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Jimmy Bosch came to the UK especially for a one-off performance for Salsology’s 5th Anniversary on Friday 18th July 2008 (www.salsology.com / www.jimmyboschmusic.com)
Salsology hold their regular bi-monthly events at The Longfield Suite, Prestwich, Manchester which is a fantastic venue for salsa – lots of free on-site parking, a huge room with massive dancefloor and separate bar and seating area just to the side of the dancefloor. It also has a lobby area outside the main room where people tend to sit and chill-out and chat, with another smaller room off it where another DJ plays slightly slower paced salsa, together with bachata and merengue etc.
We arrived at the venue just after 10pm and found Mel and Steve at the Salsa Central stall in the lobby – well I say Mel and Steve……… Mel was actually at the Oobashoo stall, trying on shoes ;o) Jimmy Bosch himself was also in the lobby selling and autographing his CDs and DVDs, and chatting to the people milling around in the lobby which was great to see – there are not many artists of his standing that would be prepared to do the same thing. After a brief chat with Mel and Steve, and being introduced to Jimmy by them, we made our way into the main room, where 3 large classes were still going on.
I am not sure what time the classes eventually finished, but by the time they had, many many people had already arrived. Mike Parr kicked off the DJing for the evening and the dancefloor was soon full. I had a couple of dances, but the Salsology events attract a predominantly ‘cross-body’ style crowd which isn’t really my thing and I struggle with it, so I went back out to the lobby to the SC stall.
At around 11.30pm they announced that the band were up next so I went back into the main room, grabbed my camera and found a great spot right at the front of the stage. Jimmy Bosch was performing with Grupo X and initially the band came on and played the first track without him. Jimmy then joined the stage for the second track onwards and they played for an hour before having a break – and boy can he play………. he played his trombone to within an inch of its life, and was clearly enjoying every second of it. He constantly talked to and interacted with the crowd which was fantastic. I didn’t see if anyone was dancing behind us but I guess that they were……… most of the tracks were about 8-10 mins long though which is quite hard going if you are dancing. For those of us at the front watching though, it was great and we were loving it, so didn’t care how long the tracks were.
The band had a 45 minute break, at which point DJ Lubi came on the decks and the dancing continued. Jimmy Bosch then went back out to the lobby to sign more CDs and chat to the dancers, so after a couple more dances, I grabbed this opportunity to get a poster signed :o) The band then came back on at around 1.30am and played for another 45 mins. All the band members did their own little solos to show off their talents and Jimmy continued to play his trombone like a man possessed which was a joy to watch. I was a little disappointed though that they didn’t play my favourite track :o(
There was no encore which I found a bit strange – after the band finished what had been announced as being their last track, the crowd started to chant ‘otra, otra’ ….. like you do…….. but the organisers came on the mike, said thank you to the band, and with that the DJing started again…….which seemed like an abrupt end to the show.
It was now around 2am and I think the DJing was set to continue until 3am, but we had an early start the next morning with a long day of ‘Lambanana Hunting’ ahead in Liverpool city centre, so we decided to call it a night and make our way back home. Not before stopping in the lobby first though to get a photo taken with Jimmy Bosch :o)
Despite the fact that I didn’t dance very much all night, and that it was very hot in the main room which is surprising considering its size, I had a fantastic night and thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Sadly, for the time being at least, this seems to be the last stop on my whirlwind tour of live latin music. The Antilliaanse Feesten in Belgium is on the horizon though, so I won’t have long to wait for my next fix.
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