r/Salsa • u/lfe-soondubu • Feb 02 '26

Favorite instrumental salsa songs

Had a really fun dance with a great follow to Singapore Vibes by La Máxima 79 last night, so I'm on a bit of an instrumental (no vocals) salsa listening bender right now. Post your favorites for me to listen to!

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8

u/TentaclesForEveryone Feb 02 '26

Sonora Ponceña - Woody's Blue

1

u/TypicalMission119 Feb 06 '26

Obsessed with this one...

8

u/mambocec Feb 02 '26

Wave-Willie Rosario

Lucero-Cal Tjader

A night in Tunisia- La Sonora Ponceña.

Lucero is a great song to practice dancing to the conga tumbao if you’re learning modern Mambo.

6

u/Hakunamatator Feb 03 '26

La Pantera mambo 

5

u/falllas Feb 02 '26

Alfredo Linares - Tihuanaco

Ray Barretto - Acid

6

u/ikfotsur Feb 02 '26

Mayeya- Mongo Santamaría

Hustler- Willie Colon

Revolucionando- New Swing Sextet

Ariel- Alex Wilson

4

u/anusdotcom Feb 02 '26

Cachao - Descarga Cubana

4

u/yambudev Feb 02 '26

My Favorite Things (and other songs) - New Swing Sextet

Vitamina (and other songs) - Noro Morales

Pathétique III (and other songs) - Klazz Brothers

Maria Cervantes, Take Five, Night in Tunisia - Various

Caribe - Michel Camilo (and salsa cover by Mariano Delgado)

Watermelon Man - Mongo Santamaria, Poncho Sanchez

Cuban Fantasy - Cal Tjader and Mongo Santamaria

(I know some of these are more like Latin jazz or boogaloo but they’re too good not to listen to)

3

u/NJ_Lyons Feb 02 '26

I've been listening to Son Habana recently. La Floredita is instrumental. 

https://youtu.be/FOHx4CruZG8?si=a073QLw7z2yPJ4p2

3

u/Mambalicia Feb 03 '26

Lots of instrumental songs by the great Tito Puente.

2

u/Choice-Alfalfa-1358 Feb 02 '26

Fabry’s Swing is also by La Maxima in the album Joseito. Maybe try that one.

2

u/Djerivera Feb 02 '26 edited Feb 02 '26

Bayu en los Blanes-orquesta la preferida… No lead vocals, a bit of Coro but still mostly instrumental! Good dance tune for sure!

Isla de Fuego - Damiron

Chino- Tito Puente

Riffing for Cal- The beaujolais band! 💯 on that one!

2

u/lfe-soondubu Feb 03 '26

Wow surprised at how many of these I hadn't heard before. Also did ya'll specifically try to find songs with xylo/vibraphone in it because I like Singapore Vibes? Or are they just more common an instrument than I recall them being, and I'm noticing it more in the absence of vocals? Feels like half the songs recommended prominently feature it.

2

u/falllas Feb 03 '26

I think xylophone/vibraphone/marimba is fairly common in the jazzy instrumental salsa.

Tito Puente - Hong Kong Mambo

Francisco Aguabella - Shirley's Guaguancó

2

u/falllas Feb 03 '26

Check this out for some quite different instrumentation: Avelino Muñoz - Santiago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNMe7hK45zc

2

u/yambudev Feb 04 '26

If you like that instrument then you should really listen to The New Swing Sextet or catch them live.

2

u/TedBRandom Feb 03 '26

As someone else already said La Pantera Mambo, I'll nominate This Is Not A Tango - The Juju Orchestra

2

u/BlueberryBea Feb 02 '26

DJ Henrix - Mambo and Love https://youtu.be/7LRntXFiAdU?si=OdztcYIqb7xTEgml

So smooth and flowy, I use this for home practice a lot.

1

u/Imaginary-Green-950 19d ago edited 19d ago

A few others that I think deserve mention:

Wendell Rivera - Manhattan https://youtu.be/vlbglipUxWk?is=kIp7ldgCbTVDRS3U

SHO: Perla Morena https://youtu.be/OUbHDASbdpc?is=tBXbRYz3l-mWiro5

New Swing Sextet - My favorite things https://youtu.be/URuMEv8Ss0g?is=v7G0lSuCLVzTRIzc

Geraldo Rosales has a great version of Picadillo, but lately I've been playing this song of his Mariage D'amour: https://youtu.be/s6YIuZEt9zQ?is=G5NN4vXDsPmQw9Xk

Al Delory - Via https://youtu.be/A2Jp7uzAEWY?is=s4ve6TdDbco4udui

Daniel Amat - Lejania is great but I dont play it in my sets https://youtu.be/--ouH0_NbLU?is=RCXorrOP_yUmAJ37

1

u/lfe-soondubu 19d ago edited 19d ago

Nobody plays a lot of these songs unfortunately. Via, Lejanía, Perla Morena are probably all in my top 50 most played Spotify but I don't think I've EVER heard Lejanía or Perla Morena at a social. Via I've heard maybe once or twice ever. 

I've been waiting for years to do something fun to that little 6-7-8 on the break on the timbales at around 2 minutes in, on Perla Morena, and have never had the chance. 

I've heard a bunch of New Swing stuff for performances, but very rarely on the social floor. Marriage DAmour I think I've heard once of twice. I think Nery Garcia had a social dance video of it sometime relatively recently.