Legends of Salsa

The seeds of salsa came crashing out of Cuba in the ’60s, leaping into the great musical melting pot of New York, where bandleaders like Johnny Pacheco spiced up those Afro-Cuban roots with the sounds of the city. By the time Fania Records founder Pacheco cut the pulsing, percolating “Las Muchachas” in the mid-’70s, he was already acknowledged as el grande of the salsa scene. Of course, he didn’t do it alone — Bronx-born Willie Colón was still a teenager when he became one of Fania’s first big salsa stars, and more than three decades later he was still going strong with the suave, sleek flow of “Idilio.” And Tito Puente may have been known as the King of Mambo, but when he cut the autobiographical “Celia y Tito” with Celia Cruz, the royal pair’s claim to the salsa throne couldn’t have been clearer.

In Next Steps, boogaloo boys and conga kings keep the salsa story stepping lively.

At every step of salsa’s evolution, trailblazers have burst onto the scene to take things to another level. Joe Cuba helped created the Latin boogaloo sound that mixed salsa with a dash of R&B, scoring a crossover smash with the explosive “Bang Bang” in the process. Bringing an ear for jazz to his grounding in the groove, Ray Barretto took the congas from percussion to poetry, and he lets his hands do the talking with the slamming salsa syncopation of “Cocinando.” And speaking of poetry, Rubén Blades arrived in the ’70s to stake a new generation’s claim to salsa, bringing a lyrical intensity that still burns bright, with the street scenes of 2009’s “Las Calles.”

In Deep Cuts, salsa’s secret ingredients are revealed by master sonic chefs from Colombia to New York City.

The story of salsa is as multilayered as the music itself, with innovators laying down the groundwork that inspired others to add their own flavors to the mix. Machito was making inroads in Afro-Cuban jazz before salsa was anything other than a cooking ingredient, but you don’t have to listen too hard to hear the stirrings of salsa start rising to the top of his 1958 recording “Guaglione.” In the ‘60s, the Fania All Stars made salsa a New York City phenomenon, but the sound bounced all the way across the ocean to Colombia, where Fruko y Sus Tesos charged it up with a touch of charanga and scored hits like the hip-shaking “El Patillero.” And even in the ’80s, the All Stars were moving with the times, with young lion Rubén Blades taking the lead for the bittersweet farewell kiss of “La Palabra Adios.”

Take the Cuban grooves of mambo and son montuno, put them on a plane to the States, pepper them with the jazzy jabs and percussive intensity of New York City, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for the sound of salsa. From bold bandleaders with big ideas, like Johnny Pacheco and Tito Puente, to vibrant vocalists (Hector LaVoe, Celia Cruz) and such awe-inspiring instrumentalists as Eddie Palmieri and Ray Barretto, we’ve culled the cream of the salsa crop. And we’ve put them all in one place to offer you the ultimate in trombone-blaring, conga-slapping, cowbell-clanking tones that’ll keep your feet in perpetual motion and your ears in a state of unstoppable ecstasy.