Conga Room

Culturally speaking, we're all turning into global nomads. We roam far and wide through the alchemy of cinema, TV and, if we're feeling really ambitious, foreign literature. We wander to the ends of our iTunes Genius recommendations in search of exotic new sonic encounters. So it was fitting that the newly reconstituted Conga Room, one of L.A.'

The Conga Room, the mid-Wilshire haven for salsa and other Latin music, said Tuesday it will shut down next summer and then reopen in January 2007, at a downtown site across the street from Staples Center. The new venue will be called the Conga Room Downtown and will be part of a development that will include ESPN Zone, Hilton Hotels and the Nokia Theatre. The Conga Room has been operating at its current site, 5364 Wilshire Blvd., since February 1998.

Gnawa trance music from North Africa is not precisely what one expects to hear in the salsa surroundings of the Conga Room. But Marrakech-born Hassan Hakmoun, who sings and plays the traditional three-stringed, lute-like sintir, is not your typical gnawa musician, nor is the Conga Room solely a Latin music destination.

* The Latin Playboys, right, will be at the Hollywood Athletic Club on April 1, in support of their second album, "Dose." Tickets go on sale today. . . . Tickets go on sale Saturday for Lenny Kravitz, the Black Crowes and Everlast, April 23 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. . . . Available today: Jason Falkner, April 7 at the Troubadour; Damnation and Straight Faced, April 10 at the Troubadour; and Quiet Riot, April 16 at the Roxy. . . . Available Friday: Blur, April 1 at the Mayan Theatre. . . .

Hey L.A., let's all form a long, winding line, hands on those hips in front of yours. Now strut and shake a leg because the Conga Room is coming. That's the word from Brad Gluckstein, local real estate developer and lover of Latin music. He's the Conga Room's creator and says the time is perfecto for his Miracle Mile club (5364 Wilshire Blvd.).

THE PREMISE: The opening of La Boca del Conga Room, a new restaurant at the Conga Room, hosted by Jimmy Smits and Sheila E. * REALITY: "What we wanted to do was carry the ideology that has been successful in terms of dance to our cuisine," says Smits, Conga Room part-owner and erstwhile "NYPD Blue" detective. More Ricky Martin-bred crossover madness? "We conceived the club way before there was any quote-unquote explosion," argues Smits. "It's good that you're finally getting it.