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How did salsa music grow out of the Cuban son?

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ceramic flute — Latin American music Flute, slip-painted ceramic, Nopiloa, southern Veracruz, Mexico, 300–500 ce; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 35.56 × 17.15 × 10.80 cm.

Salsa music is a hybrid form that evolved from the Cuban son, which served as the foundational framework for various Afro-Cuban dance styles. The son originated in rural eastern Cuba and combined Spanish guitar-playing traditions with African rhythmic complexity and call-and-response vocals. It is characterized by a highly syncopated, "anticipated" rhythm where the bass line precedes the downbeat.1

In the 1940s and 1950s, New York City became the forge where this Afro-Cuban foundation was transformed into salsa. Cuban émigrés like Machito began blending these traditional styles with jazz and big band arrangements. As the music evolved into the 1960s, it incorporated smaller ensembles and significant stylistic contributions from Puerto Rican musicians, such as Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. This synthesis of Cuban mambo, Latin jazz, and new choreographic influences eventually coalesced into the genre labeled as salsa—meaning "sauce"—by the 1960s.213