Date of Award
12-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Music
Department
School of Music
First Advisor
Benjamin Morris
Second Advisor
Samantha Inman
Third Advisor
Hannah Snavely
Fourth Advisor
Juan Urena
Abstract
Salsa is a popular Latin American musical genre that combines dance and vocal music with a unique rhythmic style that draws influences from jazz and African rhythms. Salsa shares characteristics with Latin jazz. Traditional salsa, or típica style, features traditional tonal harmonies with few alterations, whereas Latin jazz typically employs complex harmonies including tritone substitutions, chord extensions, and chords with extensions and alterations. The primary argument of this research is that Latin jazz pianists maintain the functions of the traditional salsa while infusing it with jazz harmonic, rhythmic, and textural elements. This thesis compares accompanying (“comping”) traits, including form, harmony, clave, comping rhythm, and texture, from traditional salsa and Latin jazz pianists, típica-style pianists Rafael Ithier (1926-2025) and Mariano Morales (b. 1960), and Latin jazz pianists Eddie Palmieri (1936-2025) and Papo Lucca (b. 1946). The pianists’ accompaniment styles illustrate the difference between these two genres.
Repository Citation
Perez, Victorino C., "Típica Style vs. Latin Jazz: A Comparison of Traditional Salsa Piano Accompaniment and Latin Jazz Comping" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 642.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/642
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