FROM the beginning, the kinetically danceable Latin music style known as salsa had deep New York roots. It was created by musicians who, though mostly of Caribbean origins, lived here, played in clubs here for audiences trying to find their footing here and recorded in studios here for a label that was also born here: Fania Records.

Fania Records would go on to earn a place in the history of American popular music by taking salsa to the entire world. But it is the New York connection that makes it appropriate that this year’s Central Park SummerStage series focuses on Fania’s 50th anniversary.

Beginning Saturday night and continuing through August, some of the biggest names of Fania’s golden era will be performing at free shows, including Roberto Roena, Ismael Miranda and Joe Bataan; the Fania All Stars will perform as well. The label’s enduring influence will also be on display in a related Armada Fania summer series in nightclubs in the city, in which D.J.s will be playing their favorite Fania tracks, in both original and remixed versions.

“All those dancers dancing salsa around the world, the international salsa conventions and the thousands of schools that teach salsa dancing, all of that is because of what we started,” Mr. Miranda, a singer who grew up on the Lower East Side, said in an interview last month. “Fania’s legacy is incredible, and it was a real New York thing: All the parts of the puzzle came together there.”