Going Up A Slippery Slope?

June 27, 2008

Strange night. It was pretty good at times, but it was lacking in many ways. There was surprisingly large number of out-of-town guests. However, this seemed to be compensated by there being smaller number of locals. There seemed to be a lot less dancing going on than usual. Some speculations. Maybe some people felt insecure about dancing abilities; I have hard time believing this is true because there weren’t anyone remotely intimidating or head and shoulders above others. Maybe the music was too loud; it seemed a bit shrill at times later so I brought the volume way down later. Maybe the music wasn’t likable; it’s difficult to know for sure but some songs seemed to be liked a great deal by a few people. Maybe the floor was too slippery. Maybe there were too many people predestined to leave early. I don’t really know the answer but I did not think too highly of the dance floor vibe tonight.

Joe started off as the DJ up until the Bachata/Hip Hop show by Femi & Livvy. I saw very little of the show because I was busy picking the song etc in a crowded DJ booth.

Playlist

La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence (1)
Guaguanco Pa’l Que Sabe – Johnny Pacheco*
A Corazon Abierto – Hector Tricoche*
Lindo Yambu – Santiago Ceron
En La Casa De Mi Compay – Javier Vazquez (Sonora Matancera?)
Loco De Amor – Evolution A R (2)
Cuando Te Vea – German Villarreal
Mentirosa – Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz
Guaguanco En New York – Jose Curbelo* (3)
Que Bonito Es Puerto Rico – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
Bilongo – Charanga De La 4 (hyh version 1 "rough cut")* (4)
Salsa Y Control – Isidro Infante
Que Bonito Es Sonar – Jimmy Bosch
Ublabadu – Fania All Stars
Me Enamorado De Ella – Juan Luis Guerra (5)
Quiero Enamorarte – Marco Ferretti
Amor Perfecto – El Gran Combo
Buenas Noches Che Che – Tito Rodriguez
Si Te Busca En El Baile – Edwin Bonilla*
Lluvia Con Nieve – La Charanga New York* (6)
Pueblo Latino – Spanish Harlem Orchestra*
El Negrito Del Batey – Direct Latin Influence
Playa Fa Sho – Toby Love
Brujeria – El Gran Combo
Gotas De Lluvia – Grupo Niche (7)
A El – Oscar D’Leon*
Por Que Adore – Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante (8)
Bailando – Frankie Ruiz
Hong Kong Mambo – Tito Puente
Idilio – Willie Colon
Lamento Boliviano – Toque D Keda (9)
Ojala Que Llueve Café – Juan Luis Guerra (10)
Me Voy Pa Las Villas – La Charanga New York* (11)
I Wanna Love You – Pablo Bachata
Gotas De Lluvia – El Gran Combo
Mami – Pablo Bachata
Una Mulata En La Habana – Adalberto Alvarez* (12)
Push Push Push – Joe Cuba Sextet
La Llave – Grupo Latin Vibe

(1) Something of a cop-out choice. By this I mean that this is a standard standby song – a comforter like a pacifier for an infant.
(2) Bachata request from Andrea. I’ve been playing this song a lot lately – is this fourth week in a row for this song?
(3) I do have to wonder if people get sick of me insisting on playing oldies from 50s.
(4) Quite possibly the musical highlight of the evening. This is a version I created – a simple trimming of a little over 3 minutes of the song to make it a 7-minute song. I’m not completely sold on this version, but the reaction from 2-3 people tonight seemed positive. So is it ready for big time? I think I should refine bits here and there to make it slightly less awkward first. By the way I waited as long as I thought possible before starting this song. Fortunately my VIP intended audience showed up just in time – even if she was busy conversing with another person once again rather than dancing or anything else.
(5) Sad thing is that there is not much Merengue crowd to buttress the numbers.
(6) At this point, I am simply picking songs I want to play because I can’t seem to stem the bleeding no matter which song I pick. By the way, I doubt anyone noticed that this is a different version of the song – the original is by Mon Rivera.
(7) A dance with Livvy.
(8) I switched over to the mode where I’m playing for one couple.
(9) The place is more crowded now than it was about 20 minutes ago as some Latin people and non-dancers made their way in. I switched the song choice from a Salsa to a Bachata (my decision) to this particular Bachata upon a song-specific request.
(10) I might want to shelve this one for a month or so. I find Merengue so limiting because I still feel I have so little of it – even though my options have increased dramatically in last month or two. The thing is I’m simply not very interested in getting a lot of Merengue CDs.
(11) This one might be a keeper – probably should play it again with more people and see how it works out.
(12) Yup. It’s very Cuban. It wasn’t as evident when I was listening to it with earphones, etc.

Total = 39 songs. 2 Merengue. 6 Bachata. 1 Cha Cha. 30 Salsa including 10 (or 9) new.

Bulbul took over for about half an hour at the end.

Next Friday has another performance, this time by Anne and Anichi. Joe says Lee, Shelley and a friend of Shelley will be accompanying them. I think I might want to make an effort to get some people out. Too many of these showcase nights had too many neither here nor there kind of results.

I was very tired by the end of the evening; I'm not looking forward to tomorrow night. Vish is needed back from Pontins, Lithuania, etc.

As for my dancing these days, I can't decide whether I'm still improving, becoming parochial, developing odd habits or interesting personality, etc. I may be in need of calibration of sorts, but I don't know of any surefire test.