Decades before that, Ferrer specialized in boleros, slow, romantic songs that were the popular music of Cuba in the 1950s.

NPR: Buena Vista Social Club Singer's Last Album

Salsa's success also testifies to the enduring appeal of son, the dance music of Batista's Cuba of the 1950s from which salsa derived.

ECONOMIST: The passing of an icon

When he was a student, much of Cuba's traditional music was off limits.

NPR: Pianist Returns to Cuba's Forbidden Music

Mr. RUBALCABA: To play jazz music in Cuba between the '60s and the beginning of the '80s had meaning to be playing the music of the enemy.

NPR: Pianist Returns to Cuba's Forbidden Music

Americans interested in visiting Cuba are offered free CDs of Cuban music and itineraries that include welcome parties thrown by Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, neighborhood watch groups that were created with the original intention of thwarting a U.S. invasion.

CNN: Eased travel to Cuba not without hurdles

Born in Cuba to a family of musicians, Nicola performed around the world and composed music for films and theatre during a career that spanned more than 40 years.

BBC: Ferrer was buried in a simple black coffin

Septen was co-founded in 1948 in the northern city of Cap-Haitien by saxophonist Ulrich Pierre Louis at a time when most Haitian bands were playing music from neighboring Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

WSJ: The Enduring Voice of Haiti