I'd just like to point out, with the recent direction the negative vs.
positive thread has taken, the reason I'm so passionate about it is because
I REALLY want aj oriented music to succeed and the record business as we
know it to be on the receiving end of a giant flushing sound.
I like New Sector Movements, Amon Tobin, Asheru and Blue Black, Hefner,
Truffaz, etc. alot better than Jay-Z, J-Lo, or J-Crew. As a neophyte
musician, I aspire to hang with the quality people much more than the
zillionaire sellout types.
BUT, I hasten to add, imo the DJ is in a unique position and has a unique
responsibility. You can either close your minds, do your sets on Tuesday
nites in front of 30-100 people, eat your brie cheese and complain about the
ignorant masses, or you can switch it up and, as Roni Size would say, "start
applying the pressure" yourselves.
Give you an example. Thelonious Monk went for about 20 years without getting
any recognition from the public at large. His Blue Note sides sold next to
nothing. This despite the fact that the "intelligentsia" regarded him as a
genius, which he was.
It was Orin Keepnews, on Riverside, who came up with the bright idea of
having Monk record an all Duke Ellington solo set. OK, he reasoned, everyone
likes Duke, including Monk, and much of what Monk does is not all that
different from what Duke does. It wasn't too many sides later that Monk was
on Columbia AND the cover of Time magazine.
The DJ has a teaching role. And you can't be an effective teacher unless you
teach by analogy. And one of the best things to do is to give people
something their familiar with, and then take it to the next level.
And another thing. Don't think that just because people don't like acid jazz
it doesn't mean they're not passionate about music. My nephew, who lived
with me a couple of months and now goes by the moniker DJ Push-play, had one
of the most doctrinaire record collections I've ever seen. But I'll tell you
what, he was passionate about his Cypress Hill, Bone Thugz in Harmony, etc.
etc. Rather than dis him, I let him hear a little Roots, a little J5, a
little Petestrumentals, a little J Rawlz....
Think he didn't like it? Think again. He's a Bahamadia loving Okayplayer
now. So what? If I had a few more months, he'd be scouring for Blue Note
original pressings and if I had a few years he'd be at the city library
studying scores of Bach's B Minor Mass... Everything comes from somewhere,
and we are all a lot more connected than we know.
Likewise, the cat upstairs who practices his Blink 182 power 5th chords on
his guitar all afternoon, when I'm trying to rip right hand solos over my
sharp 11 chords on the Rhodes... That dude probably thinks I'm playing some
annoying elevator crap. Who am I to go over to that guy and say, "Hey! You
are NEGATIVE! Turn it DOWN."
(come to think of it... that might not be a bad idea....)
Let the preachers preach and the dj's teach....
I'm out.....
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu May 30 2002 - 22:55:22 CEST