Salsa music "Salsa" means 'sauce' in the Spanish language, and carries connotations of the spiciness common in Latin and Caribbean cuisine. In the 20th century, "salsa" acquired a musical meaning in both English and Spanish. In this sense "salsa" has been described as a word with "vivid associations". Cubans and Puerto Ricans in New York have used the term analogously to swing or soul music. In this usage "salsa" connotes a frenzied, "hot" and wild musical experience that draws upon or reflects elements of Latin culture, regardless of the style. Various music writers and historians have traced the use of "salsa" to
Salsa music those who strongly identify with salsa as a music and culture distinct from its Cuban primogenitor. The concept of "salsa music" which began as a marketing ploy created by Izzy Sanabria was successfully exploited by Fania Records, then eventually took on a life of its own, organically evolving into an authentic pan-Latin American cultural identity. Music professor and salsa trombonist Christopher Washburne writes: This pan-Latino association of salsa stems from what Felix Padilla labels a 'Latinizing' process that occurred in the 1960s and was consciously marketed by Fania Records: 'To Fania, the Latinizing of salsa came to mean homogenizing the