In a small community like Juneau, the creative contributions of individuals can be dramatic, in many cases altering the artistic or musical culture of the town in lasting ways.

Consider Heather Haugland and Antonio Diaz, who have taught seemingly half the town to move to the complicated rhythms of Latin American dance styles during their handful of years in Juneau.

Or, looking back in the same direction, there's Russell Sandstrom, whose childhood experiences in Brazil and other Latin American countries eventually found expression in Salsa Borealis, a band that laid the groundwork for the growth of Juneau's very active salsa community starting in the mid-'90s. The group celebrates its second CD release Saturday night at the Viking.

Bandleader Sandstrom has been attuned to Latin rhythms since he was in grade school. His dad was in the U.S. Air Force, and the family lived in Ecuador, Panama and Brazil when Sandstrom was growing up. While in high school in Brazil, he took up the guitar, playing all kinds of stuff with his friends, from rock and roll and Brazilian pop to bossa nova and choro.

He came back to the states to go to college in Texas, graduating with a degree in geologic oceanography, fully expecting to return to South America to work, but after being hired by a seismic exploration company was instead sent to Anchorage. The job didn't last long, as the company ended up shutting down their operations after six months, but by then Sandstrom was already hooked on Alaska. He spent a few years commercial fishing in Kodiak, sailing his boat down to the Caribbean in the off season, and by 1978 settled in Juneau.

On one of his first nights in town, Sandstrom strolled into the Crystal Saloon on Franklin Street ("the hot spot of its day") and saw Bob Banghart and John Hartle playing bluegrass tunes. He grabbed a banjo and joined in. The men hit it off and eventually formed the B Natural Boys, a band that played around town for four or five years in various configurations.

But throughout his bluegrass years, Brazilian rhythms never left his brain or fingers, and soon he got back to it in earnest, playing gigs with other musicians who he'd introduced to the genre.

"It was unusual (at the time) because nobody else around here played it."

In the '80s, Sandstrom married a Colombian woman, who exposed him to more salsa and dancing.

"That brought a lot more salsa music into the household on a daily, 24/7 basis," he said.

By the early 1990s, Sandstrom had decided he wanted more than just occasional gigs.

"(My first wife) and I had already split but I still had this idea that I wanted to put together something that would someday resemble, as close as we could, a salsa type band with a real horn section."

By this point Sandstrom had taken a job with the Department of Fish & Game's commercial fisheries division as boat officer for the Medeia, a position he still holds. The name Salsa Borealis came to him late at night in the wheelhouse.

"I had a piece of paper I divided down the middle and I wrote a bunch of Spanish words (on one side) and then a bunch of Alaskan things (on the other), and once I had that written out, I immediately saw it, he said."

In 1995, the band was made official. They started out with only one horn player, Mike Stanley, still with the band, and an accordion player, Dale Wygant, as well as timbale player Marc Ramonda. The group went through many changes, and reached a turning point in 2002 when Diaz and Haugland came to town.

"The band really turned a corner about the time they got here, from several angles. They started doing all the dance instruction, which I think really helped people feel a sense of comfort out (on the dance floor). Plus, Antonio brought a lot of stage presence, and his percussion knowledge, and his in-depth knowledge of the music itself, he brought that into the band which helped out tremendously."

The band settled into a groove, playing more Cuban-style salsa than they had been, but still mixing it up with other styles, such as Columbian-style cumbias, Mexican banda music, and Puerto Rican and Dominican merengues.

In addition to the guitar, Sandstrom plays the la d, a traditional Cuban double-stringed instrument that gives the band's sound a link to the folkloric roots of the music.

Sandstrom composes some of the music; the new CD includes one of his songs and one the band wrote together. Other tracks cover a wide range of material, from mambo-era Latin tunes popular in the '40s and '50s, to cha-cha, salsa, Cuban son, merengue and contemporary Latin music. All the tracks highlight the band's primary function: getting people moving.

"Salsa Borealis has always been a dance band, that's kind of what we're about," he said.

Hence the name of the new CD, "Bailables" or "Dance Tunes".

In addition to Sandstrom on guitar and laud, and Diaz on vocals and percussion, the musicians on the CD are Alejandro Soria (lead vocals), Conrado Ebro (piano), Brendon Fuhs (bass), Bryan Johnson (saxophone), Mike Bucy (trombone), Mike Stanley (saxophone, flute), Eric Ocasio (vocals, congas), Marc Ramonda (timbales) and Albert McDonnell (recording engineer).

The band suffered greatly from the loss of McDonnell, Sandstrom said, when he moved to Oregon last fall. And now this month Diaz and Haugland are preparing to leave town, another huge blow. Still, Sandstrom isn't about to give up.

"I don't feel that this is going to be any more the death blow year than any other time" he said.

When Diaz left for a spell a couple years ago, Soria, the band's other lead vocalist, quickly stepped in.

"Alejandro had never really tried to be a salsa band singer," Sandstrom said. "He's got this tremendous voice, and he can sing a lot of other stuff, but he really worked on it real fast to be able to come up to speed."

The comings and goings of the band members is something Sanstrom has learned to accept.

"If I were to tally the total number of people that have actually played in the band, its actually about 30 people over the years that have come and gone," he said. "I'm getting to where I don't even sweat it anymore.