Skip to content
Coro
Feedback

Where salsa comes from

3.Son: the direct parent

A pair of wooden bongó drums joined together

The most important ancestor of salsa is son cubano, or just “son.” It started in eastern Cuba in the late 1800s. Son used a small guitar called the tres, plus bongó drums, plus that African call-and-response singing.

In the 1940s, a bandleader named Arsenio Rodríguez added conga drums and more horns. This son montuno sound is almost the same band setup salsa still uses today: piano, bass, congas, horns, and a singer trading lines with a chorus.

ListenBruca ManiguáSierra Maestra · 1998Arsenio Rodríguez wrote this afro-son in the 1930s. Sierra Maestra, a Cuban band that brought the classic son sound back, plays it with the tres, bongó and a call-and-response chorus.