CELIA CRUZ-SON CON GUAGUANCO

Son Con Guaguancó was her first major release as a proper solo artist in the United States without the famed Sonora Matancera behind her in relief. She had released Cuba Y Puerto Rico Son with Tito Puente earlier that year, but Son Con Guaguancó was the first album to promote Celia as a solo artist on Tico Records, Puente's label. (Tico Records was later purchased by Fania Records, the New York label at the fore of the salsa explosion of the late 1960s and 1970s.)

The album's name is a testament to Cruz's attention to the fusion of genre, setting and identity. Cruz combines elements of classic Afro-Cuban son montuno rhythms with the faster, syncopated elements of the guaguancó subgenre that became her signature, incorporating undertones of rumba, mambo, cha-cha, guaracha and bolero. "I bring you this guaguancó that tastes of son," she sings on the titular track. With Fania, "salsa" became an umbrella term for this fusion of West-African-derived, clave-centric genres with American influences like jazz and Nuyorican boogaloo.