What a Great Week!

FIESTA IN THE HEARTLAND

This time of year is usually busy for Ritmo Productions and I missed out on the Cinco festivities in Topeka and Kansas City. Fortunately, I was available as a volunteer for the Fiesta in the Heartland. KKFI was well represented as Fiesta Musical and Taste of Tejano provided emcee services and I was able to help out here and there backstage. It brought back old memories of the working the Topeka Fiesta entertainment.

As a result, I saw some great Tejano artists perform. Kansas City's own Manana Band started off the evening of Tejano. Manana Band showed off their versatility in Tejano and English tunes. As you may not know, Manana Band's alter ego All Funked Up does blues, rock, r&b, etc. which makes them a very popular choice for nightclubs and events. Big shoutout to Andre Reyes for doing some strong solo vocals on the English tunes.

Da Krazy Pimpz did an excellent job as they jammed conjunto on stage in their colorful, velour pimp suitz, heelz and feathered hatz. Da Pimpz can entertain and jam the tunes. Although not many people danced during their performance, they still showed they are a presence to be dealt with in the conjunto world. Meeting the guys was great and we had some fun backstage joking around.

Next up was Emilio y Grupo Rio. Emilio turned out Tejano jam after jam keeping country and norteno to a minimum. And with Raulito on stage doing his gyrations, Emilio and crew dazzled and entertained the crowd. I believe that show was one of the best shows I've seen in awhile in the area. Emilio's years of experience in entertainment came through in his stage presence and he had the crowd amassed up front with a dance area full of happy feet just behind and all the seats were practically full with a standing crowd in the back. And Emilio's wife had her own show going on, too!

Big Daddy Tejano from Chicago was great, too, I'll admit. He brought his club mixing style to KC spinning Tejano track after track and back to back and kept the crowd entertained between sets. A couple people came up to me and asked me, and I've been asked this before, why don't I mix like the Tejano djs in Texas and like Big Daddy Tejano? Well, I'll answer that in the next section.

All in all, I heard Friday went well and Sunday was full for the Fiesta in the Heartland. Some people are already looking forward to next year asking "who are they going to bring in?".

WHY I HAVEN'T MIXED LIKE BIG DADDY TEJANO

Unlike some people I know, I can handle both positive and negative criticism. I've been asked this question before and it came up again last Saturday. And my answer is...early on in my business I made a business decision to go another route based on the cost of the equipment I want to purchase. I first began with a mixer/amp which is not a good way to go if a dj is going to do some club mxing. Also, I was using home cd players and cd walkmans which don't do a thing for the club mixing style Big Daddy Tejano uses. Then, it was time to make some upgrades and about six years ago I decided to purchase a dual cd player instead of the table top cd players which are ideal for club mixing. The dual cd player got me closer but it was still difficult to club mix Tejano on the fly because I didn't have enough tools on the cd player to help me mix in tight situations. Recently, I purchased a pair of my first table top cd players and a new mixer and I am still learning my equipment. So, bascially, I've had only a few months of experimenting with Tejano music and finding out which are good to mix in and out of, which ones are close in speed, which styles match better, etc. It takes practice and a different mindset. I suppose if it was easy anyone could do it and sound good at it.

So, pit my few months of practice against 23 years of club mixing experience DJ Big Daddy Tejano has and it's obvious who will sound better. And he did a great job. So, that's my story and I am sticking to it. I have mixed a few sets of Tejano music here and there and if you go to Fiesta Musical's My Space at http://www.myspace.com/fiestamusical you can hear my most recent mix (which is about a year old). It's a mix with added production. Anyway, I'll keep practicing and putting more sets together and then I'll be able to do a half-hour at a time of club mixing Tejano music. I listened to my critics and I took it to heart.

WHAT ELSE I EXPERIENCED THIS PAST WEEK

Tuesday night, I attended the Topeka Catholic schools band concert. Holy Family (formerly Our Lady of Guadalupe) had a mariachi band. Basically, if I remember right, there were four guitars, a flute and a trumpet. What was amazing to me about this was how young these kids were picking up our culture's music. This really gave me hope in an era when kids musical attention is split with so many other types of genres. I was impressed with the kids. The guitarists strummed their chords in unison and kept the beat as the flute and trumpet player chimed in. Grupo Picante's own Cruz Gallegos was pretty much a front man taking vocal lead on Canta Canta and El Rey. They played La Bamba as well and a few of the kids took turns singing vocals. I couldn't have been prouder to see such young kids learning mariachi.

Thursday night, I dj'ed at Quincy Elementary School for their fifth grade graduation party. Man, those kids were energetic and I had them going for an hour from the get go. I played the standards, moved to hip hop, played a couple of cumbias and then ended with some old school. Before I knew it, it was time to go. Kids, parents and teachers were dancing and it was great to see the kids having a good time.

NEW TEJANO RELEASES

Liza Ybarra "Anoche Sone"
Joey Martinez "En Tus Ojos" - Put out one cd with DLG before Mark L did lead vocals
Rudy Palacios "Canciones del Corazon"
Linda Escobar "Con Sentimientos y Corazon"

Coming soon:
6/5 Jimmy Edward "Mi Mundo Feliz"
6/5 Joe Posada "Despacito"

FIESTA MUSICAL

We are lining up week after week of interviews. It all began with Raulito, Emilio and Krazy Pimpz. The excitement continued last week with Sunny Sauceda night with an interview and cd pick of the week of Sunny's latest cd "Vagar Libremente". This coming Monday it's Liza Ybarra night. I highly encourage you to tune in to the interview usually around 8:00 pm and listen to one of La Onda's top music writers. She has written some great music for her new cd "Anoche Sone". She also has some great singing and acting credentials, does great work with kids and music and, with a little support from Tejano fans, could easily be put in the forefront. Again, I encourage you to tune in and learn more about one of La Onda's more valuable talent. In the next coming weeks, we are working on Joe Posada, Jimmy Edward and other goodies. Fiesta Musical dj crew will be making appearances this weekend and a couple of weekends in June and July at some public events. We'll keep you posted as we tour around northeast Kansas. Come hang out with the djs of Fiesta Musical.

That's it for now!
-DJ Ritmo