Salsa became known as an umbrella-term to represent the Afro-Cuban rhythms and dances popular in New York which have their roots in Africa and Cuba.      Afro-Cuban music made its way to New York during the first half of the 1900's in-part by Desi Arnaz - a...

Mambo        By 1934, the blind musician/bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez had already transformed Afro-Cuban music by revolultionizing the Son-rhythm. In 1935, he had become known around Cuba as the inventor of the Mambo rhythm, for which he created the official syllabus...

Tito Puente Sr / Legendary Bandleader, Arranger / © LIC 84983      It was at the Palladium Ballroom, located on 53rd and Broadway in Manhattan in the heart of New York City - only eleven short blocks north of Times Square - about a ten-minute walk, that the way...

Johnny Pacheco / © AfroCubaLatinJazz      The Palladium Ballroom, located on 53rd and Broadway in the center of Manhattan, closed in 1966. The Palladium era was over; the Mambo craze was over, due to the overwhelming rush of social changes in politics, music and...