DJ til you drop

June 16, 2006

Playlist

Micaela – Sonora Carruseles
Lluvia – Eddie Santiago
Vivir Sin Ella – Gilberto Santa Rosa*
Etnia – Grupo Niche
Barreras Ninguna – Jimmy Bosch
La Fruta Bomba – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
El Matrimonio – El Gran Combo*
La Familia – Ray Barretto (1)
Dejame Sonar – Tito Puente (canta Tony Vega) (2)*
Bandolera – Hector Lavoe (3)*
Soy El Rey – Pete Rodriguez (4)*
Me Prendiste Velas – Oscar D’Leon
Nina Y Senora – Tito Puente
Mambo – Cachao
Descarga La Moderna – Ray Barretto (-5%)
Vamonos Pa'l Monte – Eddie Palmieri (eventually to –6%) (5)
Ven Tu – Dominic Marte
Te Quiero – Oliver
Es La Musica – Massimo Scalici
Contigo – Cache

break

Vishal started off with Playa No More once again. There was a sound system breakdown during this song. I joked to next person over (I think it was Lindsey) that Vishal overusing the track caused this breakdown. I think Vishal played about 4-6 Salsa and 1 Merengue during this break. I had two dances during this break.

Get It Up – Eurocuban Project
El Pito – Isidro Infante
Y Eso Duele – Gilberto Santa Rosa (-2.5%)*
Ojos – Willie Colon & Ruben Blades*
Si Quieres Bailar – Pete Rodriguez*
Viva Puente – El Gran Combo (6)*
Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (live version)
Fiesta A La King – Tito Puente (shorter version)*
Anacaona – Cheo Feliciano
Hacha Y Machete – Hector Lavoe
You Will Remember Me – Dominic Marte
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D’ Keda
Me Libere – El Gran Combo*
Ven Morena – Oscar D’Leon
El Swing De Fruko – Fruko Y Sus Tesos (7)
Merengue track #3 from Vishal’s CD (8)
La Pantera Mambo – La 33
Aicha – Africando
Culebra – Grupo Niche (9)
Otra Oportunidad – Jimmy Bosch
Idilio – Willie Colon (10)
El Preso – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
Thinking Of You – Lenny Kravitz
Bailando – Frankie Ruiz (11)
Speak Low – Manny Oquendo (12)*
Perdoname – Gilberto Santa Rosa (13)*

(1) Pete asked, “Is this Ray Barretto?” Yes, it is.
(2) I think Vishal plays this now and then.
(3) Pete asked, “Is this Ray Barretto again?” No, it isn’t. This is the longest song I have played thus far as a DJ – over 9 minutes long. There is one other song I would consider playing, which is even longer at over 10 minutes.
(4) I think Vishal plays this one occasionally as well.
(5) This song was started at normal speed and then gradually slowed down to –6%. There are many versions of this song, and mine speeds up dramatically with about 3 minutes to go. I initially slowed it down to –5% in course of about 15 seconds, then went down even more shortly thereafter. As I expected, there were some rumblings about this song being really fast (in part because of their experience from April 21st when I did not slow the song when it speeded up), but I think it worked better tonight.
(6) As I expected, I noticed some grins when the Ran Kan Kan motif came on in the middle of the song.
(7) Vishal exclaimed, “That’s two fast songs in a row! I don’t think my AC can handle it! I’m getting the AC replaced (?) next week. You can play fast songs in a row after that!”
(8) The request for Merengue came up during Ven Morena. I think Vishal was expecting this song to be played after Ven Morena (not El Swing De Fruko), so he probably reacted more strongly than he would have earlier.
(9) Vishal seemed impressed and happy about me being able to keep most people on the dance floor with Salsa at this hour.
(10) Minor miscue. Two songs were on simultaneously for a second.
(11) Another minor miscue. Two songs were on at the same time again for few seconds. I must be getting a little tired.
(12) I felt that I went too long (or just right) with too many familiar tracks so I wanted to rectify the situation. I heard some mutters "It's time to go home" when I put this on, but most if not all stayed. I danced to this song until the very end and still managed to cue the next song in time.
(13) This song was played at normal speed. I think Vishal must speed up the song quite a bit when he plays this. I danced to this song as well. I left one more song to be played after this (Periodico De Ayer), but Vishal overruled it. He played Chan Chan from Buena Vista Social Club CD instead.

Summary. 46 songs. 41 Salsa. 4 Bachata. 1 Merengue. Vishal played only one Merengue along with several Salsa tonight, so Bachata wins easily. I played 12 new songs (*) I have never played before. My guess is that I won’t surpass this number in the future.

There was no request for Merengue despite there being a huge number of people. Hooray! In fact no one made any request to me (except indirectly via Vishal). For last 2 months or so during the time I was DJing, the number of people at Club Salsa was decent but not packed. It was fairly crowded last week, and tonight was really bustling. Things were reminiscent of the times when Club Salsa was open only on Fridays and Saturdays (and later on Wednesdays also). I’m guessing that this was due to exams being over and done. I have no idea if this will be sustained during the summer when many students are away.

There was not much time to dance or socialize because I spent so much time at the DJ booth. I did manage to talk to Cyrille about SOS, but he had other plans (among which was France v South Korea World Cup group G match, which I will have to tape). Mimi's in, so that's three people at least. One more could be easily accommodated (or even two), but I'm running out ideas.