Party, hijacked

June 30, 2006

Playlist
Pedro Navaja – Willie Colon & Ruben Blades (1)*
La Resbolosa – Ray Barretto*
Que Bonito Es Sonar – Jimmy Bosch
La Cartera – Orchestra Harlow
Micaela – Pete Rodriguez (+24%) (2)*
Cielo De Tambores – Grupo Niche
Como Lo Hacen – Frankie Ruiz (3)
Mi Libertad – Fruko Y Sus Tesos*
Me Prendiste Velas – Oscar D’Leon
Descarga Lebron – Lebron Brothers (4)*

I had a very long break til well after midnight ending around 12:40 AM. I suppose this would have been a good opportunity to get some dancing except I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the song selection. Cristian’s playlist was similar to Wednesdays at Club Salsa except with less Salsa – one or two unfamiliar and decent sounding Salsa plus a few overplayed Salsa (Lovely Day, Me Voy Pa’ Cali, Micaela (version by Sonora Carruseles) – it’s amazing how welcome overplayed stuff becomes when surrounded by even worse stuff) plus small number of Salsa I didn’t particularly care for and large number of non-Salsa songs (Merengue, Bachata, Lambada).

I was getting pretty tired of suffering through string of mostly uninspiring music and considered leaving. Just about the time I reached my breaking point, Vishal proceeded with starting the farewell dance for Rico and Drew. The song chosen by Cristian for this dance was Salsa Con Coco by El Gran Combo (I’m not completely certain about this), which was arguably the best song he played tonight with a caveat that it would not have been my choice because of its fast tempo. The speed of the song would have discouraged more people from taking part in this dance. The trouble in my opinion was that the approach taken here was to treat this dance as a virtuosic demonstration rather than low-key celebration. I am inclined to think that people's definition of virtuosity in Salsa dancing has evolved a bit in last couple of years in Cambridge.

The farewell dance (which Vishal seemed to have conceived of as a demonstration of sort) was followed by costume contest with the winners receiving 2 months free entry to Club Salsa. The prize is a bit of a sham considering that virtually all who entered the competition is in the Salsa team. In any case everyone was declared a winner. I suppose it could be appropriate to repeat a statement I made recently but with a different purpose – Nothing has changed. Or in this case, very little has changed. Even the definition of goodbye is fluid here; I'm sure I haven't seen the last of Rico and Drew in Cambridge.

Cristian started off one more song before I took over briefly.

Dejame Sonar – Tito Puente (Tony Vega) (5)
Soy El Rey – Pete Rodriguez (-3%)
Y Eso Duele – Gilberto Santa Rosa (-5%)
Esto Es El Guaguanco – Cheo Feliciano
Amor Perfecto – El Gran Combo* (6)
Vamos A Reir Un Poco – Hector Lavoe (7)*
Mi Fracaso – Lebron Brothers (8)*

(1) This song takes a while to get going. I decided to start the song at the point where vocals come on; this cuts about 30 seconds in the beginning. Even with this cut, it still takes almost one more minute before the song really gets going. For this reason, I find this song difficult to play. My solution thus was to use it as the very first song as transition between the end of the lesson and start of the club hours. It’s an extremely well-known song; I saw a few people singing along.
(2) This is the original version of the song, which was covered by Sonora Carruseles. I wanted to test if I could play this by speeding it up to the maximum ability of Vishal’s DJ mixer. At +24%, speed is fine. I was less impressed with the sound quality though. It would have been nice to see how it sounds without people around at normal speed, maximum speed and in between.
(3) Vishal mentioned that Cristian wanted to DJ a little tonight after I came in tonight. By this song, Cristian has been there for maybe 2 songs, and Vishal informed me that Cristian will take over after 2-3 more songs. Okay. For how long? Cristian by the way seemed to enjoy this song. Now if he would just return the favor. Also Sergio arrived around this time; he was gone most of June traveling. I had told Sergio that tonight should be pretty good, and I increasingly felt that I gave erroneous and overly positive recommendation considering how things really went.
(4) I might as well go out with a bang. The first song by Cristian was … Merengue followed by Bachata followed by some vague Salsa fusion.
(5) I was tempted to go into a “Heavy Mambo” or “Latin Jazz” during this reprieve. I allowed cooler part of my head to prevail although I would not be able to claim that my head was kept completely cool.
(6) Vishal says two more songs. Supposedly Cristian brought a lot of his friends and they’re buying a lot of drinks. I could ask why people who are unlikely to become repeat customers should be catered to and favored over regular paying customers. How would a club that plays mostly music in foreign language fare if there wasn’t the “spectacular dancing” factor? I suppose this depends a lot on how much nonsense regulars are willing to tolerate.
(7) I have some reservations about this song because it has a few transitions. Some people are okay with transitions while others are less so. At this point I find transitions more annoying than interesting. Towards the end of this song, Cristian asks how long this song is. About 7 1/2 minutes. I have played longer songs, and I would be interested in playing even longer song at some point. As a rule, very long songs should be avoided. Then again, fusing songs should be avoided too – fusing songs have the same effect as playing a very long song.
(8) Cristian cut this off short claiming that there are no Salsa dancers left. This wasn't entirely true, of course, but it allowed me to retort, “Well. That’s because you drove them away.” I can't claim to speak for everyone, but I wasn't the only one voicing discontent about the music among people who like to dance Salsa. Getting to the halfway point on this song would have been nice because it would have made a nice personal statement and nifty gallows humor. I decided to leave when I was done around 1 AM – although the actual departure took a little longer (2 or 3 songs) while saying long goodbyes.

Summary: I played 17 Salsa, including 8 songs (*) I have never played before. Actually, it’s more correct to say 16 and 7 because my last song (less than 3 minutes long) wasn’t played even halfway through.

Perhaps the most amusing thing that happened was with a couple asking me to teach them how to dance Salsa. However, I don’t think I was the only one they asked. I tried to refer them to classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

I think I danced with 5 people. One of the dances was pretty cool because of the song (Descarga Lebron) and okay amount of space. Everything else was mostly about navigating an obstacle course.

The party went on after I left - probably for at least one more hour. I imagine song selections for Cristian's second shift was similar to his first except with even less Salsa. I could well imagine that same will happen this Sunday at Peterborough.

Tomorrow at the Rocket should be better – I hope. Music and space almost certainly should be good.