Vishal goes wild at the DJ booth

February 9, 2007

I arrived before the classes started this time. There was no dinner with the San Miguel Gang because Cyrille is in the Carribean so I arrived before the lessons ended. However, Vishal was deeply engrossed in listening to his new collection of music (£100 worth) so he opted to play a CD instead of letting me DJ. After a while, he started playing his own music. It seemed like he was trying to play new music all the time. It wasn't until much later that I went on - for a very short set.

Playlist

Es La Musica - Massimo Scalici (1)
Cubanoson - Cubanoson* (2)
La Lucha - La Excelencia*
Casita De Margot - SonSublime*
Un Gran Dia En El Barrio - Spanish Harlem Orchestra* (3)
You Will Remember Me - Domenic Marte
Avisale A Mi Contrario - Roberto Roena (4)
Cuando Te Vea - Bobby Valentin* (5)
El Abaniquito - Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers
Caravan - Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers (90's version) (6)

Subway Harry - Poncho Sanchez* (7)

La Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe (8)

(1) I had not played this song in a while. Some people did not recognize it and were confused at first.
(2) I might as well continue the pattern of playing new music. This song and the next two songs were all released in 2006. Incidentally, the Cubanoson CD has been dubbed the best Salsa CD of 2006 by some - I too think it's a very good album. Probably the next song I play from this album will be Lagrimas Negras - perhaps most danceable version of the song I have heard to date and certainly the song I keep playing over and over again on my iPod.
(3) This is an old classic from 2004.
(4) Finally we get to 1970's.
(5) Haihan pointed to this song as the high point of my set while adding he preferred the Spanish Harlem Orchestra version. I think SHO version is okay too, but the best one is by Tito Puente.
(6) Vishal relieves me saying that there were some requests. Merengue. Lamento Boliviano.
(7) Much later, I overheard someone requesting a Cha Cha. I jumped in and told Vishal that I'll pick one. This was it.
(8) Somewhat later, Stephanie wanted one more dance. Because of the floor condition (it deteriorated alarmingly as evening progressed), I thought to pick a slower song as a request.

Total I suppose is 12 songs. 10 Salsa including 5 new. 1 new Cha Cha. 1 Bachata.

After a very long time, Playa No More was finally played shortly before 1 AM. Other songs I recognized included Tres Dias En Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), which I played last month. Also Que Se Sepa by Tabaco Y Ron - did Vishal just get this song? Among Vishal's new CDs included La 33 - La 33 (I bought this CD over 10 months ago and used 6 songs from it while DJing), Tabaco Y Ron - Tumbando Cabeza (I had it for about a year now and used 2 songs DJing) and the new Africando CD (I held off from buying this one in part because I figured someone else will get it eventually and also because Africando seemed a little passé - however, this is probably a good purchase and I don't think any other DJ in Cambridge has it yet). Other CDs looked like compilations from places unknown - I don't have a good guess as to how many good songs he got out of them.

In any case, Vishal seemed exhilarated about DJing tonight. Presumably playing a whole lot of new songs for an extended amount of time did the trick. A question would be whether it could be done well in a sustained manner.