Salsa Big Band includes eleven tracks, nine written by Blades and two by other composers: "Apóyate en Mi Alma" by
Luis Demetrio, and "No Te Importe Saber" by
René Touzet. "Arayué" was written by Blades but first released by
Ray Barretto in 1989, while "El Pescador" was recorded in 1970 by Blades with the
Pete Rodríguez band. "Nadie Sabe", includes biographical lyrics by Blades, and was first recorded by
Roberto Roena and the
Apollo Sound in 1977. "La Marea" was recorded by Blades in 1988 and included on his album
Antecedentes, while "Claro Oscuro" is taken from
Agua de Luna (1987) and "Lo Pasado No Perdona" from
El Que La Hace La Paga (1983). The album was recorded at the PTY Studios Panamá from January to April 2017, and was mixed by Ignacio Molino, Pablo Governatori and Roberto Delgado, and mastered by Daniel Ovie in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Delgado said of the creative process "Rubén [Blades] always contributes with innovative ideas to the music that is currently being made. This time he thought that it would be a great idea to recover the sound of the big bands, which is no longer done, since it is very difficult to have such a large orchestra and travel with it, then everyone tries to record with the minimum amount of instruments." Seventeen musicians worked on the recording, in addition to the backing singers, and some musicians played two or more instruments. The producers found it necessary to hire local musicians in order to "be faithful to its original sound." Delgado said to
CBA24N. ==Reception==