Hello. Thanks for reading. I play drums in a dance band trying to branch out into a few latin numbers. We play strictly for dancers, and until recently, we played primarily country line-dance (!) songs. The leader wants us to learn a "salsa"-dance song by Celia Cruz called "La Vida Es Un Carnaval". The actual song recording / video we're learning from is here:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Do7LJSnBtk"]YouTube- Celia Cruz. / La vida es un carnaval (Live)[/ame]

(You may have to cut/paste that into browser, sorry).

On the drum set, I have tried to approximate the main parts heard /seen in the video. It was based mainly on cowbell and snare, with snares turned off, bass drum on 1 and 3, and I thought it sounded pretty good. The band leader told me my attempt wouldn't work for "salsa" dancing, and said there are several main SIMPLE beat "pulses" that should be accentuated but couldn't explain what they actually were and how I should do it (!). The leader, frustrated, then told me just to play strict 32-nd (?) notes on the closed hi-hat all through the song. I told leader I thought "salsa" was just a catch-all description, and we might need to know the actual beat name (e.g., cumbia, etc.). Leader said no, it's a "salsa" dance. I'm kind of stumped because I can't hear any real strong simple snare or bass drum pulses in the video. What do YOU play for a "salsa" dance that could be treansferred to this song ?