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Thursday, February 4, 2010

(re)Building a Blues Scene – Part 2

Posted in Blues, Toronto 3 comments

Dancing blues in Toronto

Had a great turn out at the first Yonge and Bloor Blues event and you could say it was a bit of success. We had about sixty to seventy people throughout the course of the event. This by itself is not a lot of people compared to our local lindy hop saturday night dance (which tops over a hundred guests) but we were pleasantly surprised by the turn out.

What I was really most ecstatic about was the fact that the majority of people came out to Kevin and Brooke’s drop-in beginner blues class and stuck around for the dancing. New people being introduced to blues dancing from the beginning instead of being an after band dance at Dovercourt or at the pubs. Wowzee crazee?

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Posted in Blues, Toronto Tags: Blues, Toronto, yongebloorblues

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

TUX 3D Jack and Jills

Posted in Toronto No comments

Forgot to post this – won a competition with Alcina Chiu at Toronto’s Inter-Regional Jack and Jills. :) More clips on the site’s Vimeo page (http://vimeo.com/channels/hamfats).

Posted in Toronto Tags: Competitions, Toronto

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Monday, February 1, 2010

Jass Songs that Make You Stand Still

Posted in Music 3 comments

Standing still music jass.

Few selected songs that I played while DJ’ing at Hamilton’s Hammer Hopper first dance this year.

Posted in Music Tags: dj, Hamilton, Music

3 comments

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Toronto University Exchange 3D

Posted in Photography 4 comments

TUX 3D

Photobooth at the Toronto University Exchange 3D. If you want full quality pictures, feel free to contact me. I can email you the original digital copy or print a 8″x10″ copy ($10 each) for you. As you may know, the TUX event is all about being low cost and accessible for everybody. While you can definitely use the photos for your facebook/twitter/etc I ask that you keep the hamfats logo attached and image unedited.

Click on link below to see the rest.

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Posted in Photography Tags: Lindy Hop, Photog, Toronto

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

DJ’ing with an Agenda

Posted in Music 8 comments

Dj'ing Swing and Blues

As I get more and more DJ’ing gigs slash opportunities, one of the things that I am working on this year is trying not to DJ with an agenda. I have embarrassingly caught myself sometimes in the mindset that I am some sort of music missionary trying to lead the heathens on a path to Harlem heaven. From the top of my head, some prior agendas that I have come to gigs with included playing faster than expected songs, songs from the savoy ballroom era, jazz blooz, new orleans, and my personal favourite, playing really bad songs and seeing if anyone notices (JK… or am I?). Bad news brown I know.

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Posted in Music Tags: dj, Music

8 comments

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Jasper - 01/19/2010 - 13:17

Thanks for that post. It’s great to get words of wisdom from one of my favorite DJs… especially now that I’m getting into the DJ thing myself.

Alain Wong - 01/19/2010 - 13:31

Let me know the next time you’re in town – we’ll schedule you in at Cat’s :)

Gabrielle - 01/19/2010 - 16:15

You’re DJing at Blues Blast? Exciting! Save me a dance when you get here! :)

Kevin - 01/20/2010 - 00:20

True words Randy, true words. In the end what matters most is what it looks like out on the dance floor. A respectable DJ knows not to let the crowd bully him/her and can push their comfort zone, but you have to be on their comfort-zone wavelength in order to do this without clearing the dance floor.

Randy - 01/20/2010 - 11:18

@Jasper You’re already a musician, you’ll pick it up super fast. :) I wouldn’t really call it “wisdom”, more like learning through failed experiments.
@Alain Sure thing!
@Gabrielle Of course!

Alisha - 01/26/2010 - 03:50

You’re becoming more and more wise. Stick with me and you’ll soon be a sage :p

Randy - 01/27/2010 - 11:00

I don’t know about wiser but maybe posting more? :P

Krister - 02/05/2010 - 12:09

This post has got me thinking. I agree with what you say. It is never a good idea to force an agenda on the room. The DJ serves at the pleasure of the dancers. Not the other way around. It is always good to be flexible and open minded.

However, I think it is a bad idea to go into a DJ set as a complete blank slate. Often I will try to play a harmonious counter point to the band. If they are slow, I’ll pick the tempo up. If they are fast, I’ll slow it down a bit. If they are in a charleston groove, I’ll try to swing hard. Sometimes I’ll be inspired out of my mind by a song or artist (Sidney Bechet I am looking at you). I’ll come into a set with a distinct feeling and adapt it to the mood of the room. Experiment with what works and what doesn’t and try to find consistent expression of the feeling. Every musician, artists, DJ and dancer has their own form of self-expression. Each of these crafts involves sharing. Partners in a dance share their styles, ideas, and creativity with one another within the framework of the music. Musicians share and play off of one another. A DJ shares with the dancers and the dancers in turn inspire and share with the DJ. In all of these cases, a good partnership keeps the energy flowing.

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