Jazz is in the house

Last night my friend Jwan brought his mixing skills to the club. He played an awesome set of house and techno music as usual. This time around, however, we tried something new. We had two guys play live trumpet and saxophone along with him, at times, to see how it sounded. Jwan would break his set down and play some minimal tracks that the guys could riff over. The result was really freeform and jazzy and the crowd loved it. When the horns were finished, Jwan would ramp up the music back into something more complex and full bodied. Below is about a minute of last night that I caught on my camera ...



*I realize the video is very dark but at least you can hear the horns to get an idea of what it was like.

** we usually have a live bongo player who comes every week and plays along with the DJ but this week he was a no show.

We're going to try it all again next week anyway ... trumpet, horns, DJ, etc.

We're Baaaaaack!

and I heard you missed us!

Great debut night to 'Brotha Mike's' and my new weekly DJ night last Friday. Hopefully this is a start to another exciting and long lived weekly party. It was great seeing so many people come out to support ... some people I haven't seen in many months. Shake it!

Speaking of promoting ...

I also spent the weekend hanging out at the ALTO Lounge in Shadyside ... doing, ah, research ...

Starting Friday December 14th, 'Brother Mike' and I will be resuming our duties as hosts for the only 'House and Techno' music DJ night in the Eastside. We'll be residing over a weekly dance party at this place - every Friday night - offering up soulful house music and funky techno in a loungy, chill out atmosphere.

Radio play ...

I also just got word yesterday that my last DJ mix is going to be aired on our local radio station 91.3 FM WYEP at the end of the month. A buddy who is programming director for the station heard my mix over at radiohypno.com (Thanks again to Hypnotyza) and contacted me about hosting it on his show called The Dubmission.

But it doesn't end there ... as well as getting radio play ... my mix will also be hosted as a podcast ... plus hosted and played on lastfm.com, beyondjazz.net and virb.com as well as in the giantstep.net forums and on radiopellenera.com out of Italy.

I'll take it.

The mix will be played here on our local FM between the hours of 2am to 3:45am on Sunday Sept. 2nd.

Radiohypno.com

Thanks to 'Hypnotyza' over at Radiohypno.com for the kind words and for giving me the opportunity of being his first guest DJ on his web-radio site. He is hosting a DJ mix of mine that I recorded back in November '06.

You can download my mix/podcast here.

The tracklisting is as follows:

01. The Dining Rooms - Tunnel
02. Harry Nilsson - One
03. Studio Davoli - Gate Must Be Negative Transition
04. Backini - Istanbul
05. I Monster - These Are Our Children
06. Backini - Go Go Killer
07. Husky Rescue - Summertime Cowboy
08. Octet - Hey Bonus
09. Studio Davoli - Superpartner (P.Funk Remix)
10. Caribou - Bees
11. Sixto Rodriguez - Sugarman
12. Margo Guryan - California Shake
13. The Free Association - Effectin’
14. Hodges, James, Smith & Crawford - Nobody
15. Ugly Ducklings - Journey to Anywhere
16. Fat Freddy’s Drop - Flashback
17. Muddy Waters - Tom Cat
18. The Johnny Otis Show - Country Girl
19. Joe Washington - Blueberry Hill
20. The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Hold It Down
21. Stevie Wonder - I Wish
22. Camille Yarbrough - Take Yo’ Praise

The Big Throwback

Last night was probably the best Throwback party I have attended. They had to stop letting people in around 11:30 because it got so packed.

DJ Supa C was on top of his game last night and led the crowd into a frenzy with his DJing and MCing skills. Here is a taste of him on Youtube.com to get an idea of what he can do.

I need to take a break from going out ... after I go to the pirate game tonight and one more DJ event this evening, I'm staying in for a while.

At least until next Tuesday. ;)

(Photos courtesy of 'J Malls')