A kingdom for a song

April 27, 2007

Music started right after end of lessons. I decided to hit the floor running.

Playlist

La Loma Del Tamarindo - El Gran Combo (1)
La-La-La - Direct Latin Influence (2)
La Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe (3)
Sientate Ahi - Oscar D'Leon
Otra Oportunidad - Jimmy Bosch
Malanga Amarilla - Cachao (4)
Brujeria - El Gran Combo
Rubias De Nueva York - Willie Rosario* (5)
Caballero Y Dama - Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Noche De Salsa - Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz*
Que Buena Baila Usted - Oscar D'Leon (6)

break (7)

Malaguena Salerosa - Eddie Palmieri*
Estoy En Ti - Willie Rosario* (8)
No Hay Amigo - Orchestra Harlow* (-2%) (9)
Ven Tu - Domenic Marte
Pecado - Toke D Keda (10)
Ya No Puede Ser - Celia Cruz-Ray Barretto-Adalberto Santiago*
Chango Ta Beni - Willie Rosario* (11)
Soulsa - Estrellas Caiman*
a Merengue from Vishal's collection … something different

break (12)

Cuidadate Compay - Eddie Palmieri (13)
Mentirosa - Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz*
Ave Maria Lola - Roberto Torres
Se Me Fue - El Gran Combo (14)
Fuego A La Jicotea - Marvin Santiago*
La Ley Del Guaguanco - Tito Rodriguez* (15)
El Abaniquito - Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers
El Swing De Fruko - Fruko Y Sus Tesos (-4%)
Musica Ligera - Toke D Keda
You Will Remember Me - Domenic Marte
El Guaguanco Del Gran Combo - El Gran Combo (16)
Abuelita - Hector Lavoe (17)

break until the final song

En El Balcon - Tito Rodriguez* (18)

(1) Slow song, but not really a beginner's song.
(2) Not messing around.
(3) No need to give beginners junk food.
(4) There's a Cachao concert in London (UK premiere) this Sunday at the Barbican.
(5) I think I spotted Rajiv by this point. This could be one of more interesting nights. Others spotted more or less in order of appearance included Euvian, Zern, Sam, Isabelle, Cyrille, Haihan and Stephanie.
(6) One of songs I know Rajiv will dance to 99% of the time. Unfortunately, I'm lukewarm about it. It's fine, but it's not even in my top 50. Maybe not even top 100. Another trouble was that Vishal decided to take over after this song. It's so much nicer if I leave with a song I would really like to dance to.
(7) Vishal played a Merengue, Lamento Boliviano, Ahora Quien, La Salsa Se Nunca Acaba and La Palomilla. I rather liked this selection but not the order. If I had one dance under my belt, I probably would have danced to Ahora Quien or La Salsa Se Nunca Acaba or both. I danced to neither. I love La Palomilla, but Vishal signalled to me that this would be his last song. I cannot cue the next song while dancing, can I? I tried asking someone anyway - ready to tell Vishal to play one more, but it didn't work. So… no dance yet.
(8) At the start of this song, bunch of people started asking me for Merengue. Bad sign. Very bad sign.
(9) When I woke up this morning, I had this song playing in my head for no obvious reason. I don't know if this has anything to do with my upstairs neighbor playing a very small set of songs by Fleetwood Mac for couple of weeks day and night. I had this song/album for well over a year but had not listened to it for about a month until today.
(10) I recalled a certain someone listing this song as being one of her favorite - over a year ago?
(11) The Merengue people are getting hostile.
(12) Vishal followed it up with another Merengue. His Salsa selections were not as good as the first time around. No dance yet for me. Vishal's last song was Me Libere, overplayed but still better than everything else in this set.
(13) I decided to start with Cha Cha. Some people were made aware of it in advance. Vishal came back asking to wait playing Cha Cha until… say after 1 AM when things get quieter. Come on, Vishal! There's at best 50% chance that I would still be playing after 1 AM. Playing one early is the only way to make sure that at least one decent one gets played sometime during the evening. Ideally I would like to play at least 2 per night.
(14) Shila exclaims, "This is a great song." Duh.
(15) Sam stopped by asking for some song to be played so that she can dance with Rajiv. Neither of songs she suggested was not in my collection - one I think was Hoy Aprende by Adolescents Orquesta. Based upon later conversation, I doubt she found this one satisfactory.
(16) Cyrille asked for the title of this song.
(17) I would have liked to dance to this. It didn't happen.
(18) The goofy couple seemed to really like this song and asked for more information on it. I finally got a dance.

Total 33 songs. 4 Bachata. 1 Cha Cha. 1 Merengue (Vishal's). 27 Salsa including 11 new.

Other people in the premises included Pauline, Andrea, Gordon, Luis, Lorraine, Michelle. Johnny and Serap stayed pretty long. I think both might have been giving private lessons. Steve and Natalia showed up rather late.

After taking over for the last time, I think Vishal started with couple of Merengue and Reggaeton. Or did those come after Playa No More? Hips Don't Lie was played right after Playa No More - I'm fairly positive that it was indeed requested because someone asked me to play it and I directed her to Vishal. Anyhow, the Salsa selections after the Merengue/Reggaeton were of predictable quality.

Not having danced yet and not being inspired, I made a request to Vishal around 1:20 AM for Ray Santiago's "A Man's World." I didn't think it would seem especially out of character. I also asked him to let me know when he plays it so that I could find someone to dance with.

By around 1:30, the songs sounded a little better. And then Vishal played Merecumbe by Johnny Colon. Oh no! It's a great song, but it's the wrong song. I also don't want it played right before Ray Santiago. At least Sam got a song she can dance to with Raj.

I believe Vishal went to some non-Salsa again. A Cha-Cha-like song was played too. I didn't like it. Get It Up (Eurocuban Project) and Alabanciosa (Manny Oquendo) were some of the Salsa song played later. By this point, I had written down the name of the song for him.

1:55 AM. No sign of Ray Santiago. Stephanie had changed her shoes, etc. Isabelle was long gone. Vishal asked me if I had anyone to dance with. I told him I will check, and I found Sam. It was difficult to get Sam to yes quickly because she wanted to check with Rajiv to see if they were going to leave very soon. Meanwhile, Vishal put some other song on. Eventually, Sam agreed.

I went back to tell Vish. He wasn't there. He was dancing. I checked the other CD player to see if Ray Santiago was in it. Nope. No sign of the CD anywhere. Okay. I'll just have to play something else. I picked En El Balcon by Tito Rodriguez. I had planned to save that one as long as possible.

Afterwards, I mentioned to Vishal that he never played my song. He said he did, but a quick check and confirmation from Dani showed that he did not. It looked like he got the CD loaded but accidentally played something else.

Given the people who were there, I could easily have danced dozen times tonight. And I thought last night was poor by such qualification.

C'est la vie.

p.s. To the Ballare people tomorrow night, remember to get your hands up and make some noise!