Re: what's a good D.J.?
Dirk van den Heuvel (dirk.v@ix.netcom.com)
Wed, 19 Jun 1996 08:37:38 -0500
At 01:40 PM 6/18/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Now as far as Acid Jazz goes, there are a lot of different opinions about
>wheher it should be "beat mixed" (like house and hip hop) or "radio mixed"
>where you use the ambient bits at the end of one track and the beginning of
>the next to create a soft buffer in between the songs (like I suspect James
>Lavelle was doing.) If you talk to DJ Chillfreez about it (like I did when
>I moved back to NYC 2 years ago) he'd tell you that beat mixing is CRUCIAL
>to spinning acid jazz and that without beat mixing you're not really a DJ
>(BTW he does a *great* job of getting those funky AJ rythems to match up!)
>Most other prominent AJ DJs would agree with Chillfreez (Jazzy Nice, Smash,
>Swingsett, etc.) but let's hear from some others... Bambi, Marv, Q-Burn?
>anyone else I'm forgetting
>
It is essential to KNOW how to beatmix, no matter what kind of music you
spin (with the possible exceptions of ambient or lounge) and it is essential
to KNOW music, picking and playing the right tracks at the right time. But
it is not essential (IMHO) to use those beatmixing skills all the time when
it comes to deejaying and that goes for any kind of music (but to a much
lesser extent to the more dance floor oriented types of music). If I have
two really goods songs that will beatmix well and fit I should beat mix them
but if the next song I want to play fits the mood and the groove and it will
not beatmix I shouldn't try. And more importantly I shouldn't toss the
record back in the crate because I can't mix it. It's that feeling that
EVERY song has to beatmixed that leads to the proliferation of jazz house or
hip-hop deejays masquerading as acid jazz deejays but never playing most of
the bands we talk about on this mailing list and especially not the ones
that aren't easily mixed. The deejays you cite in your post are exceptional
and they can get away with trying to beatmix everything (though I think
that means there are alot of bands you just won't here them play 'cause they
don't mix well). Remember also that a lot of the new york deejays were
originally house deejays and learned to mix doing that whereas many of the
UK deejays came from radio and didn't mix as much. Oh well, time to go to
work that's my opionion. But in closing I'll say I'd rather listen to a
deejay that played cool music that rocked, but wasn't mixed (just fading in
and out), than a mixmaster supreme that played some bullshit.
--Dirk van den Heuvel--
Dirk.V@ix.netcom.com
CARGO RECORDS AMERICA INC.
The Premier Distributor of Acid Jazz in the U.S. since '93