The History of Salsa - Essay Example

The French individuals migrated to the region of Haiti and with them travelled to Danzon which happens to be the country dance of the region of France (Steward, 37). Later Danzon was combined with the dances practised by the Africans and is recognized as rhumbas which include Colombia and Guaguanco. Later another dance was added to the combination of Danzon and rhumbas, this dance was recognized as Son and was practised by the natives of Cuba and this dance itself came into being due to a mixture of two dances including sonero and drumbeats of Africa. The combination of these dances was experienced by Cuban people at a very huge level and it was experienced in other areas such as Puerto and Colombia but not at a very grand stage.

Before World War II took place, salsa music initially was practised in the regions of New York and the city of Mexico and the music gained its name and recognition as “Salsa” in the land of New York (Steward, 57). The term came into existence in 1933 when Ignacio Pinerio who was a Cuba-based music composer created a song called Echale Salsita (Steward, 8). The term was recognized by the musician while he was having food and realized that the food did not have spices that are found in Cuban food. This means that the term Salsa was used to protest against food that lacked spices. The word was then made popular as it was associated with several kinds of music such as Son, Mambo, rhumba, Cumbia and several others. Later huge amounts of funds were used to make the music popular and this led to the creation of Salsa music that was used for commercial purposes. The term did not gain immense popularity until the session of 1960s. Several albums based on this music have been created and one of the earliest of them was Cal Tjader Quintet (Steward, 61).