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This is a makeup video since during the live there were transmission issues due to a storm in the area near my home and I had to stop early after getting cut several times. Here we go with one hour and fifty minutes of salsa! Many thanks as always to event organizer Calvin Wang and fellow DJ Tien Yu for the kind support. The track list will be available soon.

Another set. Some good fun spinning for the CoBeatParty Boxing Day Salsa marathon. Tracks are displayed in the video when they appear.

Finishing with Part 4 of notable music in 2021, this chart covers songs which interested me in the last few months of the year. (Part 1 is Early 2021; Part 2 is Spring 2021, Part 3 is Summer 2021). Salsa is my focus, but other genres are included. Listed here are 150 tracks --not the usual 140, since I added 10 bonus salsa songs released in 2021. Lists 1 to 8 are about salsa, with ten songs each. The other lists have five songs. For information about how lists were organized, see the project description and the notes at the bottom of this page. Listen online All the lists are on Spotify and Apple Music. Just click on either button after each list. The tracks in these lists start on Spotify/Music as #31 (Lists 1-8) or as #16 (Lists 9-18). Note that when a playlist is 'liked', it gets saved to your profile for easy access. To access all the playlists, click on either of the images above. Let's go! Categories Salsa | Other Latin | Other Genres | Mixes Salsa 1. CONTEMPORARY SALSA - New Released in late 2021 Tracks 31-40 Tracks 41-50 (Bonus) Still Hot from 2020 Special Pick: "Lo Bueno Está Aquí" 2. CONTEMPORARY SALSA - Recent Still Hot from 2020 Tracks 31-40 Winners from the 2010s Special Pick: "El Son Guaguancó" 3. CONTEMPORARY SALSA - Anthems (Winners From the 2010s) Tracks 31-40 The Millenial Era Special Pick: "Yo Tengo Lo Mio" 4. Contemporary SALSA - nostalgic (The Millennial Era) Tracks 31-40 (Tracks 21-30) The Golden Era Special Pick: "Por Que Adoré" 5. CLASSIC SALSA (The Golden Era) Tracks 31-40 Songs for my Father Special Pick: "Caña y Coco" 6. THE ROOTS OF SALSA Songs for my Father Tracks 31-40 Missed Gems Discovered in 2021 Special Pick: "Mi Amigo Licor" 7. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER (Missed Gems Discovered in 2021) Tracks 31-40 Exclusively Cuban Artists Special Pick: "Tú No Suenas" 8. SPOTLIGHT: Cuba Exclusively Cuban Artists Tracks 31-40 > Back to top Other Latin Music Spotlight: Japan Special Pick: "Descarga Con Vibes" 9. SPOTLIGHT: Japan Exclusively Japanese Artists Tracks 16-20 Full Circle Special Pick: "Guajira Ven" 10. SPOTLIGHT: Africa Full Circle Tracks 16-20 New & Recent Bachata Special Pick: "La Bachata" 11. Spotlight: Bachata New & Recent Tracks 16-20 Contemporary Easy Listening Special Pick: "Para Ti, Para Mi" 12. LATIN LOUNGE Contemporary Easy Listening Tracks 16-20 Deep Latin Vibes Special Pick: "Guajira Controversial" 13. DEEP LATIN VIBES Classic Boogaloo / Cha cha cha / Son / Guajira Tracks 16-20 Reggaeton & More Special Pick: "Aprendi" 14. SABROSURA SIN CLAVE Reggaeton & More Tracks 16-20 > Back to top Other Genres Old & New Jamaican Music Special Pick: "So Incredible" 15. SPOTLIGHT ON JAMAICA Old & New Tracks 16-20 Old & New African Music Special Pick: "Aninha" 16. SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICA Old & New Tracks 16-20 Club Jazz Special Pick: "Pandajero" 17. SPOTLIGHT: Club Jazz Acid-/Nu-/Funk-Jazz & Broken Beat Tracks 16-20 Upbeat Vibes Special Pick: "Shamisen K" 18. MISCELLaNEA Upbeat Vibes Tracks 16-20 > Back to top Bonus: Inspiring Mixes of Late 2021 Mellow Mood ~ Lovers Rock Mix (Tojo - Afrontier) Latin Music from Guinea (Mikael el Rojo) Sweet Mello Sweet PR (MSQ) Salsa Romantica (Junichi Yoshida) Salsa Playlist #380 (DJ Deniz Seven) > Back to Top Notes Although the charts mention 2021, only one list is exclusively for 2021 releases (List #1). Songs in the other lists have been chosen because they were somehow relevant to me in 2021. For example, lists 2 to 5 have salsa tracks from other years, but they were used in DJ sets this year. List 6 is a selection prepared for a tribute to my late father, who passed away in 2021. List 7 features salsa discovered in 2021 but from earlier years, et cetera. The basic criteria is that songs were chosen for some personal relevance in 2021. It goes without saying that song selection for any list is subjective. My intention is just to share songs which had meaning for me in 2021, regardless of release date. In order to give value, cohesion, and relevance, I carefully organized these lists. However, this project was for fun, so in no way are the lists intended to be authoritative. Besides, I cannot conceivably know the full range of possible songs relevant to a certain category. Finally, a top-10 (or top-5) ranking style has been avoided. Instead, songs are listed in alphabetical order by title. Let me know what you think about these lists. Any recommendations for late 2021? Are there any songs that were personally significant for you regardless of release year? If you enjoyed this project and wish to support future projects, please consider buying me a coffee. Just click on the icon below. Thanks! > Back to Top

The latest MixCloud session highlights the piano in contemporary salsa in a range of styles. Eighteen songs, track list included. Click below to listen.

The latest project is done! I had great fun making this 90-minute mix comprising solely 7" records made for The Drop Vinyl subscription servce as part of their promotional mix series featuring DJs from around the world. (Check out all their mixes here). For my contribution to the mix series, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and do something different than usual (salsa) -- this time, I focused on Afro-funk. Included are 4 Japanese tracks unavailable outside of Japan, as well as newish and older releases from both international and African artists of the genre. Needless to say, there are lots of electric guitar riffs, pounding djembes, and scorching vocals! The launch is coming soon -- it will be available for listening on both Soundcloud and MixCloud, with a track list. Stay tuned... Thank you for your support!

SOFRITO 2/27 will carry on. I was going to cancel this online event due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine because I didn’t want to “be entertaining” while the world watches in horror Putin’s brutal display of force, killing Ukrainians and possibly dragging the world down a dangerous path through escalation. But I have reconsidered… My guest DJ (Atsushi A-Chango) and I will play music as planned; however, we will be mindful of appearances and intentions. Let me be clear, then. I condemn Putin’s invasion and all acts of aggression—including the underreported conflict in Yemen—but, in my current capacity, I choose to demonstrate some effort in the promotion of cross-cultural understanding, namely through the sharing of music (as trivial as that may sound) and thus be doing something, rather than nothing. And so SOFRITO 2/27 is a small, if trifling, contribution towards the desire for worldwide unity and peace. We don’t have tanks, guns, and spite. All we have are music and some resolve to share it. We do this in order to celebrate humanity, certainly not the opposite. In light of recent events, I think this is warranted; thus, I do not want to give up, show despair, or seem to be ignoring what’s going on. I will add that my original plan for this SOFRITO was to include a small tribute to KONISHI Eri, pianist for Copa Salvo, who recently passed away. I now also include the border guards on Snake island whose demise should never be forgotten. Event info: https://fb.me/e/3fWv2YtH7

This most recent session was great fun, and I was pleased with the show of solidarity for Ukraine among the viewers. Here is a short highlight video…

It’s a thrill being a part of the "45 mix series" sponsored by the The Drop Vinyl subscription service. Episode 6 is my contribution: a 90-minute afrobeat/funk session (all from 7” records). Click here for the track list and other mixes.

The other day I had a lovely time camping with my family in Chiba. The weather was perfect and it was a great repreive from work and current events in the news which had been weighing me down. I also took the opportunity to do a salsa set marking two years with CoBeatParty, a Facebook group comprising salsa DJs from around the world who streamed live DJ sets duing the COVID lockdowns. I'm really grateful to be involved in this fantastic community, both as a DJ and audience member. So here's my one hour and twenty minutes of thanks marking the occasion. My track selection is from what you do not typically find on digital platforms. It was an interesting challenge because I was streaming on cell data from a remote setting -- this meant the video connection and quality were not the best. And there were other issues, as it was the first time running a mobile setup from a solar-powered battery. Due to a hodgepodge of gear, the mic volume ended up too high. Nonetheless, please enjoy. Click below to watch.

This coming Tuesday (April 5) is my birthday and I am celebrating with a FB live stream with 4 invited DJs: DJ Dmitri (Jordan/Germany) DJ Rem (France) DJ Takeuchi081 (Japan) DJ Tojo (Japan) We will be fundraising for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)... Everyone is welcome to join the party. Donations are welcome via my donation page. SCHEDULE (Tuesday, April 5 2022) 03:00-08:00 - Pacific 06:00-11:00 - Eastern 11:00-16:00 - United Kingdom 12:00-17:00 - Central Europe 19:00-00:00 - Japan For more details, please see the Facebook event page.

New salsa mix! This one features selected tracks from Episodes 1 and 2 of my radio show Encanto Tropical, reprogrammed and without commentary in high quality audio. To listen, click on the player at the bottom of this page. Encanto Tropical is a part of World Salsa Radio w/ DJ Angel Figueroa Broadcasting from Chiba, Japan 2nd & 4th Thursdays Click 'subscribe' (below) to get email updates about Encanto Tropical! Visit World Salsa Radio for more shows

The latest mix features selected tracks from Episodes 3 and 4 of my radio show Encanto Tropical, reprogrammed and without commentary in high quality audio. To listen, click on the player at the bottom of this page. Encanto Tropical is a part of World Salsa Radio w/ DJ Angel Figueroa Broadcasting from Chiba, Japan 2nd & 4th Thursdays Click 'subscribe' (below) to get email updates about Encanto Tropical! Visit World Salsa Radio for more shows