A Sharp

You love the hell out of salsa dancing, Santa Fe.

I mean, check out Hear, Here any given day and there are usually salsa trills and thrills to be had. I dragged über-nerd and SFR Copy Editor Ramón A Lovato up Canyon Road Feb. 16 for Café Mambo at El Farol. And though there are a bazillion salsa options, you'd be remiss to miss this weekly event.

Café Mambo is the brainchild of local promoter Tony James, who you may recall as the man behind The Mambo Room at The Lodge at Santa Fe. A string of unfortunate health problems landed James in the hospital for several months last year, during which time the weekly Lodge event took a hiatus. And though The Mambo Room is up and running again at El Patio Café thanks to the efforts of local salsa DJ Avi Khadir Aberman, James has moved on.

"Café Mambo is basically a chance for me to evolve on everything I was doing with The Mambo Room, which had become very focused solely on salsa music," James tells SFR. "I'm opening up the musical possibilities and opening the event itself to a broader audience."

To help with Café Mambo's music, James enlisted Jaime Becerril, aka DJ Sofrito. Sofrito has only been a DJ for a little longer than two years, but has been a salsa fanatic for most of his life, giving him an advanced knowledge of the music.

"When it comes to salsa music, we're talking about 500 years of musical tradition all the way from Africa to Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and beyond. Everywhere was adding a little something different to salsa as it traveled," Sofrito says. "It's not only a musical movement, but a social movement…ask me a question about any topic, and I'll find you a salsa song about that."

Between James' promotional skills and Sofrito's expansive salsa knowledge, Café Mambo has become a highly attended event, as well as a safe haven for dancers of all levels.

Santa Fe dance events can be exclusive, unofficially reserved for a more advanced crowd and less than open to the curious (I'm looking at you, tango scene). At Café Mambo, however, the pressure is off with a dance instructor for salsa newcomers (although he was a no-show the night Four-Eyes Lovato and I attended).

According to salsa newbie, Austin transplant and Café Mambo attendee April Lowe, "I moved here a year ago and went to some other events [and] felt a little intimidated; the people there are a little more advanced and take themselves pretty seriously."

That's not the case at Café Mambo.

"Tony [James] does such a great job of making everyone feel welcome, and I've always been comfortable. Santa Fe has such a small music scene compared to other, larger cities, and I think the best way to have fun is by learning to dance," Lowe says.

El Farol is quite small, and even a few couples on the floor cramp the space. Lovato, who has danced his share of salsa, likes the close quarters because they remind him of dance clubs in Mexico. James also thinks it's a plus.
"That's part of the attraction, isn't it?" he says, laughing. "But seriously, you can do things at El Farol on a smaller scale and with fewer people, and it looks completely jam-packed. That kind of makes it a little more exciting."

Santa Fe Reporter