"It brings back a night of tropical splendor"...like Al ever has a shortage of these...ha!

Submitted by Al Kanovsky 3/12/13

That's what it felt like last night. The place: Blue Jean BLUES. The band: Oriente. The musicians: Orlando Machado(drums), Lalo Vasquez(bass), William Paredos(trombone), Joel del Sol(percussion) and special guest Pavel Vitier on guitar and doing the vocals. The memory: The Palladium circa 1949. I know New York is not in the tropics but the music is and was. The band was as hot as a jibaro's arm pit. William and Pavel were both exceptional playing with each other. Joel had the dancers and listeners paying rapt attention to his solos. Lalo made me think of Cachao and Orlando was, as usual, the driving force behind it all. The second set started with "Peanut Vendor", then "Que Sas", which had Babette and I singing along. It was followed by a Santana like "Oye Como Va". The music caught me, as it usually does. There was an attractive woman seated in a booth by herself. She was smartly dressed in an appliquéd white blouse, tailored, straight black slacks and all of it capped with a black stingy brim skimmer. The clave coursing its way in my veins, my shoulders shaking to the rhythm, I asked the lady to dance. She acquiesced and dance we did. She said something about the "Day" and how much fun she had dancing at the Palladium Ballroom. Another of the original "Mambochicks" reinforcing my reminiscence. 

When I returned the lady to her table, there was a gentleman seated there. Taa Daa: Her husband, Douglas. He wasn't there before and so I thanked him for allowing me to dance with his wife, Betty. They are from Newark, New Jersey and we chatted about our memories of the "Olden Days". I danced with Betty again and then, Douglas, having begged off because of a problem knee, got caught by the rhythm and got up to dance with her. It started out as a bolero and morphed into a moderate tempo mambo. They looked great dancing together. A group of about 15 or 16 Ohio State students on spring break came in toward the end of the 2d set. It didn’t take long for them to be up on the dance floor. During the break I talked with the band members and told them about how Cachao had introduced the trombone as a force in the "mambo" music of the time. They opened the final set with one of Cachao’s tunes. I danced with another woman(didn't get her name) but she begged off in the middle of the number. She told me later that it was she had suddenly felt very "hot". I didn't know I still had that effect on women. Toward the end of the evening I asked another pretty lady to dance, Her name is Joy and was a joy to dance with. A final word about the band. I always know I am going to hear good music and enjoy myself when there's not a sheet of music in sight. "Vayo”, "It's Early in the Morning" and so I am on my way home and bed and dreams of nights long gone by and girls who loved to dance and--------

Special THANKS to the REAL Tracy Fields who is my companion on the drive home. She on the radio 91.3 and me behind the wheel. Tracy manages to keep me alert and safe as I wend my way south through the jungle known as Ft. Lauderdale in the wee hours of the A.M.--Thank you, Tracy.

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