> E-
> First off, the project is not necessarily "acid jazz" related but
> DJ related. Because I've talked to a few people who are considered to be
> appropriate topics on this list, I felt the project was appropriate. As a
> musician AND a DJ I feel just the opposite of you. It is not the musician
Now, do you call yourself ' a musician AND a DJ' because you are a DJ who
wants to expand the definition of a 'musician,' or are you a DJ who is also
skilled at playing musical intruments? There are several examples of the
latter, where there are people known as "DJs" who are pretty smokin'
musicians in their own right, such as DJ Snowboy, who's a great sounding
percussionist as well.
> who has been overlooked over the years but the DJ, which is why I am
> doing this project. Now I fully understand the importance and
Well, I guess we just simply see things from a different perspective. I
guess you are just looking at music overall and see the DJ as someone
overlooked. I see the Acid Jazz scene (IMHO) more DJ-oriented than
musician-oriented nowadays. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's a phase, and
maybe all the Solsonics, Groove Collectives, Brand New Heavies and other
bands of the world need a hiatus for a while, but I know I'm not wrong
when I see that much of the new releases on this list are made by artists
with the letters "DJ" in their name.
> element is there, sometime it is more produced. Regardless, the DJ is the
> one who will play the vinyl, and his/her role is often dismissed as
> merely "they are just playing records". I will argue until I am blue in
> the face that a DJ has . . . the potential to be a musician, not just
> somebody who "just plays records". Next time you see a dope DJ, watch
> him/her closely. What are they doing, how do they seem the same or
> different as a "musician", and in the end, how is what they are doing not
> musical (assuming this is your conclusion). Think about it, get back to
> me. Peace-
> DJ Bubblicious
Yes, I do see that a DJ has a potential to be a musician, but in a different
way than you do. I saw a picture of DJ Greyboy once, and it was a picture
of him at his studio, and in the background was two keyboards. Most of
the DJs *I Know* and I have seen only use turntables, and are not very
creative at using them. (They also care very little about jazz or acid
jazz music, but that's another story :)) They simply match tempos and
maybe do scratches here and there, and think they're musicians, mostly
because nobody bothers to hire bands for parties and other events
anymore, it's just a DJ. I think that's wrong. However, you have other DJs
that do create some very nice musical works, take for instance DJ Bambi's
recent tape :) It's great stuff, however, not *all* of it was done on
turntables, (and that's not a criticism at all; every DJ that makes
full-length recordings like that needs to use samplers) there was a great
deal of sampling done, wherein comes in the musician role.
In short: Not all DJs are musicians, Yes, they can be, but only when they
take that step of integrating musical instruments into their performance.
(To DJ Bambi - I apologize for using you as a guinea pig in my little
diatribe there, but... :))
Elson