I've been djing for 8 years, everything from rare groove/ acid jazz/
downtempo to house (deep, funky, tech) to drum &bass/ jungle to most
recently Underground Garage (2 Step). Last night I played local night
Wicka Wicka (an innovative hip hop night w/ live turntablism and
freestyling from Morse Code crew) in Phoenix.
They wanted rare groove, so I gave it to them. Here's the problem, not
in my 8 years of my djing have I seen or felt a complete lack of
understanding of the mighty groove from a crowd. There was about 125
people there, and no one danced (huh? you say). I thought I was losing
my touch. I play for crowds from 100-150 up to 750, at bigger "rave"
parties, but mostly tech house or a few years back jungle. Here's the
tracklisting, Is this funky and ecclectic enough for people around the
world these days?
Grover Washington Jr.- Black Frost
Black Heat- Zimba Ku
Odetta- Hit or miss
Monk Higgins- Up on a hill
Lighthouse- Love of a woman
Ike & Tina Turner- Bold Soul Sister
Mandrill- Fat City Strutt
Cold Blood- I just wanna make love to you
Blackbyrds- Do it fluid
Marlena Shaw- Woman of the Ghetto
IF- Play. Play, Play (sick hip hop beat in this rock fusion cut!!!)
Donald Byrd- Dominoes
Johnny Hammond- Shifing Gears
Steve Miller Band- Shu ba da du mamamama
Blackbyrds- Rock Creek Park
Gary Bartz- Music is my Sanctuary
Roy Ayers- Brother Green
Tower of Power- What is hip?
The Winstons- Amen Brother
Manu Dibango- New Bell
Hugh Masekela- Dyambo
Black Blood- A.I.E.
Donato- The Frog
Candido- Serenade to a savage
Joe Bataan- Latin Strut
Joe Henderson- Tress- Cun- Deo-La
Marcos Valle- Crickets Sing for Anamaria
Marcos Valle- Garra
Terry Callier- Ordinary Joe
Steve Parks- Moving in the right direction
Eighties Ladies- Turned on to you
Nancy Wilson- Sunshine
Lonnie Liston Smith- Expansions
Manu Dibango- Soul Makossa
Well there you go!!! If that isn't some funky, rare, and ecclectic shit.
The hip hop heads from Morse Code & some of my friends enjoyed it. It's
just the mass of people just sitting there for 45 minutes was horrible.
Then an hour into it peeps started to leave, right around the Afro-
Latin grooves. I remember when me & DJ Pari were doing the Hip Joint in
'96. People were going nuts to it, and digging the eeclectic Afro- latin
stuff ven more. Am I realising that I'm the only DJ in the Southwest
still enjoying (playing) rare groove. I'm not counting Zach (Z-trip) he
plays more
of the more popular stuff Average White band, Kool & the Gang, Meters,
Stevie Wonder, etc. (K-tel funk). No disrespect, it's just not as
ecclectic.
Sorry, for the long post. But, do they (you) still wanna hear RARE
GROOVE/ I hope so.
Essential
(Phoenix, AZ.)
UniverSoul/ Urbanite Recordings
http://hipjoint.iscool.net (real audio mix @
http://www.swell.net/reg/locals/essential/ )
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