Orquesta La 33 in Cambridge

July 11, 2008

It is what it is. The La-33 concert was great and awful at the same time. How often does Cambridge get an opportunity to dance to a top-notch band? The band sounded tremendous, but the dancers were not ready for them – at least not ready for the way I would have liked to dance to their music, which was generally very energetic. The most common issues were timing (ranging from seemingly not hearing the beats at all to simply not being able to keep up with fast music) and space. I suppose the underlying issue was that finding a suitable partner for dancing was extremely challenging – not the least because the many candidates seemed reluctant (of course this is nothing new with some of them). Without getting into more specifics, I would summarize the event as the best-sounding Salsa band I’ve heard in Cambridge and the least satisfying dance experience with a live band.

After chatting a bit with Raj, Haihan and Laura in the dining area after the band, I headed back to CS. It was quite busy with so-called Latino crowd. I tried a few dances but couldn’t really get into it. The problem is that the number of people I can have fun dancing nowadays is completely dependent on the song. Generally slower songs are fine with the largest number of people, and as the song becomes faster the number drops precipitously. This is not to say that everyone is best with slower songs because there are people who for some reason are not very good with slow songs. More interesting or complex songs also means fewer people are any good with it. Songs with good segments for extended shines? Ditto. If dancing is a challenge, consider deejaying for group of one-trick ponies who prefer or demand that the music fit their dancing style rather than vice versa.

In case this is of use. Indestructible by Ray Barretto at –6% goes from 201 BPM to 207 BPM (214-200 BPM without adjustment). El Pito by Isidro Infante at –8% is at 167 BPM (182 BPM without adjustment). 180 BPM means it’s a solid medium-speed or possibly slow-medium song. 200+ BPM means it’s a fast song.

Playlist

A La Yumbae – Tommy Olivencia (1)
Senora – Domenic Marte
Amor Perfecto – El Gran Combo
Yo Puedo Tu Puedes – Hector Tricoche*
Ven A Medellin – Grupo Gale
Bamboleo – Fania All Stars
El Ajiaco – La Charanga New York*
San Martin (2)
Quiero Enamorarte – Marco Ferretti
Bilongo – Charanga De La 4 (polished shortened version)*

(1) I thought about starting with a Merengue. Then I started to drift away from that idea. Then Vish asked me to play a Merengue or two. Don’t play too much Mambo (whatever it means yada yada) and the usual litany.
(2) Someone brought along a CD to be played as a request. I think it was a compilation album, and I couldn’t figure out who the artist was. It sounded like a Merengue of sort – a bit silly but not completely out of character for the night. The request came around the time the Hector Tricoche song was being played, and after listening to most of the song I told them I would play it in about 15 minutes. Just as I was about to play this, Vish stopped by again to say that he wanted to play a few songs in a couple of songs. Fine. It’s his prerogative, and it’s probably a reasonable call at the time. Still it does make me wonder why I am being asked to bother deejaying at all. Maybe it’s because the belief is that there’s no monetary value involved.

Total = 10 songs. 9 songs from my collection. 2 Merengue. 2 Bachata. 6 Salsa including 3 new (includes slightly altered version of a new song from 2 weeks ago).

It became a Reggaeton-fest afterwards with the kids storming the dance floor. It was packed and it lasted quite a long time. This was followed by an even longer Salsa-fest where Vish did a more than creditable imitation of me – assuming that was the intent. He even played a Boogaloo/Cha Cha. The irony is that by then I had lost all will to dance – too frustrated with how things went all night. Further the only dance I had during the last hours (only because I was asked) was to Ahora Quien by Marc Anthony – the most conventional song Vish picked all night.

Final word. Perhaps it is not a bad thing to get a poor night of dancing out of the way this week.