Salsa Kingdom Part 1

September 5, 2008

The drive there was nightmarish. I started the journey at 3:40. I arrived at the hotel at 8:55. In between there were queues that caused cars to come to complete halt near Cambridge (20 minute delay), approaching M6 (for about a mile), between junctions 4-6 in Birmingham (15 minute delay), between junction 8 and 9 again in Birmingham (5 minute delay), and near Stafford and near Stoke-On-Trent (15 minutes combined). Even outside the worst areas, the cruising speed in the Midlands was 40-50 mph. Visibility was very poor in the Midlands – it was fine on A14 and on M6 after crossing the Manchester Ship Canal.

The Park Plaza (the room for New Swing Sextet and Eddie Palmieri) had a rather small dance floor (no bigger than the lower floor for Scala). The carpeted part of the floor with seats, etc was much larger. When I arrived shortly before 10, the dance floor was nearly empty, but it filled up by the time band started playing. With no more than 30-40 couples dancing on the main floor, the space was filled but was not overcrowded. I did not see Lancastrian Suite.

New Swing Sextet started off with Che Che (a.k.a. Buenas Noches Che Che) followed by El Tiroteo (well-known cover done later by Joe Arroyo and re-titled Ban Ban). They played essentially all-Salsa set except for one Boogaloo (I Like It Like That), which I found to be the weakest song by far from their set. Otherwise, their performance was as good as expected. Most of the songs were at mellow speed except for a couple of songs near the end (e.g. Cachondea). Other songs they played not included in their new album included Maria Cervantes reminiscent of Tito Puente version, a different arrangement of My Favorite Things, and a different arrangement of Pico Swing or Picadillo. Also there was a song, which started off sounding like Vibe Mambo (but wasn’t).

The DJs were good. Lubi played mostly classic New York set. I did not know exactly most of the songs by Pepe Bassan, who tended to blend songs together. He also played the only two Cha Cha in a row of the night. Henry Knowles was mixing and blending a little as well but played fine songs. The only song I didn’t enjoy was a Bachata, which I mistook for a Cha Cha (and I didn’t like it because it fooled me). The proportion of vibraphone-based songs probably was higher than usual. There were more Eddie Palmieri songs than usual as well, and most of them were from between late 70s and 90s (i.e. nothing from La Perfecta or La Perfecta II days or mid 70’s Coco recordings).

Jimmy Bosch was here tonight dancing! Apparently he’s a surprise guest for Eddie Palmieri tomorrow! I wouldn’t have recognized him, but Gillian knew him presumably from the Manchester / Salsology anniversary party. I should have tried to say something nice to him. Maybe tomorrow. I did shake hands with the lead singer Jose Medina and vibraphonist/leader George Rodriguez of New Swing Sextet. For whatever its worth I only recognized five of the six members of New Swing Sextet from the new CD cover. The bands were the key attractions for coming to Salsa Kingdom. New Swing Sextet was the headline act for this year’s London Five Star Congress and will be for next year’s Zurich Congress. They are the second bananas to Eddie Palmieri here.

There was a small London contingent I recognized. In fact the one of the first people I met at the entrance was from London – apparently here after having won the tickets in a raffle. I met Gillian and Mark from Manchester. I had two On2 dances and two Cha Cha in a row; everything else was On1. Dancing overall was okay – it met or exceeded expectations.