Skip to content
Coro
Feedback

The instruments of a salsa band

1.A band built on rhythm

A salsa band has two sides. The melody side is the piano, the horns, and a lead singer trading lines with a chorus. The rhythm side is a team of percussion instruments plus the bass.

Each rhythm instrument plays a short pattern over and over, and the patterns lock together. Press play to hear each one on its own, the way Coro's rhythm exercises play it.

ListenQuítate TúFania All Stars · 1971Recorded live at New York's Cheetah club in 1971. In the verses the singers ride on the rhythm side alone; then the horns of the melody side come in with riffs of their own. Listen for when they drop out and come back.