Nice set except for couple of disasters

May 12, 2006

Playlist

Culebra – Grupo Niche (-5%)
El Pito – Sonora Carruseles (-5%)
Nunca Que Quedas – Frankie Ruiz (-5%)
Quizas – N’Klabe
Soledad – La 33
Acabo de Llegar – Tabaco Y Ron
1-800-Quiereme (remix) – Luisito Rosario (1)
El Swing de Fruko – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
Barbaratiri – Tito Puente
La Familia – Ray Barretto
Barreras Ninguna – Jimmy Bosch
La Isla California – Tabaco Y Ron
Mi Gente – Oscar D’Leon
Ven Tu – Dominic Marte
No Me Resigno – Toque D’ Keda
Mambo – Cachao
Descarga la Moderna – Ray Barretto (-5%) (2)
Merengue track 3 from Vishal’s CD
Es la Musica – Massimo Scalici
Celia Y Tito – Isidro Infante
El Preso – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
Picadillo – Tito Puente
Pantera Mambo – La 33
You Rock My World – Michael Jackson (Berna Jam Salsa remix)

break (Vishal played J. Lo, Africando, and probably Marc Anthony among others – all Salsa - for ~20 min)

Una Amor de Noche – N’Klabe (3)
Medicina No – Jimmy Bosch
Get It Up – Eurocuban Project
Esto Es Guaguanco – Cheo Feliciano
Tumbando Cabeza – Tabaco Y Ron
#100 – Tito Puente (4)
Estoy Caliente – Tabaco Y Ron
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D’ Keda (5)
La Guarachera de Cuba – Mercado Negra (Raul rmx)
A Gozar Con Mi Combo – Cachao (6)
Hablame – Frankie Ruiz
Indestructible – Ray Barretto (-3.5%)
Me Prendiste Velas – Oscar D’Leon
Otra Oportunidad – Jimmy Bosch
Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (live version) (7)

aftermath (Vishal played among others Contigo and Lady. Nominally, Vishal still has my Cache CD so I did not play it as part of my set).

(1) Big oops. I accidentally started playing another song on top of it, then I switched to the wrong song before switching back.
(2) Even bigger oops. I accidentally ejected the CD right after the song started and caused another big confusion lasting about 10-15 seconds. Some people thought there was a catastrophic equipment failure. Vishal came by to say not to play another Mambo – maybe play a Merengue next. There was a very healthy number of people dancing to this song. It’s a bona fide hit in my opinion.
(3) I was thinking Bachata, but Vishal asked for Salsa instead.
(4) Someone wanted to dance with me before she left so I put this track on with intention of playing the next track on the Tito Puente CD. Vishal sort of took over the situation and got Danie to switch over to the next song on the Tabaco Y Ron CD instead – fortunately the Tabaco Y Ron song was okay.
(5) Do over. Even though the last song was okay, it really didn’t flow with where I was hoping to go.
(6) I tried to get opinion on this song from few people. Johnny & Serap thought it was nice (once bass was turned down a little). Sergio thought it was too mellow. Too mellow is often used by Sergio to describe songs I like.
(7) I was dancing to this when Vishal made adjustments to the sound nearly half dozen times, which I found annoying. Oh well.

This was a much better set than last week – arguably the best yet. The only real competition was that unusual night 3-4 weeks ago with ridiculous number of excellent dancers. The numbers were respectable tonight but not fantastic yet things went quite well – aside from the two major accidents mentioned above. I think I like the results of no pre-planning (or at least no pre-set playlist in writing). Pre-planned list from last two weeks were counterproductive because it made me less flexible.

I only had five dances with two people. No complaints whatsoever though - they were all very good. In fact, given that I was prepared not to dance at all tonight, I thought it was fabulous. I would have loved to dance with few other people who were there, but there’s nothing new in that. I was very busy DJing, and most people had gone home by the time I was done. [The 20 min or so break is pretty useless for getting dances in my opinion.]

By the time I left, Vishal had played only one more Merengue, so the balance up to that point was 3 Bachata and 2 Merengue. There was a request for Bachata (I took about 20 min to supply two in row), Merengue, Oscar D’Leon (taken with Mi Gente), Marc Anthony (twice? – I thought Vishal played one for her, but she may not have recognized it). I thought the person who requested Marc Anthony looked horrified when I told her that I did not have any of his songs. For my part, I played 39 songs – 3 Bachata, 1 Merengue and 35 Salsa.

One more day to go before I get a break.