The Many Ways to DJ. Also, Songs Recovered from Miriam Makeba, Jorge Ben, Beastie Boys and more!
Let's talk about DJs. The concept of DJ'ing has so many interpretations depending on the culture where you currently live or grew up. Older Americans tend to view the DJ as someone from the 1980s/90s hip hop era that features a lot of scratching and mixing. Today's youth culture views a DJ as someone who is a performer, writing their own music, remixing pop hits and going out on the road. There is also the traditional European DJ of the 90s blasting house music for hours straight to a warehouse full of dancers. In Jamaica, DJs are often referred to as selectors. And none of this is even discussing the idea of a Disc Jockey, the radio personality behind the mic (a job I held for a few years in high school) who not only has to play music but commercials and announcements to keep the lights on.
During quarantine I've tuned into a lot of online radio like NTS and Mixcloud. I'm surprised to see these UK and European based DJs not so much worried about mixing or beat matching, but more about finding forgotten songs in all styles (disco, latin, soul, jazz, funk) and blending them all together in a way to get people moving.
This led me down a rabbit hole of adding some additional "flavor" to my DJ sets. My DJ gigs are usually for friends who just want a great soundtrack playing continuously in the background. Often they want to hear songs they recognize which I can handle, but I enjoy taking people off the beaten path musically and then surprise them by coming back full force with a hit song they remember.
All of this to say that I've been digging for new music, but still not in stores unfortunately. I've been scouring the internet looking for new musical ideas and found a few that I'd like to share with you below.
Jorge Ben - Ponta de Lanca Africano
Jorge was a folk artist who "plugged in" and got funky on his 1976 album, Africa Brasil. I suggest you hang in with this song until around the 1:37 mark where Jorge starts a chant echoed by his female background singers that is immediately infectious. I've had this song on my exercise playlist and it always gives me a boost of energy. Vinyl Me Please reissued this album last year and I found a copy on Discogs so it's headed my way.
Miriam Makeba - For What It's Worth
Here's a wonderful South African interpretation of a Buffalo Springfield classic. Miriam's albums are comprised mostly of her own compositions but this album, Keep Me In Mind, feels like an attempt to cross over to a wider audience in 1970 by including cover songs like this one and others by the Beatles, Van Morrison and yes, even Creedence Clearwater Revival. This is a beautiful album and I suggest listening to it in full. Thankfully it's available on streaming services!
Banda Uniao Black - Yeah Yeah Yeah
This Brazilian band only released two albums, one in 1977 and then waited for almost 30 years to release this album in 2006! This track has a laid back funky feel to it but the entire album is worth listening to. They jump around genres and cover a lot of musical ground meaning this could drop into a lot of different spots during a DJ set.
Earth, Wind and Fire - On Your Face
Let's bring things back a bit to a group everyone is familiar with, Earth Wind & Fire. I usually cringe when hearing that name, thinking back to the couple of years where I was a wedding DJ and everyone requested the hits like September, Shining Star, Boogie Wonderland, etc. Lately I've been digging through their catalog to see if I can find some inexpensive records to spin and that lead me to 1976's Spirit. The song On Your Face is that upbeat light summer song that has the kind of sound people might mistake for Prince at times rather than EW&F. It puts a pep in my step everytime it comes on.
Beastie Boys - Triple Trouble
We finally watched the new documentary on Apple TV. You can sign up for free for 7 days, watch then cancel - at least that's what we did. It finally convinced my wife that our long standing argument where I claim Check Your Head as being better than Paul's Boutique is correct (ha). Recently I've been revisiting their 2004 album, To the 5 Boroughs. I remember buying a CD copy when it came out but for whatever reason, at the time, the album didn't connect with me. That's changed and I've pulled this track out to try in a future DJ set. Let's be honest, when DJ'ing a song by the Beastie Boys it feels a little hack to play one of their big hits so I try to find something that people are surprised to hear in a new context and might turn them on to deeper cuts. Watch the doc!
As I write this, Tennessee is entering into new phases of opening businesses back to the public. I can't wait to get into a record store soon.
FYI - I updated the Apple Music and Spotify playlists with the songs listed above for one easy listening experience.
Also, don't forget about the podcast Aaron Calling where I call my oldest friend (also named Aaron) to get nerdy on our weekly record purchases. Apple or Spotify!
Forward this to any friends looking for new music recommendations from something other than a robot.
Stay safe.
Hartley