mind and approach to the music will be understood by the on stage musician. Why I said this is because some times no matter which band is playing, from the point of view of the musicians they may play a theme that has all kind of variations and they will enjoyed but for the dancer on the floor was BS theme.
Josean