A foggy day, in London town

December 22, 2006

Playlist

Songorocosongo - Hector Lavoe (1)*
La Muy Muy - Roberto Torres
La Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe
Mambo Diablo - Tito Puente (70's version) (2)
Ave Maria Lola - Roberto Torres (3)*
Lindo Yambu - Cheo Feliciano
Me Dejo - Oscar D'Leon*
Un Alto En El Camino - Grupo Niche
Dime Que Quieres - El Gran Combo (4)*
Esas Lagrimas - Gilberto Santa Rosa
Caballero Y Dama - Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Mambo Gozon - Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland version) (5)*
Cucala - Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco (6)*
Un Apretoncito - Toke D Keda
No Aguanto Mas - Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco (7)*
El Cuarto - Eddie Palmieri (8)
Quitate La Mascara - Ray Barretto
Tu Son - Oscar D'Leon*
Me Desengano - Roberto Roena
No Critiques - Manny Oquendo & Libre
Y No Hay Mas Na' - El Gran Combo*
Disco Azucar - Los Van Van (9)*
Negro Esta Cocinando - Los Van Van
Musica Ligera - Toke D Keda
Te Extrano - Toke D Keda
Un Poquito Mas - Jimmy Bosch
Plastico - Willie Colon & Ruben Blades

Break

Vishal started with two Merengue (first was Suavemente). As he was readying to play his first Salsa, I teased him by asking, "What's next? Are you going to play Playa No More?" He replied, "I'll try not to." He ended up not playing Playa No More through the whole set! In fact, it was a pretty clean set and without many of his usual big hits. Probably the most predictable song was Lamento Boliviano by Toke D Keda as his last song.

Mambo City - Grupo Latin Vibe (10)*
La Palomilla - Joe Cuba Sextet
My Favorite Things - New Swing Sextet
Thinking Of You - Lenny Kravitz (11)
Amor De Una Noche - N'Klabe
Perdoname - Gilberto Santa Rosa (12)

(1) This song was under consideration for several months. Long and slow-paced, I wondered at one point if this was Cha Cha. I finally decided that it wasn't Cha Cha and gave it a try with intention of dancing to it to see how it worked. Pace was okay. There were some tricky parts as well as transition(s). So, do I play it again? I don't know.
(2) Four slow songs in a row. I danced to this one as well because I recalled some people voicing their dislike. It seemed fine with me; I think it must have been a general complaint against slow songs - many people get to a point where they find it more difficult to dance to slow songs rather than fast ones.
(3) Finally a medium-paced song. Last four songs were very slow, so it must have seemed very fast to Vishal. He asked, "Is this the original version of the song?" I replied, "I don't know. It's by Roberto Torres." He liked it. After all, pretty much everyone in the club danced to this song - presumably because of combination of familiarity and freshness.
(4) Vishal liked this one too and asked, "Who's the singer? Is it Frankie Ruiz?" I replied, "No. I don't know the singer, but it's by El Gran Combo."
(5) Vishal really liked this one and asked who it was once again.
(6) I think Mambo Gozon tired out everyone who was dancing. I should have played Bachata instead.
(7) I thought I would try my hand at playing some different Merengue. Only one couple danced to it. I told Shila, "I guess it means either it's not a good Merengue or there is not much interest in Merengue tonight."
(8) And you know what? Someone came and asked if I could play Merengue during this song. I told him that the song I played just before this one was a Merengue.
(9) At the start of No Critiques, Laura stopped by and asked if I had Los Van Van. I didn't feel like playing Temba, Tumba Y Timba again, so I asked her if she had a song she liked. The simplest way was for me to show her my list of Los Van Van songs. She recognized Disco Azucar and added "the second song in that CD" to make sure. I recognized Disco Azucar as one of the songs listed as some people's favorite Los Van Van. In any case, a lot of people liked this one (again in part because of it being a rare occasion to hear it), so I considered a few possibilities including La Sanduguera before settling on a safer choice.
(10) It looked like the end of the evening was nearing even before I got back. I guess I didn't stop it either. Perhaps the surprising thing is that it had lasted as long as it did given the number of people who showed up. I certainly wouldn't fault Vishal's playlist - it seemed quite nice to me.
(11) Back to the slow mood.
(12) Vishal announced that this would be the last song - he talked about closing early about 10 minutes prior to this. If this wasn't going to be the last one, I would have played Chan Chan next.

Total 33 songs. 29 Salsa. 3 Bachata. 1 Merengue. 11 new songs including 10 new Salsa.

It was another night where I danced with only 4 people. There isn't very much to write about because except for <10 song break, I was doing little but DJing - sometimes chatting with Vishal or Shila (who was hanging around near the DJ booth a lot as he has been doing a lot lately).

A heavy fog, which plagued Cambridge and a big region of the UK seemed to be getting lighter by the end of the evening. I had Ella and Louis singing in my head all day. Maybe the sun will be shining everywhere come tomorrow.