~by Dena Burroughs
SALSA THURSDAYS IN LAS VEGAS, NV - December, 2008
Optimists go to the Sin City hoping to multiply the dollars in their pocket. Bachelors visit it on their last night of freedom. Twenty-first birthday boys and girls go to it to celebrate their first legal hangover. And salseros … between a little drinking, a little gambling, and a lot of eating… we also go to it to dance.
Although Las Vegas’ salsa scene is small when compared to Los Angeles’, it has unique things that make it a worthwhile visit. One of them is Salsa Thursdays at South Point.
In the Showroom inside the South Point Hotel and Casino, the Michito Sanchez Salsa Orchestra plays every Thursday night starting at 10.30 PM. The Casino is just five minutes south of the Strip (which means, going from LA, you’ll reach it before you get to Vegas,) and the cover charge into its Showroom is five dollars. As it is most often the case in Vegas’ establishments, the band performs on a large stage with good lighting and sound, the club’s wooden dance floor is spacious, and there is plenty of seating.
The Michito Sanchez Salsa Orchestra sounds great and it is not thanks to pure Vegas luck. Percussionist and band leader Michito Sanchez, of Cuban parentage, raised first in New Jersey and later educated in Los Angeles, has an extensive resume of musical career. He has participated, be it on live, video, film, or television presentations, with well-known tropical artists such as Willie Bobo, Arturo Sandoval, Tito Puente, Luis Enrique, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, and Dave Valentin.
Michito’s orchestra enjoys the talent and experience of musicians like Johnny “Dandy” Rodriguez Jr., who at 16-years-old began to play the bongos with the Tito Puente band, and has since shared the stage with basically every other salsa artist icon. (“Dandy” Rodriguez played the bongos recently next to Eddie Palmieri at the Hollywood Palladium and will be back in Los Angeles to perform at The Mayan with the 21 Latin Giants on January 15th.) In the orchestra with Rodriguez are Alex Leon Jr. on timbales, Jorge "el Chino" Hernandez and Federico Medina on trumpet; Phil Wigfall on reeds, Juan "Tiny" Colon on trombone, Abe Gumroyan on bass, and, both great singers - Yanelis Ramirez and Rolando Valdez on vocals.
The Vegas salseros are an energetic bunch that filled up the Showroom’s dance floor when VidaSalsera.com visited the club over the Thanksgiving weekend. By all reports, however, the crowd is just as healthy on any Salsa Thursday.
Other than the fact that it is a little smoky (Las Vegas has not prohibited indoor cigarette smoking as of yet), the venue, the music, and the crowd, in combination with the great drink deals that only Sin City can offer, make Salsa Thursdays at South Point a winning choice.
If you’re visiting over the holiday weekend, make sure to make it one of your stops.
http://definitivetalents.com/salsero.html
http://www.myspace.com/michitosanchezsalsaorchestra
http://www.myspace.com/johnnyrodriguezjr
