Questions, do I get questions from my son Max, age 9. He asked a good one the other day. This came after we saw the Layla Angulo Latin Jazz Explosion at the Triple Door in Seattle, a weeknight gig that started nice and early and ended by 9 p.m. It was a great show, featuring his clarinet teacher - who plays soprano and alto sax - plus a fine cast of musicians on percussion, vocal, piano, bass, trumpet and trombone.
After it ended, Max asked me: "What makes Salsa music Salsa?"
The short answer is spice; the extra ingredient; that certain something without which the taste buds would be less arrested.
Max Salazar's definitive 1991 article in Latin Beat, reproduced at the Salsa Roots site, says the musical term "salsa" originally derived from Ignacio Pinerio's 1933 composition "Echale Salsita," a song written as "a protest against tasteless food." Salazar also notes that salsa began to creep toward the mainstream with the release of Latin jazz vibist and bandleader Cal Tjader's 1964 album "Soul Sauce;" one that's in heavy rotation on my CD player.
I am muy sympatico to the food-music spice-time continuum. The forces of blandness must be overwhelmed. We asked my Max's teacher Layla for her answer to his question, and she stressed the Afro-Cuban jazz roots of the salsa; Cuban son music rhythms among others; the use of trademark percussion instruments such as congas, claves and guiro; the montuno rhythm of the piano; and the special dancing that accompanies the music. To which I'd add, horns, horns, horns; maybe a flute; and a great male tenor vocalist like Carlos Cascante, who's a key part of Layla's group, and leader of his own unit.
The key ingredient, though, as I was reminded at the Triple Door, is a Latina in the back row who shouts out "Saaallllllssssaaaa," and "CaaaarrrEEEEbay" at key junctures.
Layla's latest CD, "Live at the Triple Door," is available here. Here's a picture of the show. If you get a chance to see these guys, sieze it.
TECHNORATI TAGS: SALSA, SEATTLE, LAYLA ANGULO, CARLOS CASCANTE, CAL TJADER, IGNACIO PINERIO, MAX SALAZAR, TRIPLE DOOR
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 5, 2006 12:47 PM