Variety is the spice...

I caught the amazing Janelle Monae at an intimate gig at Cafe Du Nord in the city last night. This petite striking beauty who sports a fluff of a pompadour of sorts was both original in her look as she was in her music. You could say that she was reminiscent of a Grace Jones of 2010 but had an abundance of talent and style. Fronting a powerful three piece band consisting of guitar, keyboards and drums, Monae performed her version of a movie musical entitled "The Archandroid". Monae amply displayed her powerful, soulful voice on top of a bed of angular, rn'b influenced modern rock. She had the sold out crowd going wild while she was singing songs from her "movie" complete with stage sets, film credits and tons of atmosphere. SXSW...what?

Shows I did miss somehow, etc.

I managed to introduce Tito Gonzalez Y Su Son De Cuba's first set at Yoshis in Oakland before I had to run to my station's sponsored show with Bassekou Kouyate at Slims in SF's South of Market district - so I missed Tito's set! I also missed Pepito Gomez with a SF based timba band...but I wasn't the only one who missed it-I heard that it was a light crowd. I'll probably miss the upcoming SF Salsa Festival as well. I must be old school but back in the day, the salsa festivals in the 70's, 80's and 90's had big groups like the Fania All Stars, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri or a ton of our local salsa heroes at the Greek Theater, the Cow Palace or the huge ballroom at the Marriott or the St. Francis Hotel. Although this affair has selective "dancer's" dj's such as Fab Fred & El De La Clave, they only have one band: Doug Beavers' Conjunto Rovira and their primary focus is on salsa dance troupes. Now with all due respect to all the great salsa dance troupes that are out there and I do enjoy attending the annual Salsa Congress that features great headliners, dancers, dj's, etc. I also dj to a lot of fine dancers myself at both Cocomo and Jelly's. I think that they should have named the gig "The SF Salsa Dancer's Festival" which would have been more accurate. In my opinion, you need to have a cavalcade of great bands and other essential elements if you're going to live up to the name "The San Francisco Salsa Festival". That's what this great city deserves! Nuff said.

Catching Up

Well, this was the week I didn't make down to my annual trip to the South By Southwest Music Conference and Showcase in Austin, Texas due to complications. Although nothing can compensate for the missed interviews, networking, showcases, panels, parties....but I did manage to catch amazing sets by Gil Scott Heron (who did a hilarious standup comedy routine in addition to his great soulful songs!) and Malian gnobi master Bassekou Kouyate who plays a wicked spiked lute that sounds like a banjo. An enthusiastic Taj Mahal was cheering Kouyate on from the audience until he was called up on stage to deliver a soulful blues. The world is so small and the connections are deep! Brazilian music icon Gilberto Gil was also performing in the Bay Area with his son Bern and cellist Jacques Morlenbaum. SXSW? There's always next year.

March 2010 dj tidbits

Personal DJ dates coming up: Saturday 3/13 with Louie Romero y Mazacote (NY style salsa at its best) at Cafe Cocomo in SF. Jake handles the dance lessons starting at 8:30 pm. Sunday 3/14 - a Cuban bachanal with el sonero mayor Fito Reinoso y su Ritmo Y Armonia from 4 to 9 pm at Jelly's Club Havana...should be a sweat fest. I'll be putting it in the mix: timba caliente, salsa dura y mas! I'm there monthly now so I'm ready to tear the roof off! No dance lessons...sorry! Joining mi amigo DJ y Rapero Santero later in the month on Wednesday, 3/24 at Lukas, Broadway at West Grand in Oakland - set at 10 pm. Ending the month with Mr. Suave-Julio Bravo y Salsabor over at Cocomo on Saturday, 3/27.

New East Bay Spots for Salsa and Timba

Checked out the newly resurrected Caribe on Thursday night over at the Karibbean City in Downtown Oakland. One of the bay area's hot emerging bands Montuno Swing were the featured band along with house dj Carlitos Way. The club looked better than it has in quite some time: new paint job, renovated dance floor, added area seating, vip area and large projection screen. Although the club needs to tweak the boomy sound and the drinks a bit on the expensive side ($10 for a Barcardi and coke) , the place holds a lot of promise for a regular Thursday night East Bay spot for Salsa. The club has only been open for 8 weeks and the crowd is still building. This is the fourth resurrection of the Caribe since its birth as a Thursday night salsa spot in the late 80's. Producer Luis Mendoza is hoping that the place will appeal to both the original patrons as well as the new generation of dancers. This is the second new addition to the East Bay scene if you are counting the hot timba Friday nights over at the Mint Leaf Restaurant in West Berkeley which feature a rotation of timba spinners. This small space is packed full of timbaleros who have moved over from the scene at the late Taza Del Cafe.

A Musical Tsunami with Issac Delgado

Just got back from Hawaii where I was there to attend my goddaughter's wedding - a beautiful ceremony that was delayed due to a tsunami warning. Thank god nothing happened! However, right before I left for Hawaii, I had the pleasure of emceeing the pair of Issac Delgado shows at the beautiful Bimbos 365 Club in SF for the opening night of the SF Jazz Spring Season. What a pair of exciting shows! Issac was totally into the shows-charismatic, engaging the audience and effortlessly singing with his trademark smooth voice. He fronted a powerful band consisting of an explosive five piece horn section, 2 keyboards (one played by his son), a dancing bass player and an explosive rhythm section. Issac is one of the original voices of timba going back to the late 80's/early 90's with NG La Banda (que manda!) . Issac got everyone on the dance floor with his blend of Cuban salsa and timba with material taken from his last 2 recordings "En Primera Plana" and "Asi Soy" He also threw in pregones from soneros such as Beny More and improvised parts of songs for the audience in between songs. Now that was a musical tsunami!