Salsa in New York City

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New York Salsa Scene

Salsa in New York City is native. It evolved from Cuban son dance music played by artists from many Caribbean countries in New York’s Puerto Rican communities from the 1940s-80s. “Ven ven, Iroko, ven, ven.”

Salsa Clubs in NYC

Gonzalez y Gonzalez is a Mexican restaurant in Greenwich Village with live salsa bands for dancing on weekends, usually Thursday-Sunday. 🇲🇽

Taj II hosts Latin Mondays by Talia Castro-Pozo, New York’s most popular salsa dance party. 🇵🇪

Salsa Dances in NYC

Latin Mondays at Taj, by Talia Castro, is New York’s most popular salsa dance party.

Midtown Dance is an outdoor salsa dance lesson and party in Greeley Square Park, opposite Herald Square.

Salsa Saturdays at La Marqueta in “El Barrio” East Harlem is a summer outdoor salsa dance. 🇵🇷

Salsa Sundays at Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay Park, The Bronx, is a summer outdoor salsa dance party from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend. 🇵🇷

Salsa Dance Studios in NYC

• Alvin Ailey Studios
• Cali Salsa Pal Mundo 🇨🇴
• Lorenz
• Nieves
• Piel Canela

Salsa Festivals in NYC

BIG Salsa Festival is New York City’s Memorial Day Weekend salsa and bachata dance festival.

New York International Salsa Congress is NYC’s Labor Day Weekend salsa and bachata dance festival.

New York Salsa Festival is a night of salsa legends at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the night before the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Salsa Stories is a popup street salsa festival.

Salsa Legends

Celia Cruz was “The Queen of Salsa.” She couldn’t go home to Cuba, so she popularized Cuban music around the world. She did more than anyone else to make Latin music loved globally. 🇨🇺

Héctor Lavoe, “El Cantante” was a Puerto Rican salsa singer and Fania All-Star. His “El Cantante,” and “Mi Gente” are salsa anthems. 🇵🇷

Johnny Pacheco co-founded Fania Records and directed the Fania All-Stars. There is Dominican salsa, but there wasn’t much in 1970s New York City. Pacheco was Dominican from Santiago de los Caballeros. He brought it all together. 🇩🇴

“Tite” Curet Alonso was the salsa poet. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, in New York he wrote thousands of salsas, about 50 of them are hits. But he was tricked into signing away the rights to his music. The group of lawyers who did it have fancy offices in Puerto Rico with a parking lot full of Porsches, Mercedes, and so on. Tite didn’t get anything, but those who know, know. 🇵🇷

Tito Puente didn’t play salsa. He trained a Juilliard and had a Cuban sound, but he is still “The King of Latin Music.” 🇵🇷

Salsa Museums in NYC

The International Salsa Museum is currently virtual, but is well connected and something salsa lovers will want to see. What they say is true: “All roads of salsa lead to the Bronx.” Love la salsa. Amo el Bronx! La salsa es la vida. internationalsalsamuseum.org

Salsa Bands in NYC

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra isn’t a salsa band, but they play all styles of Latin jazz with everyone. The O’Farrill’s are one of the great Latin jazz families. Their Belongó (Afro Latin Jazz Alliance) is one of America’s leading Latin jazz organizations. 🇨🇺

Eddie Palmieri is a New York Puerto Rican NEA Jazz Master who is influential in Latin jazz and salsa. He brought the trombones in, which later became a Fania signature. Palmieri launched several famous salsa careers, and is now of the godfathers of Latin music in New York City. 🇵🇷

India (La India) is a Puerto Rican salsa singer who was named “La Princesa de la Salsa” by Celia Cruz.

Ismael Miranda, “El Niño Bonito de la Salsa” is a Puerto Rican singer famous for “Abran Paso.”

Jose Alberto “El Canario” is a Dominican salsa singer famous for his charismatic whistling. 🇩🇴

La Excelencia is a New York salsa dura band led by Julian Silva, a Cali, Colombian. Dancers love this band. 🇨🇴

Los Hacheros is a young New York salsa band. 🇵🇷

Lulada Club is New York’s women’s salsa orchestra. The leader is from Cali, Colombia “la capital de la salsa.” 🇨🇴 🇺🇸 🇵🇷

Mambo Legends Orchestra is Tito Puente’s legacy band. 🇵🇷

Marc Anthony started as a freestyle rapper from “El Barrio” East Harlem in the 1980s. His career took off when he started singing salsa in Spanish. 🇵🇷

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirate Troubadours 🇵🇷

Rubén Blades is a Panamanian singer-songwriter who wrote some salsa anthems. He is now one of the godfathers of Latin music in New York City. 🇵🇦

Son Del Monte is a charanga band that plays pachanga salsa. 🇵🇷

Spanish Harlem Orchestra with Oscar Hernández carries on New York Salsa traditions like it’s still the 1970s. They are one of New York’s best salsa dance bands. 🇵🇷

Willie Colón, “El Malo,” is remembered for his great music and long collaboration with Héctor Lavoe and other Fania All-Stars. 🇵🇷

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Origins of Salsa

A lot of human culture derives from religious traditions. By tradition, drumming, singing, and dancing in the community is how we pray. Salsa isn’t religious, but it originates in the Cuban Yoruba religion. In Cuba, Yoruba traditions absorbed Dahomey and Kongo traditions, so Cuban Yoruba is really a blend of many African Diaspora traditions.

Salsa also carries Indigenous traditions. When the colonizers came, Indigenous Peoples escaped to the mountains. Africans later did the same thing and we mixed. Maracas and the güiro are Indigenous Taíno instruments. Maracas were originally made from a large nut that grows on a Caribbean tree. Every region has its own unique güiro (scraper), and they all sound a little different.

What we now call salsa evolved in New York City from Cuban son dance music played by artists from many Caribbean countries in New York’s Puerto Rican communities in the 1940s-80s.

It derives from “cubop” Latin jazz (jazz with clave), which was defined in New York City by Mario Bauzá, music director for Machito and His Afro-Cubans in 1943. Bauzá helped Dizzy Gillespie bring Latin percussion back into jazz when he introduced Dizzy to conguero Chano Pozo (“Manteca,” “Tin Tin Deo”). Interestingly, Bauzá earlier played on the 1930 RCA Victor recording of “El Manisero,” which was the first international Latin hit, and the first Latin music heard by many Americans.

Palladium Ballroom mambo was a pivotal influence from 1947 to 1966. Machito and His Afro-Cubans, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodríguez where the Palladium Ballroom “Big 3” bands that set the pace. The Mambo Craze that swept America and the world in 1948 started at The Palladium. It also later amplified the Cha-Cha-Cha craze that swept out of Havana and Mexico City and across the world in 1955.

Tito Puente was New York Puerto Rican, but he had a Cuban sound. New York Salsa has Puerto Rican bomba and plena influences in it. Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera brought those traditions in from Villa Palmeras, Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Salsa has the bomba sicá rhythm in it. Many Puerto Ricans will automatically dance to anything with sicá in it.

In 1964, Johnny Pacheco’s Fania Records became the Latin Motown with its New York salsa catalog. The 1970s were the Golden Age of New York Salsa. That was also when salsa jumped to Cali, Colombia and evolved into Salsa Colombiana.

The 1980s saw a shift towards salsa romántica, a softer form that in its day was considered very naughty, but seems very tame now. Salsa songs are filled with double meaning.

The many forms of salsa include: changüi, pachanga, boogaloo, mambo, salsa dura, salsa Colombiana, salsa romántica, and timba.

International Salsa Bands

Salsa sounds a little different everywhere it is played.

Andy Montañez, “El Godfather de la Salsa,” is a Puerto Rican salsero who started his career with El Gran Combo. As island Puerto Ricans, we think of him as “El Niño de Trastalleres.” You see him occasionally walking around Calle Cerra and La Placita in Santurce.

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico is “La Universidad de la Salsa” for the Puerto Rican sound. It formed in 1962 out of Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera’s band. Many great salseros started in Gran Combo. 🇵🇷

Gilberto Santa Rosa, “El Caballero de la Salsa,” is a Puerto Rican salsa singer famous for his trovadore rap improvisations. He was the first Puerto Rican to play Carnegie Hall. 🇵🇷

Grupo Niche is the iconic Colombian salsa band. Originally from Bogotá, they moved to Cali, the “Salsa Capital of the World.” “Un Aventura es más bonita…” “Cali Pachanguero” is one of the ultimate Colombian party anthems. 🇨🇴

Jerry Rivera is a Puerto Rican salsa singer famous for “Cara del Niño.” 🇵🇷

Joe Arroyo is the godfather of Colombian salsa. He took all the Latin music that was happening up to the 1970s, and made it Colombian. 🇨🇴

La Sonora Ponceña is one of the great Puerto Rican salsa orchestras. They are more Cuban rumba influenced than most of the Puerto Rican bands. “Ahora Si,” and “Yambeque” are salsa classics. 🇵🇷

Maelo Ruiz 🇵🇷

Oscar D’León is a Venezuelan salsa singer. His “Llorarás” is a salsa classic loved by dancers. 🇻🇪

Tito Nieves is a Puerto Rican salsa singer famous for singing salsa in English. His hits include “I Like it Like That” and “Fabricando Fantasias.” 🇵🇷

Tito Rojas 🇵🇷

Tommy Olivencia’s band was the original university of the salsa. Frankie Ruiz, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and many other salsa legends started in Olivencia’s band in Villa Palmeras, Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 🇵🇷