Musica!: Salsa, Rhumba, Merengue and More

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Salsa, the sexy dance music of the Spanish-speaking world, is making its way into the lives of millions around the globe. But the term "salsa" actually describes a multitude of different Latin music styles, including son, guaracha, mambe, rumba, merengne, and Latin jazz. Musica tells the story of salsa's origins and charts its journey from Cuba to New York's barrio, Miami Beach, and beyond.

SYNOPSIS

Salsa, the irresistible dance music of the Spanish-speaking world, has made its way into the lives of millions around the globe. But salsa is only one of many popular Latin rhythms. The first comprehensive guide to the music, its history, and its legends, Musica! charts the vast territory of this lively Latin heritage, which began in Cuba and spread throughout the Caribbean and into North and South America.

Illustrated with contemporary and vintage photos, Musica! features a gallery of legendary musical performers, plus sections on the musical styles and dances including the rumba, mambo, cha-cha, and merengue. A discography and bibliography complete this comprehensive story of Latin America's extraordinary rhythmic tradition.

FROM THE CRITICS

Mike Tribby - Booklist

Salsa is not just sauce. It is also "modernized Cuban dance music," Steward vaguely says, whose story begins in Cuba, winds through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and proceeds to Miami and New York, where it intersects African American music. Considering specific dances, Steward asks who invented the mambo when discussing the "original Mambo Kings—Arsenio Rodriquez and Antonio Arcano" and then considers the influence race had on its development, for Rodriguez "provided the popular Orqesta de la Playa with hit songs but he couldn't perform with them because he was black." Of the rhumba, Steward says it was a 1940s dance craze that "today is strictly ballroom." Xavier Cugat and his madcap sidekick, Desi Arnaz, popularized it and the conga in the U.S., but "by that time, 'rhumba' in America meant any kind of Cuban music--just as salsa does today." Well illustrated, well referenced and indexed—just plain well done—this is a fine survey of salsa from its origins to today's DLG (dark Latin groove).

ACCREDITATION