No photographic evidence

January 5, 2007

A dinner outing with Sergio and Cyrille meant I arrived a bit later than usual at Club Salsa. The restaurant chosen at the last minute after some walking around was Al Casbah, where we ran into Tamaryn. Afterwards we all headed to Club Salsa - Sergio with his sprained wrist and all.

The club hour started with recorded CD initially followed by Vishal taking over shortly before my arrival. It was a fairly quiet night but also with good number of people we know well. As expected (based upon various talks following last night), Lindsey, Nicola and (arriving later) Mimi were all there.

After Vishal played several songs, I took over the DJ booth for two sessions.

Playlist

Caballero Y Dama - Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Siete Vidas - El Gran Combo (1)
1-800-Quiereme - Luisito Rosario
La Fiesta Ya Comenso - Grupo Latin Vibe (2)
Te Extrano - Toke D Keda (3)
La La La - Direct Latin Influence (4)*
La Muy Muy - Roberto Torres
Ave Maria Lola - Conjunto Imagen (5)*
Tu Son - Oscar D'Leon
Muneca - Alfredo De La Fe

break (Vishal started with Salsa Nunca Se Acabo by Susie Hansen, following one violinist with another. I didn't know he had this song in his collection. He finished his second set with Ran Kan Kan by Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland version). Things were okay although sometimes nondescript in the middle.)

La Quiero - Dominic Marte (6)
Anacaona - Cheo Feliciano
Abran Paso - Orchestra Harlow
Me Prendiste Velas - Oscar D'Leon
La Fiesta De Pilito - El Gran Combo
Me Libere - El Gran Combo
Disco Azucar - Los Van Van (7)
No Aguanto Mas - Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco (8)
Luna Negra - Rey Ruiz*
La Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe
Periodico De Ayer - Hector Lavoe (9)

(1) I played this once before. I recall hearing in London once or twice. I thought it was okay if not great song, but some people seemed to have more difficulties with it than I expected. Hmm.
(2) Second time with this song as well. It seemed harmless, but maybe it's a little too fast.
(3) Okay. Let's start over with a Bachata break.
(4) Nice debut.
(5) I had received their CD Hoy, Ayer Y Manana at the same time as Direct Latin Influence. HAyM has more songs and more Salsa than DLI II and is more energetic, but it's all rather mediocre and/or with odd tics. This song at least has familiarity going for it in Cambridge.
(6) Vishal finishing it off with Ran Kan Kan was a bit surprising. I guess I'll have to go another route, starting over with another Bachata.
(7) A repeat request by Laura. She actually made the request in the middle-to-late part of my first session. My original thought was to finish the segment at the time, then start another set possibly with Tito Puente theme and finish the set with this song. The break and Vishal playing Ran Kan Kan made me scrap that idea. This seemed like a good spot for it - even though it came much later in the evening.
(8) DLI II has another Merengue, which brings my total to 4. I suspect that DLI's Merengue would be considered a little too relaxed by this crowd. It might come into play one of these days regardless.
(9) A movie about Hector Lavoe is due to be released next summer. Marc Anthony will play the role of Hector Lavoe. Jennifer Lopez plays the wife in the movie. Presumably there will be a soundtrack CD where Marc Anthony covers many Hector Lavoe songs. I wonder how that soundtrack album and movie will affect Salsa dance community. The movie is called El Cantante (I had to use Explorer because Firefox didn't work). The song El Cantante by the way is over 10 minutes long - I played it once at Club Salsa as the last song when there were maybe 10 people left, and I danced to it one other time in London. (Hmm… I remember who I danced with in both occasions. Haha.) I doubt I'll play Aguanile anytime soon, but maybe I would play El Cantante again in July. Also a second movie about Lavoe is also in production (this one is tentatively called The Singer).

I had Lamento Boliviano cued next, and I was going to follow it up with Reggaeton. This was scrapped because Vishal switched to his Reggaeton while I danced to my last song.

Total 21 songs. 2 Bachata. 1 Merengue. 3 new songs (marked *). Vishal liked the set a lot. Overall the atmosphere was similar to Dec 22nd in that the crowd was small (although with different people) but music was pretty good (by both Vishal and me).

Vishal seemed to dance for fun a lot more than usual - many times with Dani.

I was playing with my new digital camera a lot. I have had a film SLR for a long time, but I never owned a digital or a point-and-shoot camera before (I had used them a little and bought them as a gift, however). I probably will want to practice using it for next few weeks - taking photos of people dancing Salsa in the dark is a tricky proposition. I doubt I'll use it for this blog (or at least be very careful with it), but starting an on-line photo album elsewhere is a possibility (with no link from this blog). I used to take photographs all the time, but I have done very little of this in the UK so I feel a need to catch up.

Another extended hanging out with the group at the end of the night although it wasn't as long as last night. The big topic? Socialists.