Para Que Usted Baile - Playlists from Scandinavian Salsa Congress
It’s been ages since I posted a new playlist, but they are an important part of my journey in latin dance music. Now, instead of an ideal playlist for an ideal moment and an ideal crowd, here’s what I played at The Scandinavian Salsa Congress 2009 in Gothenburg/Sweden.
The Scandinavian Salsa Congress in Gothenburg is one of the best congresses I know. Organized by Adriana Mendes with Albert Torres Productions (LA), it is always a great and fun event and comes highly recommended. I dj’ed there also in 2007.
From the world of salsa and mambo there is just so much music to choose from. Not just number of artists and recordings, but also countries that have and continue to produce great salsa! I really enjoy great music from anywhere and I love to shed light on music from many different countries in my sets. I ended up playing music from New York, Colombia, Venezuela, Senegal, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Miami, Ecuador and San Francisco…!
I collect vinyl and love playing rare and great finds for the dancers. At a salsa congress a lot of people are seasoned salseros so they expect to hear great music, their favorite classics but also to be excited by different songs and flavours they don’t usually get to hear.
All the rare tunes I play are all from my personal collection of vinyl (no crappy mp3 bootlegs!).
First set I played was from 1AM to 2AM on Saturday. The floor was packed and dj Frank had done an excellent job the hour before playing classics and great new releases. The mood of everyone was great!
Here’s the journey I embarked on:
- Alfredo Gutierrez - Bailando Boogaloo. I started off with this boogaloo to change the vibe a bit. This is a groovy track with lots of flavor. It is also the kind of boogaloo that people can comfortably do a cha-cha to if they don’t want to dance boogaloo. What a happy song!
- New Swing Sextet - Coquero. Continuing with a latin-soul-ish salsa from one of my all time favorite groups, New Swing Sextet. Vaya George Rodriguez and the gang!! Congratulations on the new album from 2008 and the Grammy nomination!
- Julian y Su Combo - INS Rock from the barrios of Cali, Julian is simply an unsung legend and I just had to drop something from him in my set. I don’t know how to characterize this tune, it’s got something funky going on for sure, but also definitely a mambo groove to it. A winner everywhere I’ve played it!
- Carlos Barberia y Su Orquesta - Rumba En Pueblo Nuevo. Carlos Barberia from Cuba recorded this old school salsa/guaracha in the 70s. He never strayed from his old school cuban roots and produced some great moments in several of his recorded albums. This is a classic tune that has been done by many artists including Cascarita and Latin Giants of Jazz recently. I really love this version. So playful and swinging! “rumberobuenoperomiraquelindo como suena mi coro”
- Victor Irizarry - Tu Amigo No from the Dominican Republic, Victor Irizarry brings this addictive salsa tune in typical dominican style with strong horns and saxes.
- Los Ocho de Colombia - Carnaval en Barranquilla This is a short, fast and very strong tune by this great band from Bogota in Colombia. This one has it all, strong opening, great buildup, sweet piano solo and fiery timbale solo all in about 3 mins. Wham, Bam, Thank you Madam!
- Orengo - Stairway To Heaven. I love latin jazz and Led Zeppelin is a group I’ve always dug outside of latin music, very creative fellas. I’ve fallen in love with this sweet version of their anthem. Listen to the sweet piano and then the almost psychedelic violin solos!
- Nicolas Menheim & Le Super Sabador - El Changui from Senegal, Africa. In a very afro-cuban son style from 2002. I really love those trombones and the breakdown in the middle. Also listen to how the conguero plays the conga. It is different but very cool and well, just perfect!
- Azuquita y Su Melao - A Mi Mamita Le Gusta El Son Son Montuno time! All star cast including Manny Oquendo and Andy Gonzalez, Jerry Gonzalez, Mario Rivera and Victor Paz and of course Camilo ‘Azuquita’ on vocals.
- Banda T.T. - El Cubo from Venezuela in the early 80s this band swings so tight and this tune comes from the incredibly rare LP of the same name. One of the original records I am most proud of owning. So much amazing music from Venezuela…
- Luis Santi - Dame Un Break The infectious piano, the sweet voice and the funky break in the middle just swept me off and I had to play this tune in my set! From Cuba to Miami Luis Santi continued to deliver funky kick ass Salsa from the 50s through the 70s. Give me a break!
- Sonora Veracruz - Anda Timbero from Mexico, “Anda Timbero, ponme ‘a gozar!” short but simply wicked tune. Such a great energy and a song to just let everything loose and dance! Since it is short one does not get completely exhausted to have energy to dance the rest of the night…
- Ruben Lema - Anacaona from Ecuador, what a voice and delivery and what saborrrr! It is also nice to combine a very familiar tune with a new and awesome version of it. Check out my writeup of the album here.
- Pantera - Luz del Cielo from Colombia con sabor y sentimiento. This is literally a God sent piece of wicked dance music! Check out the writeup here.
- San Francisco Ltd - Mambo del Norte from, eh, well… San Francisco! This is a track I came across while digging for vinyl records in Toronto at Aki Abe’s goldmine Cosmos Records. I totally dug this track immediately but was wondering how a packed floor of salseros/mamberos would react to it, but I just had to play it, I had to find out. Well, I have played this many times and it is a definite winner, every single time I played this people come up to me and ask “What is that?!! I have to know this track!”.
After this, dj Miguel from Hamburg followed up with another great and flavorful set! Kudos on your music, bro! All in all a cool night out and a great pumping vibe all night.
Sunday night I was scheduled to dj right after the performances and since there were so many dj’s and shows went over time I had only 25 minutes. Booking many djs and giving each of them very little time to play has ruined many a Salsa congress lately. I truly think the job of each dj depends very much on when you are scheduled. It is very important to build the vibe and make everyone happy and eager to get on the floor and dance.
This is how I did:
- Sonora New Yorkca - El Vive Bien from NY, this little known group delivers a really sweet version of this classic tune. Amazing piano work by Abbey Goldstein. This is a long song, but I started it while the room was made ready for dancing as chairs were removed. Only at the latter parts of this song were people able to enter the dance floor.
- El Clan de La Salsa - El Hueso de Maria is a lovely remake of a tune also performed by Tito Rodriguez. This one swings really well and invites everyone to come out and dance!
- Alex Ray - Rico Guaguanco (promo) from London this is an all new release featuring also the great Alfredito Linares. It is a great album with many great tracks for dancing. This one swings nicely and is perfect for anyone to get onto the floor, especially beginners dancers.
- Al Delory - Floreando is the title track from his great latin jazz album from where the, in Salsa-mambo circles, very famous track ‘Via’ comes. This one hits deep and kicks butt too!
- Mike Guagenti - A Los Muchachos de Belen from NY and from one of my favorite albums of all time. Amazing groove by this all star cast. Already by now the floor was getting packed and people had warmed up.
- Joey Aponte - Angelito from NY. Also a long time favorite. A bit harder and faster but no more needs to be said, this track simply swings any Salsa party!
- Orengo - More Than Justice is another beautiful beautiful latin jazz instrumental from this group. That saxophone solo is totally goosebumps material! The CD version of this song has quite a fast tempo, but it sounds amazing also slowed down a lot to a modest dance tempo.
By this time the party was already on full blast!
- Guachi
1 comment July 4th, 2009