cover image

The Book of Salsa

A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean to New York City

Rond

Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 03/2008
Pages: 352
Subject: Music, History | University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807886397

DESCRIPTION

Salsa is one of the most popular types of music listened to and danced to in the United States. Until now, the single comprehensive history of the music--and the industry that grew up around it, including musicians, performances, styles, movements, and production--was available only in Spanish. This lively translation provides for English-reading and music-loving fans the chance to enjoy Cesar Miguel Rondon's celebrated El libro de la salsa.

Rondon tells the engaging story of salsa's roots in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, and of its emergence and development in the 1960s as a distinct musical movement in New York. Rondon presents salsa as a truly pan-Caribbean phenomenon, emerging in the migrations and interactions, the celebrations and conflicts that marked the region. Although salsa is rooted in urban culture, Rondon explains, it is also a commercial product produced and shaped by professional musicians, record producers, and the music industry. For this first English-language edition, Rondon has added a new chapter to bring the story of salsa up to the present.