After last year's Crop Over festival in Barbados, it was all about "Wining Season" (Machel Montano), "Wukkin' Up" (Patrice Roberts) and "Chippin" (Farmer Nappy). And for 2008, they are back strong with "Push Bumper", "Lookin Hot" and "Belly Dancer" respectively. The 2008 Crop Over looks very promising in terms of the quality of Soca from both Bajan and Trini artists... "Feel Nas"!

Vincy Carnival just past, Barbados & Antigua are in a couple weeks, and then it's Spice Mas in Grenada! Of course you can listen to all the lastest Soca releases (in FM quality) right here on TJJ [Click Here]

We all know that Trinidad & Tobago is the mecca of Soca music. However, let's not sleep on the other islands that also produced quality Soca/Calypso music season after season.

Carnivals in Barbados (Crop Over), St. Vincent, Antigua, St. Kitts & Nevis and Grenada (Spice Mas) to name a few, are serious breeding grounds for many talented artists; some of which have participated and even won titles in TnT's Carnival competitions. Like Bajan Biggie Irie who won the 2007 Int'l Groovy Soca Monarch in TnT Carnival. And artists like Atlantic Recording artist Rupee (who Trinidad loves as one of their own), Alison Hinds, Peter Ram, Lil Rick, Timmy, Fraud Squad, Sheldon Douglas, Tallpree, Baby Killa, Problem Child, Bomani, Jamesy P (the original Nookie Man), Ricky T and Kevin Lyttle (hailing from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who had a worldwide hit with the interpellative soca ballad, "Turn Me On" which was recorded by Lyttle and the Dancehall artist Spragga Benz) are all well known names in the Soca industry.

With that said, what's your take on Soca music produced by artists outside of Trinidad & Tobago? Does it make the grade? Do the artists have what it takes to mash up a fete in TnT any day of the week, year after year? We've seen both Problem Child (St. Vincent) and Ricky T. (St. Lucia) prove to be quite a success in 2007 with "Party Animal" and "Pressure Boom" respectivitely.

Are you liking the Soca [Click Here to Listen] they have released to-date?

TJJ Soca Steet Team

Fetes, Fetes & More Fetes: Out of all the parties you ventured out too within the 12 days leading up to Carnival Monday and Tuesday, which was your favourite and why?

Although Machel Montano HD's "Jumbie" won Road March 2k7 and was by far everyone's favourite, we still want to know what was your favourite Soca song for the 2007 Carnival Season?

Share your 2007 TnT Carnival Experience… TRIBE, ISLANDpeople Mas, Pulse 8, Legacy, Dream Team, Trini Revellers, Harts or which ever band you played with. From ordering your costume, to collecting it, right down to your on the road experience for Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

When I last danced at Brazils night club, I was listening to what people were saying about the dancers and the dancing and heard that people thought the back end of the dance floor near the DJ booth is the prime spot reserved only for the "good dancers". Although I never looked at it that way, I attributed that observation to the fact that the bar at the front end of the club was where more of the people go when they want to have a drink and just watch so therefore, the hardcore dancers stick toward the back where there is more room to move. I don't know about you, but I hate dancing when I'm getting bumped every 5 seconds by someone making their way through. In the back there is less traffic. But I digress…. The discussion then turned into commentary on how only dance team dancers hang and dance in the back.

And that's what got me thinking.

There are quite a few dance teams in Philly, roughly twenty or so today, where there were only one or two a few years ago. All of these respective teams have fantastic dancers that can compete and have performed with the best on a national and international stage.
But when thinking about the perception that only good dancers out there are those that are on dance teams, I began to wonder if this was truth or merely just perception.

In classes and out in the clubs, more and more it seems lately that the goal of many dancers and students in the salsa scene today focuses on getting good enough to get on a team. While this competitive spirit definitely keeps the scene moving forward and keeps the innovation of dancing creative, it is almost corrupting the basic premise that drew most of us to salsa in the first place, to dance just for the sake of dancing.

Dance team-ers are good, no doubt, but they are not the only great dancers out on the floor. There are plenty of fantastic dancers who don't belong to any team for whatever reason. They just dance because they love it and don't care what others think.

Some great male and female dancers I've seen in Philly don't belong to a team. Have you ever seen Desiree dance? She's new to the Philly scene and is one of the most popular girls out there. Or how about Steve Tirpak Another example of someone who can really move to the music executing patterns without missing a beat…and is not on a dance team. Rick is another dancer who always has the ladies wanting more and I watch him everytime he steps on the floor... That rhymes. And the list goes on and on.

As we continue to push Philly into the forefront of salsa worldwide, it's not all about who dances for whom and what team are they on, because salsa was here before most of us were even born and salsa is going to be around long after we are all gone and who was on what dance team is not going to really matter. For anyone out there who feels like the only way to be recognized as a "good dancer" is to be part of some dance team, you're wrong. Just remember whatever it was that drew you to salsa in the first place. That is what salsa should be about for everyone.

Date: Monday 23rd - 29th May 2005
Venue: Salsa Land, Los Angeles
Promoters: Albert Torres

As the plane landed in the City of Angels for the Salsa in the City team, there was a keen awareness that the ultimate salsa experience was waiting. We were officially in "Salsa land"! What is "Salsa land"? I had only seen it on the Internet but others on the team had been here before and knew exactly what to expect. 2 full stages, 6 dance floor, 8-tent salsa Mecca complete with the hottest salsa dancers, performers and promoters in the world.

Part of our team had landed on Thursday and part on Friday. Cool days were filled with workshops conducted by some of the world's best including... Eddie Torres, Jayson Molina, Liz Lira, Tropical Gem and Alex D'Silva just to name a few. Daytime performances were off the chain featuring Philly's own Most Wanted, Visual Impact, Art in Motion, Las Gringitas and Latin Nation. When you think you had learned and seen enough, the party had not yet started! You just had enough time to get something to eat and shuttle yourself to the hotel to shower and get ready to dance the night away. Luckily for us we had a car and was a little more mobile than the average Joe.

If you got back by 8 o'clock you can see performances going till 10pm while in another tent social dancing was on the go all at the same time. It was Salsa Heaven. Local Philly performers "Joe and Amie" were scheduled to dance in the 8pm performers which included dance teams from countries as far as Japan. Night performers were definitely among the best in the world. When the performances were over then an odd thousand spectators joined the other thousand in the social dance floor until the next set of performances, which began at 12am. Then to add to the melee even more dancers were coming in via the gates. I have ever seen so many great dancers all in one spot "Salsa Land". There were more performances at midnight... that's right! Those odd 23 performances starting at 12am will take you till 2am if you get to see them all. It takes stamina to watch so many dance performances. Now if you come out of those performances and feel cheated it is because you now realize that you only have another 2 hours to dance since the party finishes at 4am. One warning to all the LA partygoers…you'll definitely need to adjust your salsa body clock!

Now that was just one typical day and night and we had that happening every night from Thursday to Sunday. You get the drift??!! You can listen to music and dance all day and all night long. One of Philly's highlights was Steve Tirpak with the performance band. It was amazing to see all of the salsa celebrities in one place jammin' the dance floors. The live music was also off the chain with performances by Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Domingo Quinones, Oscar d'Leon and others. Everyone can testify when Oscar's band started scanning his hits the chill was definitely in the air and you know there is a God and he meant for us to dance to the Salsa beat. See you in LA next year for another Albert Torres production.