No usual Friday dinner this week with Sergio at Peterborough – because Cyrille can’t pick a restaurant and I cannot make reservations? Anyhow, this allowed me to get to Club Salsa before the lessons ended for the first time in a while. It was a quiet night – not many punters and not many students. I guess the kids are celebrating the end of Lent term elsewhere. I ended up playing a lot of songs tonight.
Playlist
Brujeria – El Gran Combo
Mandali – Africando
Lluvia – Eddie Santiago
Malanga Amarilla – Cachao
Ave Maria Lola – Sonora Carruseles
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
Nunca Se Quedas – Frankie Ruiz*
Mambo Diablo – Tito Puente (70s Fania recording)
La Muy Muy – Roberto Torres
Idilio – Willie Colon
Salsa Y Control – Lebron Brothers
Quitate La Mascara – Ray Barretto
Mi Desengano – Robert Roena Y Su Apollo Sound
Muneca – Alfredo De La Fe
Anacaona – Cheo Feliciano
Cucala – Celia Cruz
Que Cosas Tendran – El Gran Combo* (1)
Cubanoson – Cubanoson
La Lucha (Feat. Shanny) – La Excelencia*
Casita De Margot – SonSublime
Disco Azucar – Los Van Van (2)
Ven Tu – Domenic Marte
Debo Pensar – Toke D Keda (3)
Mambo Mongo – Mongo Santamaria* (4) (-4%) (90s Chesky Recording)
break
No Hay Cama Pa’ Tanta Gente – El Gran Combo (5)
Tu Son – Oscar D’Leon (6)
Diamoule Mawo – Laba Sosseh
Cuando Te Vea – Spanish Harlem Orchestra* (7)
Se Me Fue – El Gran Combo (8)
Lagrimas Negras – Cubanoson (9)
Te Extrano – Toke D Keda
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence
This Moment – Azabache* (10)
Esta Cobardia – Frankie Ruiz (11)
La Llave – Grupo Latin Vibe
Gotas De Lluvia – El Gran Combo (12)
Luna Negra – Rey Ruiz
Sonando – Poncho Sanchez (13)
Abuelita – Hector Lavoe (14)
Otra Oportunidad – Jimmy Bosch
Apretoncito – Toke D Keda (15)
Fragile – Massimo Scalici (16)
(1) The dance floor has been consistently full despite the crowd being fairly small. Up to this point I had played 16 Salsa by 16 different headliners.
(2) This was a request. It went like, “Anything by Los Van Van. Make it two.” I opted to make it one. Twenty Salsa by twenty different headliners. I wasn’t going to break that trend with Los Van Van.
(3) This was the first time the dance floor was fairly thin more than half-way through the song. I am thinking that there aren’t very many Bachata dancers tonight.
(4) Vishal had came by just before I started Los Van Van to talk about taking over. I delayed him by saying that I was playing a request next. During the Bachata, I talked him into letting me play one song. This was done so that I pick a song I would want to dance to. I had played Mambo Mongo before (the 70s Fania version), but not this version. I danced with Serap. Up to this point I have played 21 Salsa, 2 Bachata, 1 Cha Cha.
(5) The only song I remember Vishal playing during the break was Pancho Cristal (Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz) and Ping Pong. Luis referred to this as a kind of song only I typically play – although I don’t have the song in my collection and thus never played it. He probably means old classics – perhaps the kind of music a critic referred to as Cuban shopping center music (although I have no idea of verifying this, I thought there was a cultural embargo between Cuba and United States, which would preclude most of these songs popular in Salsa clubs being played in Cuba. Los Van Van would be an exception.
(6) Vishal wants more “commercial” songs. I’m not exactly bombarding people with Mambo, especially with Oscar D’Leon. He followed it up with “You probably know what’s good. I’ll leave you to it.”
(7) Another request – by the same person who requested Los Van Van. People are allowed to like both Los Van Van (Timba) and Spanish Harlem Orchestra (Salsa Dura).
(8) This was something of a request (El Gran Combo – no song specification) by Luis.
(9) I danced with Cinzia to this one.
(10) I thought Vishal was going to say something about this. He didn’t.
(11) Another request by Luis. He started with Frankie Ruiz and later talked about Bailando. I concurred on the artist but not the song. Even before starting tonight, I was thinking about playing as many as 2 songs by Frankie Ruiz tonight.
(12) I think people are getting this song now. Initial reception when I played it first at Club Salsa was lukewarm. It was better second time around. It’s very good now (this is the third time at Club Salsa with me having played it at Pasion De Primavera - although I don’t think anyone from Pasion was here tonight).
(13) Less than half of the people danced Cha Cha to this – about the same as earlier tonight.
(14) I danced with Natalia to this one. Second time tonight.
(15) Some people wanted Bachata. I didn’t think Merengue or Bachata was really called for at this time given the small crowd and its composition.
(16) This song was followed up by Contigo before Vishal switched to Reggaeton after about 30 seconds – thus reducing the number of dancing couples from 3 to 1. No big deal – I was thinking that closing time might be called at any time for last 20 minutes or so. For this half, 15 Salsa, 2 Bachata and 1 Cha Cha.
Total 42 songs. 36 Salsa including 5 new songs (this includes 1 new remix). 4 Bachata. 2 Cha Cha including 1 new. A new record for total number of songs played in one night.
Tonight was also notable for the following songs not having been played. Micaela – Sonora Carruseles. Playa No More – Crystal Sierra. La Vida Es Un Carnival – Celia Cruz. Suavemente – Elvis Crespo. Obsesion – Aventura. Lamento Boliviano – Toke D Keda. Other fairly dependable Vishal staples failing to make an appearance included Me Libere, Lloraras, Caballo Viejo. Only two Merengue was played. Same for Reggaeton. This means the number of Cha Cha played was same as Merengue and as Reggaeton. I doubt that this will happen again next week (or next month).
I danced with 5 people for 6 songs. I was okay at best. I also brought a plane ticket to Madrid. Hmm. Nine more days in the Iberian Peninsula. After this trip, I will have spent 17 days in Spain (with 2 days overlapping in Portugal), 7 days in Germany, and 0 days in the rest of continental Europe.
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