"Contra La Corriente" was previously recorded by Blades and Willie Colón for their album "Tras la Tormenta" (1995). 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. The songs "Claro Oscuro" and "La Marea" were recorded for this album in salsa, and "Lo Pasado No Perdona" is a bolero/montuno. "Antadilla" is a song about the daily tasks of a fisherman that guarantees his personal and family support that way. “El Pescador" is a montuno, with a flugelhorn solo by Wichy López. Delgado began working on the musical arrangements at the end of 2015, and went to record the album on January 2017. 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". Upon its release, "Salsa Big Band" received favorable reviews from music critics. Omar Walker of "Salsa Power" named the album an "excelllent recording" even though the singer showed some decline in his vocals. Walker said Blades' "vision as an artist pushes him to try new sounds". For Angel Romero of "World Music Central", "Rubén Blades is still at the top of the salsa world", and the album is "a candidate for one of the best albums of the year". 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'". The album received two nominations for the 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, for Album of the Year and Best Salsa Album. Blades said to "La Prensa" that he took nominations very seriously since his album "Siembra" (which included his signature songs "Pedro Navaja" and "Plástico") was overlooked, "it is not that the album lost the award, it wasn't even nominated".