Latin American
Salsa, cumbia, boogaloo, tropical — the music that refuses to sit still. Latin American vinyl at Wax Trax.
Salsa, cumbia, boogaloo, tropical — the music that refuses to sit still. Latin American vinyl at Wax Trax.
Latin American music is a continent's worth of rhythm, and a lot of it is irresistibly danceable. The Fania-era salsa explosion (Héctor Lavoe, Willie Colón) out of New York and the Caribbean; the cumbia that spread from Colombia across the whole hemisphere; boogaloo's Latin-soul fusion; and the tropical and folk traditions underneath it all. The reissue labels have been doing heroic crate-digging work here, which means more of this is back in print than ever. Your hips will thank you.
Salsa, cumbia, boogaloo, Latin soul, tropical, and Latin folk — on LP, plus some 7-inches. Fania-era classics, reissue-label comps, and import pressings. This is prime dance-and-dig territory. If you want to start moving immediately, ask for the salsa and cumbia shelves.
What's the difference between salsa and cumbia?
Salsa is the faster, brass-driven NYC/Caribbean sound (think Fania Records); cumbia is the rolling, hypnotic rhythm born in Colombia that spread continent-wide. Both are dancefloor essentials, and both live here.
What is boogaloo?
The mid-'60s fusion of Latin rhythm with American R&B and soul, mostly out of New York — bilingual, infectious, and hugely collectible.