By LIZ BRYSON
The Daily Record

This isn't your average tomatoes, onions and cilantro kinda salsa.

It's not the kind you dip.

It's the kind you plunge -- head-first -- into.

"It's hardcore salsa, salsa to the bone," said Pancho Chavez, lead singer of Cambalache, a multi-national Latin band that's made a name for itself in the Northwest.

It's not the first time Jazz in the Valley organizers have booked salsa for the three-day music festival.

"Cambalache is an off-shoot of jazz," said Jazz in the Valley chairman Larry Sharpe. "It's very jazzy, their style."

Jazz isn't something a person can tie down, Sharpe explained.

"Dixieland is jazz. Blues is an off-shoot of jazz. And even Jimi Hendrix was a type of jazz. There is no single definition."

To spice it up, Jazz in the Valley organizers decided as many forms as possible should represent the festival, including salsa.

Cambalache, a group of nine musicians, have fused their many styles in to one, creating a flair all their own.

They come from the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines, but joined together in Seattle six years ago. Cambalache stormed the Northwest salsa scene in 1999 and have maintained their stride ever since.

"We do some traditional music from Cuba, but we also have more modern stuff from New York or Puerto Rico," Chavez said.

The band's appearance tonight will give salsa fans a swath of stuff to spin to.

"We're going to vary it -- do some traditional Cuban stuff, some cha cha chas, salsa from different parts and also a merengue, to spice it up," he said.

Bring on the spice.