News & Updates — Salsa

Happy birthday to the great Cuban tres player and son montuno legend, one of the founding fathers of salsa and mambo, Aresnio Rodríguez!! His 1940's & '50s conjuntos were major building blocks in creating the mambo style, adding conga, multiple trumpets, piano and tumbao basslines to the son cubano format, leading the way to mambo, salsa and timba to come. Born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull, he came from Matanzas, Cuba. His family were African descendants who practiced Palo Monte. He was blinded at 7 years old when a horse kicked him in the face. He was a professional musician by...

Happy birthday to Edulfamid Molina Díaz, also known as Piper Pimienta, one of Colombia's most distinct salsa voices and one of the slickest dancers of his day. His name was inspired by his spicy dance, along with his uncle's claim that he resembled a pepper. Born in Puerto Tejada, outside of Cali, he got his start in the business around 1959 with orchestras such as Sonora del Pacífico and Orquesta Los Supremos. In the early '70s he joined Fruko y sus Tesos and was also a member of the Latin Brothers (with Joe Arroyo), El Combo Candela and the Colombia...

The great Cuban bassist and composer Juan Formell is best known for being the leader of Los Van Van, and for being the creator of the songo, a fusion of Afro-Cuban, són, charanga, jazz, salsa, soul, classical and pop. Born into a musical family in Havana, he started his career in the late '50s, eventually playing with Elena Burke. He formed Van Van in 1969 after leading Orchestra Revé (and turning them into Changüí '68) and set about becoming one of the most important figures in the history of Cuban music. Los Van Van were the leading band on the...

Feliz cumpleaños to the great salsero Cheo Feliciano. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, his family moved in the '50s to Spanish Harlem. As a teenager he started playing percussion with Tito Rodriguez' orchestra and with Kako's group. As well, he toured as a roadie with Mon Rivera. In 1956 he joined the Joe Cuba Sextet as their baritone-voiced Español-singing counterpart to the velvety English-languaged voice of Jimmy Sabater. The group became hot shit and made several amazing records for Tico and Seeco. In '67 Cheo left the group to join the Eddie Palmieri band. He sang with them until '69,...

An underrated name in Latin jazz, Bronx-raised Bobby Paunetto (born to an Italian father and Spanish-speaking mother) only made a few recordings before Multiple Sclerosis disabled him around '79. He was a vibraphonist, heavily influenced by Cal Tjader, who started playing in 1961. After a military stint, he attended Berklee School of Music in Massachusetts, studying with Gary Burton. He played with Clare Fischer, Tito Puente, Buddy Rich, Mongo Santamaria, Armando Peraza, both the Palmieri brothers and his idol Tjader, who wrote "Paunetto's Point" in his honor. Bobby made recordings for Seeco, Roulette, Mardi Gras and his own Pathfinder label,...