Hey Mister Deejay, put a record on…

May 19, 2006

Playlist
Los Rumberos – Markolino Dimond (-5%) (1)
Ave Maria Lola – Sonora Carruseles
Mandali – Africando
Chiquilla Ideal – Manny Oquendo*
La 33 – La 33
Con Tabaco Y Ron – Tabaco Y Ron
Tu Eres – Frankie Ruiz*
Mi Rico Mambo – Luisito Rosario (-2.5%)*
Mi Mujer Es Una Bomba – Oscar D’Leon (2)
Que Bonito Es Sonar – Jimmy Bosch*
Salsa Y Sabor – Tito Puente (-5%)*
1-800-Quiereme – Luisito Rosario
Nada De Ti – Eddie Palmieri

break. Vishal kicked off with J. Lo – just like last week. Contigo was played among others (all Salsa) for ~25 min. I had one dance during the break.

La Quiero – Dominic Marte (3)
Mambo – Cachao
Descarga Moderna – Ray Barretto (-5%)
Es La Musica – Massimo Scalici
El Pito – Isidro Infante
Descarga Cache – Cache*
El Avion De La Salsa – Jimmy Bosch (4)*
Tumbando Cabeza – Tabaco Y Ron
Pantera Mambo – La 33
Get It Up – Eurocuban Project (5)
Esto Es Guaguanco – Cheo Feliciano (6)

break. Vishal played one Merengue, Lamento Boliviano and others for ~30 min. I had two dances during this break. Vishal finished with an 8+ min long song.

Babarabatiri – Tito Puente (7)
Hong Kong Mambo – Tito Puente
Machito Forever – Tito Puente (-2%) (8)*
Cachondea – Fruko Y Sus Tesos (-3%) (9)*
Hacha Y Machete – Hector Lavoe (10)*
Mi Gente – Hector Lavoe (11)*
Periodico De Ayer – Hector Lavoe (12)*
Ven Tu – Dominic Marte (13)
Merengue track #1 from Vishal (14)
Hablame – Frankie Ruiz
Anacaona – Cheo Feliciano (15)

* Denotes songs I never played at Club Salsa before. Nine out 36 or 25%. Not bad. Not bad at all!

(1) I meant to play Sabroson (a new song). Poor start. Oh well. Johnny was playing relatively fast songs for his practices, which made this error (compounded by slow speed) even worse. I was keeping the volume relatively low, which prompted Vishal to step in and raise it while saying, "People will go home if it's too quiet."
(2) Vishal came by to talk about switching (already!?!?) saying something about people complaining. I asked if anyone complained tonight. He replied, “No.” This is very annoying. Let’s see if this continues – I have been hearing this same @^*% for about a month. It would seem I was spared of this comment last week only because of staff shortage problem. One of these days, I’ll try using this comment back at Vishal to bow out or take a break from DJing. As far as I am concerned, the only perk for DJing is being able to influence music selection here, hopefully in a lasting manner. Vishal stopped by couple of songs later (or possibly the next song) to comment, “Nice music.” Stick and carrot.
(3) I inherited an overcrowded dance floor from Vishal. I don't like overcrowded dance floor - not all the time anyway. I decided to kill the party with a Bachata (followed by what some might consider heavy Mambo).
(4) Guaguanco. This received a weak reception. I probably should have stuck to Mambo. Maybe this is what I get for listening to Vishal asking for less Mambo.
(5) Ho hum. I might want to try playing this earlier in the evening instead.
(6) Strong reception once again. Definitely a keeper.
(7) I told Vishal that he left me with a very long song. He replied that I could fade out in the middle of it. I did not. Vishal came back much later looking slightly concerned (possibly because the floor was relatively empty) and he suggested that maybe I should play something slow and build it up. I said I'll deal with it.
(8) Three Tito Puente in a row - none of them slow and this one is quite fast. It went just dandy although I couldn’t find a decent starting cue point – I ran out of time after trying to (and failing to) figure out someone’s query about a song I supposedly played earlier in the evening. This song left some people hanging because of lack of obvious percussion. Others like Wayan loved it.
(9) I originally thought, "Go slower." Then, I said to myself, "What the heck. Go fast again." Luis said to me at the end of the song, "I want more songs like that!"
(10) I never tried playing Hector Lavoe before. For all I know, no one has done this before in Club Salsa. I didn’t know what to expect. A large group including Luis recognized it and loved it (even though it was nothing like the previous song).
(11) I had been hesitant to play Hector Lavoe. No more hesitation.
(12) Let's hit them with more of the same again. The same group is still dancing after over 15 minutes of La Voz.
(13) At the end of last song Luis went, "Merengue next!" He heard this song (Bachata) being played next, nodded in approval and went right back to dancing.
(14) This one was in part because of Vishal's recommendation - he might have heard Luis's outburst earlier. I wasn't really sure about it one way or the other. Not sure about the result either.
(15) I considered among others Otra Oportunidad and Thinking of You, but then I thought, “Why would I want to play something Vishal is likely to play, especially as the final song?” I guess I was going by the approach "When in doubt, play something Vishal will not play."

36 songs total – 33 Salsa, 2 Bachata, 1 Merengue. Vishal played one more Bachata and one more Merengue, so Bachata wins over Merengue once again. Even sans any major mistakes (like two from last week) and with a fabulous third set, I would rate this slightly below last week’s DJing. I still would rate this the best of my DJ work where I had three sets with two breaks in between (as opposed to being able to jam for much longer stretches of time).

I had one more dance after the third set – for a grand total of 4. DJing and dancing really don’t mix very well, especially done the way it was done tonight with multiple pointless short breaks putting me off. Vishal played Mandali again after I was done as well as a few alright songs (incl. a Ran Kan Kan cover) to which I did not dance. Instead I spent rest of the time watching or goofing around with people like Sally, Lindsey, Wayan, Cyrille, Rajiv and Vera. Closing time was 2:10 AM.