SwingDJs

Hi all,

I haven't seen a post about this anywhere else, so I thought I would mention the Battle of the DJs contest at the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival. Who's going? What do you expect it to be like? And the most important question: how can I win?

http://www.aivjd.org/hjdf/events.html

Zot wrote:Hi all,

I haven't seen a post about this anywhere else, so I thought I would mention the Battle of the DJs contest at the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival. Who's going? What do you expect it to be like? And the most important question: how can I win? :shock:

http://www.aivjd.org/hjdf/events.html

I heard about the rules - sounds intense..

Who are "The Worlds Best DJs" that got picked to compete?

I don't know if the list has been finalised or officially announced, but I guess some of the names have already been mentioned on Yehoodi. The list of names invited, I believe, was:
Jesse Miner, California
Manu Smith, New York
Reuben Brown, California
Andy Reid, New York
Lucy Faulkner, Canada
Matthew Riddle, Australia
Rayned Wiles, Washington DC
Greg Avakian, Philadelphia

Who's here? Can you confirm you're in?

I'm in. Looking forward to the entire wonderful weekend of HJDF! Battling and smack-talking aren't really my specialties (I'm more about feel-good group hugs), but I guess I'm in there to round out the vegan contingent (you know how Janice loves the vegans).

Jesse

fueled by the vegan caribbean deli on 125th, you and i will bring the meatmouths down.

eating vegan has bestowed us with a mighty power to hit the "play" button better than anyone.

Sounds fun... what are the rules?

fun! I just booked my plane ticket, I'll be looking forward to seeing you guys spin --- and I'm glad Lucy, one of the female DJ's in our extended scene, will be battling it out with all you big boys.

Zot wrote:Hi all,

I haven't seen a post about this anywhere else, so I thought I would mention the Battle of the DJs contest at the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival. Who's going? What do you expect it to be like? And the most important question: how can I win?

http://www.aivjd.org/hjdf/events.html

solid mix of DJ's, but it's incomplete, and one who is not even a DJ, that would be My Buddy Peter Strom who will most likely be using borrowed CD's, I hope he wins...hehehe

I'm not sure how you win a DJ contest? play to the common denominator, that would make ya the most Popular atleast, but not the finest of of taste...

anyways, the DJ's got the rules sent in an email:
[HJDF]
A note from the Executive Director of the American Institute of Vernacular
Jazz Dance (our parent organization AKA The Goddess Herself) Miss Janice
Wilson:

a. 85% of the music played must be played or composed by African-American
artists.
b. No cartoon music. Period.
c. No West Coast music. Period.
d. No Neo-Swing. Period.

You all have brains. You all know music. You all should know what this
means....[/HMDF]

I backed out of the DJing last week, the Vegan compitition was just to tuff for me. I've decided to enjoy the dancing instead....

hopefully by next year , I'll have my collection seperated into Black and white! peace out and see ya there....!

Checking in; I'm not sure what I can do to win since I'm not a strict Vegan. It's interesting that so many DJs are veggies though (Rayned too!)

PS: I'm bringing Philly vegan eggplant Parmagiana hoagies! Maybe even immitation jumbo shrimp!

SirScratchAlot wrote:hopefully by next year , I'll have my collection seperated into Black and white!

HA HA HA HA HA HA

Andy Reid wrote:fueled by the vegan caribbean deli on 125th, you and i will bring the meatmouths down.

eating vegan has bestowed us with a mighty power to hit the "play" button better than anyone.

Heh...

Well, I'm not a Vegan, but I'm also more into the group hug idea than battling to the death. I'm looking forward to it, nonetheless, because I know I will learn a lot from everyone.

Remember, I won't know many people (I live a long way away) so please introduce yourselves. There will be a small group of Aussies at HJDF looking slightly out of place, but we're all friendly. See you in a couple of weeks.

Peter -- you might remember a couple of us from Herrang. You practiced your "G'day MAIGHT" four a couple of weeks solid back in 2001. Looking forward to hearing if your Aussie accent has improved.

You know all this huggy kissy crap is what's giving this evening the potential to suck. I think Janice has invisioned an spirit of competition between the DJs for this night... and so far I'm feeling none. So I guess we'll just see another night of music to appease the masses.

I think Pete left out the most important part of the email sent out to the DJs:

"...come prepared to do the best job you can representing Lindy Hop music that you think shows off Harlem and its gifts to the world."

It will be interesting to hear the DJs interpretation of this line. Or maybe it won't.

SirScratchAlot wrote: solid mix of DJ's, but it's incomplete, and one who is not even a DJ, that would be My Buddy Peter Strom who will most likely be using borrowed CD's, I hope he wins...hehehe

To my knowledge Peter Strom is not in the battle.

Here's a list of DJs in the battle:
Jesse Miner, California
Manu Smith, New York
Reuben Brown, California
Andy Reid, New York
Lucy Faulkner, Canada
Matthew Riddle, Australia
Rayned Wiles, Washington DC
Greg Avakian, Philadelphia

SirScratchAlot wrote: I'm not sure how you win a DJ contest? play to the common denominator, that would make ya the most Popular atleast, but not the finest of of taste...

You are absolutely right. Although "finest of taste" is of course a matter of opinion. Just 'cuz all the current pop culture music is so, well, popular doesn't mean it's good.

That being said, the battle will indeed be based on who the crowd likes (as oppossed, to, say, having five "experts" pick. ha ha...wouldn't that be funny...DJ judges!) So if you play what you love but not what the crowd wants to hear, while you may be proud that you didn't play to the "common denominator", you will lose! I imagine the same was the case back in "the day" with band battles at the Savoy. There weren't judges who decided whether Goodman beat Webb, right? It was word-of-mouth by the crowd, right? That's what's gonna be done here.

While competition weekends (NADC, ALHC, etc) and exchanges are so popular right now, major props go out to Janice Wilson and Nicole Frydman for all their hard work creating an event that has a deeper, underlining meaning. What a celebration of dance this weekend is going to be! And everybody make sure to catch the b-boy battle, which has been the highlight for many lindyhoppers the past two years.

GuruReuben wrote:You know all this huggy kissy crap is what's giving this evening the potential to suck. I think Janice has invisioned an spirit of competition between the DJs for this night... and so far I'm feeling none. So I guess we'll just see another night of music to appease the masses.

I dunno about you, but after all this bickering online, I can't wait to see who the crowd likes better: you or Swingboy!

I sure hope the losers don't come running back to this discussion board crying "Well, I may have lost but that's 'cuz the dancers who I'm playing for didn't get it. Dancers are stupid. I'm smarter." Ha Ha. That's a cop-out. I'm sure Duke Ellington debuted Black Brown and Beige at Carnegie Hall and not at a swing dance for a reason.

As Janice loves to say "Can you bring it?".