Salseros de Boston
I took the US air shuttle
from La Guardia and was picked up by Hernan, a
wonder Bolivian-American dj from the Boston
area, who was promoting his first big show at
the Grand Hyatt Regency in Cambridge Dec. 23rd a
really difficult night, because it is so close
to Christmas and many folks are away or saving
their money for presents or New Years Eve. He
was very cordial and professional. I check into
my room and had some lunch and waited for the
sound crew to start loading in and for the
musicians to arrive who were driving from the
NYC area on this rainy day.
Pabon arrived with most of
the backline and proceeded to set up with his
crew. missing was the cymbal stand, piano seat,
and some small things like music stands... These
were found and shuttled over about an hour
later. Sound check scheduled for 5pm was not
possible. Emo Luciano left Atlantic city at 10am
and got to NYC after 4pm , so he had a 4 hr
drive in front of him.. First to arrive was
Louie Bauzo and Eddie Montalvo. Next was Mac
Gollehon , with Baby Izaga, Lewis Kahn and
Crawford our sound engineer. By 6:30 we started
to check the mikes and sound.. We had a large
conference room upstairs on the second floor to
change clothes and have dinner.. Dinner came
with no silverware, drinks or napkins.. After
finding all of these things. Emo arrived with
Richie Viruet at 8:15. Start time was 10:30.. I
got dressed and went to the ballroom to see it
overflowing with Salseros....Boston's BEST.
There was a dance exhibition going on with some
marvelous teams and costumes. THey even had a
choreographed number to my recording of Silencio.
I was so surprised.. When we started to play the
crowd came close to the stage and began singing
all the coros to all of our songs.. Now these
were not the 40-50 yr old salseros from the 70's
but rather their children in their 20's who are
really into the dance and good Salsa Pura
music.. I met so many new friends and there were
several people videoing, that I am sure I will
get copies soon for Youtube postings.. The
second set was even better. Bobby Sanabria broke
the skin on the high timbale the first song in
the second set but continued to take great solos
on only one skin. Two encores kept us on stage
until 2am.. The gang left to drive back to NYC
and I crashed in the hotel until my 11am flight
home to NYC... A great time was had by all...
VIVA SALSEROS DE BOSTON!
