New Year Party at Club Salsa on Dec 30th

December 30, 2006

I arrived around 8:45 or so. I didn’t think 7 PM start was very plausible. As expected, the DJ booth was on autopilot. Somewhat surprising was that the music wasn’t Salsa, Merengue or Bachata. The number of people was small, but it seemed reasonable to play Salsa.

Playlist

Mandali – Africando (1)
La Muy Muy – Roberto Torres
Trombon Criollo – Cachao (2)
Lovely Day – borrowed from Vishal’s CD (why not? it would be a long night)
Poinciana Cha Cha – Cal Tjader (3)
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
Asuncion – Roberto Roena (4)*
Cuestion De Epoca – Celia Cruz & Jose Alberto “El Canario”*
Maria Cervantes – Grupo Latin Vibe (5)
Te Extrano – Toke D Keda
Culebra – Grupo Niche (-1%)
Hablame – Frankie Ruiz (-1%)
Mi Tierra – Gloria Estefan (-1%) (6)*
Lluvia – Eddie Santiago
Mala Mana – Roberto Roena (7)*

break #1 (starting with “better” Merengue)

Tu Son – Oscar D’Leon (8)
Meneame La Cuna – Roberto Torres*
Lindo Yambu – Cheo Feliciano
Soledad – La 33
Aguadilla – Ray Barretto

break #2 (Vishal started with a double dose of Playa No More. I commented/joked to him that the party doesn’t start officially until he plays that song.)

Ven Tu – Dominic Marte
Debo Pensar – Toke D Keda
Cucala – Celia Cruz
El Abaniquito – Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers
Cao Cao Mani Picao – Tito Puente
Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland live version)
Musica Ligera – Toke D Keda
No Hay Cama Pa’ Tanta Gente – El Gran Combo

break #3 (started off with Lamento Boliviano followed by hit parade of Salsa ending with Otra Oportunidad – you know, things like Me Libere, Cali Pachanguero, Caballo Viejo. Vishal also played Ave Maria Lola, Gotas De Lluvia, La Vida Es Un Carnival (probably), Sey, Contigo, Un Verano En Nueva York at other points this evening. Also Ping Pong, Lovely Day, Micaela (probably) – let’s say that Vishal had a very conventional day even by his usual standard – the only Salsa songs that he played tonight that I did not hear him play at least 30 times already were Gotas De Lluvia and Un Verano En Nueva York. Would it be accurate to say that Vishal stuck to the same 100 Salsa songs this year? Vishal did not play Lloraras, Que Buena Baila Usted, A El, Me Voy Pa’ Cali, Ojos Chinos, Brujeria, Pantera Mambo, Obsesion, La Rebelion, Yamulemau, El Pito, Perdoname, Lady, Aicha, Bailando.)

Prestame Tu Mujer – Ray Barretto
Caballero Y Dama – Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Dime Que Quieres – El Gran Combo
Vitamina – Sonora Carruseles
Merecumbe – Johnny Colon (9)
No Aguanto Mas – Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco (10)
Apretoncito – Toke D Keda

break #4 (This break felt a little longer. I think Vishal’s session ended with more romantic stuff.)

Amor De Una Noche – N’Klabe
Esas Lagrimas – Gilberto Santa Rosa (11)
La Llave – Grupo Latin Vibe
Idilio – Willie Colon

break #5 (or done for the rest of the evening, except for a one song request – see below. It started off with Merengue and then Reggaeton. I thought the Reggaeton segment was surprisingly small. Vish went back to Salsa and stayed with it for quite a while near the end – although most of the material was very familiar yet I don’t have good idea what most of them are because I never came across them in my Salsa searches.)

Muneca – Alfredo De La Fe (12)*

(1) I guess some people still dance to Sey when Vishal plays it later, but hardly anyone seems to dance when I play Africando.
(2) This one gets a “That’s a weird one” comment from Vish.
(3) Ditto.
(4) Requests for Merengue had begun already – actually even before I started playing. So here goes. I think Abit might have been the only one to dance to it.
(5) Complaints are supposedly mounting.
(6) Pandering. Would you believe that this was one of the first four Latin CDs I ever purchased? Yet I had never used it as DJ until now?
(7) Requests for Merengue were mounting again. Considering the fact that out of 1700+ songs I have categorized under Latin, only 3 are Merengue PLUS I have used one of them already means my options are limited. This one wasn’t popular either. Only Abit danced to it. Vishal ended it prematurely – saying that it’s not a good (read: popular) one. What else can one expect when I have only 3 songs – all obtained inadvertently.
(8) Okay. I’m going to get more serious now with DJing – not to say that I was playing all crap during the first stint.
(9) Vishal talked about taking over again just after I had this song cued. I asked to play this song with the idea that I would try to dance to it. When I started the song and then started looking for a prospective dance partner, I couldn’t find one so I trudged back to the DJ booth. There was another clamor for Merengue by now, so I played Merengue next before switching to Bachata again.
(10) This Merengue was supposedly a bit better. I note that this was the first Merengue I ever played – last week.
(11) A request around this point was for “commercial stuff.” It wasn’t Vish. Isn’t N’Klabe or Gilberto Santa Rosa about as commercial as it gets?
(12) I tried to make a Reggaeton request first, but Vishal didn’t want to play any more Reggaeton because he wanted to end the evening sooner rather than later. So I made a Salsa request instead hoping to get my third dance of the evening - I just couldn’t get inspired to dance to same old same old.

Total 40 songs. 5 Bachata. 3 Merengue. 1 Cha Cha. 31 Salsa. 4 new Salsa. 2 new Merengue. Oh... and that Lovely Day song.

I never really got into dancing mood – I didn’t dance with anyone between ~11 PM and close to 3 AM. Until near the very end, it looked like I was going to end with 2 dances followed by consecutive rejections or “not this song” by 3 people. There were few other occasions where I ended up not asking because the person I would have asked were nowhere to be found or already dancing with someone else or looked occupied with something or someone else. The final tally – I asked for a dance 8 or 9 times, and I got yes for an answer 4 times. Two of the dances were with people who still have difficulty keeping time to the music when left on their own.

I took a look at last year's post for New Years Eve party. Supposedly I danced very little last year too - only with 8 people (or only twice as many as tonight). A quick glance suggests that December in Cambridge was not great for Salsa last year either. January on the other hand was much better (even with a brief period of practicing instead of dancing to work on fixing how to lead cross body lead), so maybe it won't stay dire for so long. I should keep my expectations low, of course.

At least I got some socializing done. Umm… Right. I guess I did speak with Lindsey and Sam for over 30 seconds. Vishal and I also chatted throughout the evening – it was a long evening.