Re: Wake Up Folks!
Matthew Robert Chicoine (scooby@umich.edu)
Thu, 11 Jan 1996 17:17:43 -0500 (EST)
apologies due on my part for the heated nature of my response. no offense
to led zepplin or their fans. perhaps i should have said hootie and the
blowfish. also, apologies for anything taken personally, it wasn't really
meant, i was just ticked. i'm not going to go on much further with this,
but it is true that djs are limited in certain realms of creativity. i
believe we had discussed this before. yes, they do not have as much
creative control over the musical product, this is obvious. but on the
same token i don't think that a creative, innovative dj requires any less
mechanical or musical prowess than a musician who plays a traditional
type instrument, when considering the dj must have utmost familiarity
with the records, with a crowd, with the mechanics of the turntables,
with rhythmic patterns (scratching/transforming), with tempos, and even
sometimes with melodic and harmonic aspects of music. for instance, i
played last night with a live-ass funk band here in ann arbor called the
bucket. it was the first time i had really jammed on turntables with an
ensemble in front of a large crowd. although i hang out with several of
the members and play with some on occacion (for those who got a tape from
me, colin the sax player is in the bucket), i had no idea what the songs
sounded like or what exactly i could do to compliment them musically. i
ended up scratching in a few lyrical lines (some KRS shit, kinda dope),
adding snare beats to the drummers lines creating some polyrhythmic type
shit, and even found a sung sample that i was ample to harmonize with the
singer. now, it was a bit sloppy being the first time around, but i think
anybody would be the first time. point being that i functioned as a
distinct member of the ensemble, and instrumentalist all to my own,
creating several different types of musical additions. my parts were not
as crucial as say, the drums or the bass, but it served more as an icing
on the cake. most people there hadn't really heard a dj cutting with a
band and didn't know what the hell was going on at first (was kinda
funny), and then they began to get it. a lot of people seemed to think
that the dj aspect to the group was the missing link to rocking crowds in
a new way. this isn't meant to be bragadocious, its just nice to see that
musicians like myself (note: i play instruments too)recognized that two
turntables are a viable musical
instrument able to do distinctly different types of things than any other
instrument up to this point. once you realize that, yes they are
radically different but function musically just the same can you begin to
understand that it is a very important and understated (in my opinion)
musical development. so when i play my horn, my conga, the traps, my
guitar, whatever, musically and apply that same approach to the
turntables, and get the same type of creative satisfaction, i tend to
become a little defensive when people write off djing as just playing
records. regard it as rhythm, collaging, whatever, just understand that
with the limitations that we all recognize come benefits as well that
many do not recognize. its different, but its the same, y'know. nuff
said, i'm getting a little long winded. peace and one love to a new
musical community trying to understand one another.
bubblicious