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 César Miguel Rondón’s celebrated
El libro de la salsa
.
Rondón 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. Rondón 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, Rondón 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, Rondón has added a new chapter to bring the story of salsa up to the present.