Like the sauce it's named after, salsa music has a lot of separate ingredients: mambo, bomba, plena, guaracha, and more. But once those elements are blended, an entirely new flavor profile is unlocked—one inaccessible via any of its core components alone.
With vigor and a knack for a good yarn, Latin music writer, composer, bandleader, and educator Aurora Flores discusses the origin and evolution of salsa music and its connection to jazz in the debut episode of Histories: Salsa Music In NYC, a new, limited-run video series celebrating the history and impact of salsa music.
"We were part of the second generation of Puerto Ricans that were already in New York City," Flores explains in the above episode. "We took that music of our parents and just updated it. We added a dollop of jazz, a splash of rock and roll, a pinch of R&B, harmonies from doo-wop, and we took all this together and put it in one big pot."
Watch the debut episode of Histories: Salsa Music In NYC above to learn how the music of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo coalesced and commingled in "one big pot" and was set to boil—and why the music world would never be the same as a result.
Keep an eye on GRAMMY.com for more episodes of Histories: Salsa Music In NYC as well as more enriching and heartfelt Hispanic Heritage Month stories from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.
Histories: Salsa Music In NYC is presented by the Recording Academy's New York Chapter and the International Salsa Museum as part of Hispanic Heritage Month 2021.
