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The Caribbean region was the first American area to be populated by the immigrants from Africa. Those people with features and traits that differed greatly from the population of two American continents could nor but had a strong influence upon all the spheres of life of the Caribbean region. Their impact embraced the most various spheres: arts, literature, speech, religion, and, of course, music and dance. Their impact was great. Nevertheless all the following waves of immigrants brought to Americas their culture too, the influence of the African people was the greatest: everybody adopted their culture. The vital energy of African people let them took the Caribbean culture, transform it and create a new one, unique and unusual. That phenomenon got the name of creolization – the adoption of new African black culture and its quick and effective spread across two continents. Since then Latin American music could avoid the influence of strong African rhythms. The rhythmic loud energetic black music had imprinted the African homeland of the Caribbean inhabitants forever. That is why many genres of the world’s most favorite music originate from Latin America. They come from such countries as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica and many others.
One of the most popular and famous genres of music is salsa. It comes from Puerto Rico. Salsa got a very strong influence of vibrating and energetic black music from the African continent. Salsa resembles mambo to a certain extent. It actually originated from mambo having become the independent musical genre. Nowadays the name of the genre denotes a rhythm, but originally it was a genre derived from Cuban rhythms such as Chachacha, Son and Mambo. The present salsa corresponds to a music style. This modern genre plays Cuban rhythms, such a Son, Guaracha, Son Montuno and Guaguanco. In this respect Johnny Pacheco – a man who is considered to have shown salsa to New York – claims that salsa has always had Cuban origin and has always been its native music.
The word “salsa” itself is of Spanish origin. It means “a sauce”. It can be associated with Spanish cuisine: the music may be as saucy as meals – that is a possible connotation implied on the name of the genre of music. This music style was created approximately in 1960-1970s. Actually salsa is a mixture of African and Spanish music that embraces the most peculiar features of two cultures. It is filled with the history of Puerto Rica and Cuba. Salsa usually begins with a simple melody that is usually improvised. Latin jazz adapted it.

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Trombone adds it additional aggressiveness and makes it more alike Cuban music. Besides trombones usually add to the general rhythm of a melody; they are usually accompanied by congas, bongos and timbales. Sometimes piano and horn are also present in salsa music.
The bands that play salsa music usually diversify their repertoire with songs that differ greatly from each other. They are bombas and plenas, merengue and vallenato. Practically all of them are variations of the famous Cuban son. All of them begin in the same way: with a melodic song; then a montuno break follows; then jazzy solos and instrumental breaks take their turn. The USA have slightly changed salsa music: they made a mix of different genres: meringue, salsa, cumbia, chachacha, bachata. But that actually depends on a DJ that performs music for young people.
Percussion is a distinctive feature of salsa music. It can be performed by many different instruments, such as cowbells, claves, conga and timbales. The other instruments that are used during the performance of salsa music are trombones, trumpets, and bass guitar. These are the principal instruments that are necessary and actually obligatory for salsa, but some artists can add many other instruments too. That does not violate the style, but gives additional individuality to a performer of music. In other words these are manifestations of a performer’s individuality and own style. Recently salsa music was performed by the tres guitars. The band that performed it was called a conjunto. But actually these groups are extinct now, and the tres has become a rarity. There are often twelve people in a band. One of them is a leader that rules the whole band. There are usually from two to four players that are responsible for horns. Other members of a band usually play different instruments: conga, bongo, piano, timbales and bass guitar. Some instruments may also be used by a singer –a vocalist: such as claves, maracas or guiro. Sometimes a vocalist also uses a bell to accompany the melody.