Healing Beat

The music we know today as salsa, the combination of Afro-Cuban beats with the swing of big band jazz, reached its creative apex in New York during the 1970s.

It was then that artists such as Johnny Pacheco, Eddie Palmieri and Ruben Blades released some of the genre’s best records. This was dangerously infectious music, as ambitious as it was danceable.

Sadly, the golden era of salsa was followed by the rise of a smoother style known as salsa romantica, which its detractors quickly named salsa monga or idiotic salsa. The beats lost their power, the arrangements flirted with mainstream pop, and dancing to the stuff became more of a chore than anything else.

But a few adventurous bandleaders continue to cultivate the old style of hard salsa. Wayne Gorbea is one of them. The Nuyorican pianist and bandleader will deliver a lesson in Afro-Cuban spice tonight when he performs with his eight-piece ensemble Salsa Picante at the Sportsmen’s Lodge.

“I’ve always enjoyed the sound of the old wave,” Gorbea said recently. “Of course, I try to modernize my sound as much as I can. But my focus has always been to achieve a good level of improvisation while keeping the dancers happy.”

Gorbea’s latest disc, “Saboreando . . . Salsa Dura en el Bronx,” released by independent label Shanachie, was one of last year’s best Latin albums. The record boasts a couple of jazzy instrumentals, as well as a superb cover of “El Yo-Yo,” a standard made famous by the Puerto Rican band Cortijo y su Combo.

The band’s biggest asset is the cleverness of its orchestrations, which rely on layers of trombones to create a feverish, larger than life sound. It’s a technique favored by legendary salseros, such as Palmieri and Manny Oquendo.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of both,” said Gorbea, who’s 50. He was already releasing records in his native New York at the heyday of the movement--which explains why he has remained faithful to the old style.

“Every musical style has its own, devoted fans,” he said. “I’ve always concentrated on the stuff that makes for good dancing.”

BE THERE

Wayne Gorbea & Salsa Picante, at 10 tonight, Sportsmen’s Lodge, 4234 Coldwater Canyon Blvd., Studio City. $15-20. Call (310) 450 8770.