Típica Style vs. Latin Jazz: A Comparison of Traditional Salsa Piano Accompaniment and Latin Jazz Comping

<p>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. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Music

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Music

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Perez, Victorino C

Contributors dc:contributor

• Benjamin Morris
• Samantha Inman
• Hannah Snavely

• Salsa
• Latin Jazz
• Montuno
• Guajeo
• Piano
• Accompaniment
• Clave
• Music
• Music Theory
• Other Music

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/642

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1715