[2] According to Blades, "I decided to include more instruments to the arrangements, since I want to recover the Big band sound from the 1950s, with Stan Kenton, Machito and Mario Bauzá".

[2] 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.

[5] 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.

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.

Omar Walker of Salsa Power named the album an "excellent recording" even though the singer showed some decline in his vocals.

[8] Roberto Carlos Lujan of Solar Latin Club was critical about the repertoire: "none of the versions of the songs previously recorded by Blades are enriched with innovative interpretative bets, with the exception of 'El Pescador'".

[12] All tracks are written by Rubén Blades, except where notedNotes The following credits are from Salsa Big Band album liner notes.