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.