Leandro and the perfect Cuban storm at CS

August 1, 2008

I'd say it was more crowded than I expected. I think it was because of a perfect Cuban storm. I was expecting large number of people wanting to DJ tonight, so I was prepared to play very little or none at all. I also tried to get more dancing done earlier in the evening. In the end I probably ended up with less dancing than expected and more deejaying than expected as well.

Present were many faces I hadn't seen in a while (or at least not until very recently) including a large French contingent and the armed forces contingent. Also present were the Saturday people and work people. Clientele was on the average older than usual. The performer for tonight was Leandro, who Vish announced would be moving to Cambridge and teaching at CS on Thursdays in 4 weeks. My two-word summary of his performance might be human vibrator. He seemed friendly when social dancing.

There ended up being only 3 DJs for the evening. Joe kicked it off as usual. DJ Shorty was next - mostly Timba or Son with couple of Bachata thrown in. I had been wondering who she was - I wasn't too surprised that I recognized her although I cannot have seen her more than 2-3 times at most - probably the first time was at Newmarket in September 2006. I went onto the DJ booth around 12:30 expecting a short set. I ended up there until a little past 3 playing what some might demean as Nuyorican [expletive]. Should I describe as ironic that the music I was playing Thursday night was described as Cubana by a Colombian?

Playlist [country of origin in brackets - until normal closing time]

Torero - Orquesta Guayacan [Colombia]
Llego El Sabor - Oscar D'Leon & Jose Alberto "El Canario" [Venezuela & Puerto Rico]
La Bilirrubina - Juan Luis Guerra* [Dominican Republic - Merengue]
Pecado - Toque D Keda [Miami - Bachata]
Ajiaco Caliente - Eddie Palmieri [New York]
Solo Se Que Tiene Nombre De Mujer - Angel Canales [New York]
Gotas De Lluvia - Grupo Niche [Colombia]
Disco Azucar - Los Van Van [Cuba]
Miye Na We - Africando [West Africa]
Salsa Caliente Del Japon - Orquesta De La Luz [Japan]
Guallando - Fulanito [Dominicans born in USA - Merengue]
Playa Fa Sho - Toby Love [New York - Bachata]
Busca Haber - Edwin Bonilla [Miami]*
La Banda - Willie Colon & Hector Lavoe (-10%) [New York]
Lluvia - Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz [New York]*
Guayacan Pasodobles - Orquesta Guayacan (truncated) [Colombia-Pasodoble/Merengue]
Loco De Amor - Evolution A R [?-Bachata]
Luna Negra - Rey Ruiz [Cuba] (1)
Un Alto En El Camino - Grupo Niche [Colombia]
Belly Danza - Don Omar (2)*
Rompe - Daddy Yankee
Subway Harry - Poncho Sanchez (3)
Yolanda - Orquesta Guayacan (4)
Perdoname - Gilberto Santa Rosa
Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club (5)
I Wanna Love You - Pablo Bachata (6)
Lamento Boliviano - Toque D Keda
Coro Miyare - Fania All Stars (7)
Lare Lare - Tito Puente*
African Fantasy - Bobby Montez (8)*
Café - Eddie Palmieri (9)*
Lamento Boliviano - Toque D Keda (10)

(1) I think assuming 2 o'clock closing, this should have been the last song of the evening.
(2) Reggaeton request.
(3) I saw no need to continue with Reggaeton so I cut the third one short and played Cha Cha/Boogaloo instead. I figured with most people gone and the place open only because Vishal was having fun socializing I could play whatever I want. Oh also there was a weird temper tantrum by a girl who asked me to play a song of hers only to change her mind mid-way through.
(4) I hadn't realized until drawing up this list for the blog that I had played so many Guayacan songs tonight. I was simply looking for the slowest Salsa songs I had in my collection.
(5) This is about as final song as it gets. However, I saw no signs of Vish wanting the party to end so I cued a Bachata next. As the song finished, Vish rushed over to suggest more songs. I was ready.
(6) What Vish did was to get me to keep going and see where it leads. Lamento Boliviano was already played once, but I decided that it really didn't matter now.
(7) I have tried very slow. Why not go really fast instead? This song was not slowed down.
(8) Continuing with very fast.
(9) Now back to very slow. I think this one has speed of about 1/3 that of previous song.
(10) My first choice was Abidjan by Ray Barretto, but the CD was defective (I don't think I ever tried using it before). Next was another Cha Cha by Cal Tjader. However, one of the staff requested Lamento Boliviano again (well--her first choice was something by Monchy and Alexandra, and I didn't have it).

Total = 31 songs. 3 Merengue including 1 new. 6 Bachata including a repeat. 2 Cha Cha including 1 new. 2 Reggaeton including 1 new. 18 Salsa (in some cases for lack of better and convenient description) including 4 new.

Even after all that, Vish decided to play one more song for himself. I think he likes having a Club of his own.