Ever feel like you’ve heard the same thousand songs over and over again at every city you dance in? I have these deja-vu moments, no matter which city I’m dancing in, that I *just* listened to this set the previous dance. Maybe I’m getting a little bit jaded because I listen to too much jass, blooz, and non-vocal NY mambo songs with the neat little piano solo hooks. Maybe I need to listen to more Kimbra?

What really stands out for me in regards to DJs who play lindy hop, blues, and salsa events are those who consistently drop hot new tracks for the dancers. It’s easy to “borrow” a couple of songs from other established DJs and mix and match songs to make your own set but it’s a lot harder to constantly be on the look out for songs and artists nobody in the scene has ever heard before. That’s why I have such great appreciation for DJs like Tall Jim from Vancouver because even though Vancouver is a very finicky dance scene in terms of musical tastes, he always seem to play a couple of songs that I secretly “borrow” for dances in Toronto (and hopefully in Montreal). He gets it and I like that.

I think the next time I DJ, I’m going to try out only playing songs I haven’t played ever before at a dance. I apologize in advance if you are attending ;)

Peace,

Randy

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

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.

Having an agenda for my DJ set has usually ended up being disastrous. It was through those very awkward sets, that I have decided to abandon the idea that I should “educate” the dancers by forcing my music sets regardless of whether people are actually dancing or not.

“Well if they don’t dance to it then they don’t like real lindy/blues/mambo/jazz music”, I would say to myself and any poor soul unfortunate enough to be within a ten metre radius.

Reflecting back on those sets, I can see how my tunnel vision for a particular sound made me overlook the fundamentals of a good DJ such as gauging the mood of the room, the sound ambiance/level, ebb/flow, and picking good songs that would make the people in the back would want to walk across the floor and ask someone to dance. I was focusing too intently on the songs “I’m about to play”, instead of focusing on the song that was actually playing and making decisions accordingly.

One of the things that I have realized about DJ’ing dances is at the end of the day, its just getting people up and dancing to have a great time. You can get into endless debates of what constitutes a swing/blues song, but what I have found is that as long as you continually play fresh tunes that are appropriate for the event (blues music for a blues dance/swing music for a swing dance), your audience is going to be happy. Or they just plain wouldn’t be dancing. Of course what you don’t let on is the fact that you have poured hundreds of hours meticulously hunting for new tunes, weeding out old ones, and familiarizing yourself with what you are calling as your “music collection”. Every now and then as a DJ, you know you just nailed the right song at the right time and for that three to five minutes, the room is dancing to music that you like dancing to as well. This in itself is almost the reason to not DJ with a pre-made list. :)

Where I’m DJ’ing Next

I’m still earning my chops DJ’ing dances and it’s good to be a scene where the local DJs are actively pursuing new music (Arthur Lulu and Krister comes to mind) and there are opportunities to spin at the regular dances. The only way to get better is to continually practice (trial by fire) so you can catch my sets at the following events

- Sunday Swing and Blues (Imperial Pub; already happened!)
- Toronto University Exchange (this late night friday)
- Hammer Hoppers Monthly Dance @ The London Tap House (Jan. 26)
- Yonge & Bloor Blues (Jan. 29)
- Ottawa Blues Blast (April 23-25)

Toronto’s blues dance for blues dancers holds its first event on Jan. 29, 2010. Epic. Website: http://yongebloorblues.com/