Puerto Rico have its very own custom of “bomba” and “plena”, to which percussionist Rafael Cortijo, commander of a conjunto 
since 1954, had extra trumpets and saxophones (El Bombon De Elena). Their conjunto along with his husky vocalist Ismael Rivera (El Nazareno, Quitate de la through Perico), well known your improvised call-and-response vocals regarding the “sonero” practice, harked back into the African sources of Caribbean sounds without any difference between types. El Gran combination, established by pianist Rafael Ithier, continuing Cortijo’s purpose in a lighter vein, with La Muerte (1962) and Ojos Chinos (1964).
In Puerto Rico salsa normally referred to as “guaguanco”, a phrase that originally known a kind of rumba party
In the sixties, the bomba-son crossbreed reached the Puertorican colony in nyc. Here, the child implemented the style for the large musical organization, as with Jimmy Sabater’s Salsa y Bembe (1962) and vibraphonist Cal Tjader’s Salsa del Alma (1964).
The Cuban expatriates that moved in ny contributed greatly with the absorption for the style in American heritage: vocalist Celia Cruz (Burundanaga, 1956; Yerbero Moderno, 1956), flutist Jose-Antonio Fajardo (Los Angeles Charanga), jazzy congueros Candido Camero and Ramon “Mongo” Santamaria (Mazacote, 1958; Afro Blue, 1959; Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man, 1963), violinist Felix “Pupi” Legarreta, whom fused charanga and jazz on Salsa aria, who arrived in ny in 1950, paid tribute to their Cuban roots on Yambu (1958) and Mongo (1959), which were carried out with other Latin percussionists.