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Content: During the late 30’s 
while the Hispanic community was sprouting in Spanish Harlem, Gabriel Oller, 
proprietor of Tatay’s Spanish Music Center on the corner of 110thStreet and 5thAvenue remembers shouts of “échale 
pique, caliéntalo, menealo que se empelota…” 
used to describe the thrilling Afro-Cuban dance rhythms of rumbas and 
guarachas. Salsaremained dormant until 1962 when Secco Records released 
Joe Cuba’s Stepping OutLP. In Jimmy Sabater’s tune Salsa y Bembé, 
vocalist Cheo Feliciano wants his main squeeze to add salsato the bembé(dance) when she dances. The lyrics suggest that there is a request for the 
dancer to liven up or spice up her performance. “ When I wrote this tune,” said 
Sabater, “I was labeling the music as salsa…you know exciting. When 
musicians were asked to spice up the music there were shouts of “guataca”. When 
the band executed the mambo part, I heard shouts of “wapachosa”. These were 
labels which never caught on. My use of salsawas to describe the music, 
not the food.” A year later Alegre 
Records released Charlie Palmieri’s charanga LP Salsa Na Ma.