Salsa
- Created by: Emma Kirkup
- Created on: 09-04-14 21:35
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- Salsa
- The Spanish colonised Cuba and brought African slaves with them to work on the sugar plantations
- The two cultures combined to make a dance style called Son
- Traditional Son music has:
- A repeated rhythm pattern called a clave, played by hitting two claves together
- Other repeated rhythm patterns played on percussion like maracas and bongos. These parts were often syncopated and form complicated cross-rhythms and polyrhythms against the clave part
- The melody is played by brass instruments like trumpets
- Call and response between the lead singer (sonero) and the chorus (choro). In Slasa, call and response is called pregón and choro
- Son is for dancing to, so the lyrics are simple or about the dancers. When the singers improvise, they sing about anything they want
- The band has a guitar, string bass, bongos, maracas, claves and a tres (like a guitar but with 3 sets of 2 strings)
- Traditional Son music has:
- The two cultures combined to make a dance style called Son
- Salsa developed in New York in the 1960s and 70s in NYC, in the city's largest Latin-American community. Salsa means sauce in Spanish, so it is meant to be 'spicy' music
- Salsa bands took the basic structure of Son and added harsher, brass-based arrangements of big-band jazz. There was a big focus on the trombone
- It also took inspiration from Puerto-Rican, Brazilian and African music
- It soon became popular throughout Latin-America and beyond
- It also took inspiration from Puerto-Rican, Brazilian and African music
- Salsa bands took the basic structure of Son and added harsher, brass-based arrangements of big-band jazz. There was a big focus on the trombone
- Clave is the basic rhythm of any piece of Salsa music. A piece doesn't use the same rhythm all the way through it might switch halfway through.
- A piece doesn't use the same rhythm all the way through. It might switch to a different clave, but it always stays in a 4/4 time signature. All other parts fit around the instruments playing the clave
- Instruments
- Front line or horns: Trombones, trumpets and saxophones play the tune
- Vocals: Soneros (lead singers) and choro (the chorus)
- Strings and piano: The brass section's accompaniment is provided a bass guitar, a tres/spanish guitar and a piano
- Rhythm section: Latin-American instruments congas, timbales, bongos, maracas, guiro and a standard drum kit
- Rapping, samplers and synthesizers turn traditional Salsa into club music called Salsaton
- Structure
- There are 3 main chunks, that can be in any order and used more than once
- Verse: the main tune is sung by the sonero or played by the instrumentalist
- Chorus: montuno where the sonero or lead instrumentalist improvises, and the choro or other instrumentalists answer
- Break between choruses: mambo, which has new material eg. different chords or tune. Oftenplayed by the horn section
- There will also be an introduction and outro, and possibly a break, where just the rhythm section plays
- There is also a drum roll (abanico) at the start of each section
- There are 3 main chunks, that can be in any order and used more than once
- Rhythms
- The rhythms change in each section
- Conga: 2 drums in the montuno and mambo, and 1 in the verse
- Bongo: Switches to a cowbell and a different rhythm in the montuno and mambo
- Timbale: The mambo bell, as well as the timbale, is played in the montuno and mambo
- The rhythms change in each section
- The Spanish colonised Cuba and brought African slaves with them to work on the sugar plantations
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