New York DJ

It’s a few days after Thanksgiving, and, like most everywhere else in the country, in New York City the usual Christmas songs are starting to be played at establishments everywhere there's a sound system, from the tiny bodegas to the biggest department stores.

We know there’s plenty of you out there who don’t want to hear that same old, one-size-fits-all mainstream radio template of holiday songs that essentially boils down to a heavy dose of mid-century crooners with a splash of Paul McCartney or Mariah Carey thrown in now and then. So, we’ve put together an iTunes mix of about 40 excellent Christmas songs, most of which you likely haven’t heard at all. While some of these tunes are traditional Christmas songs that have been covered by newer artists and others are original Christmas songs that have received little or no mainstream radio airplay, taken together, all these songs cover a very  wide range of genres. The only criteria for the mix was that the songs be memorably well-performed, rather unfamiliar or underplayed, but also accessible. In other words, this mix is comprised of music you might hear at a party where the DJ is playing fresh Christmas songs to satisfy all kinds of musical tastes.

To that end, we’ve arranged the mix like you’re arriving at the start of a party: We begin with some ambient tunes, then things pick up from there, building intensity as we move through alt-country, indie pop, loungey electronica, jazz, soul, reggae, soca, salsa, meringue, Latin pop, hip-hop, and rock. Hopefully, after you’ve listened to the mix, you’ll feel good that there’s a lot of fresh Christmas music out there of many styles, and by artists you might not have known had risked potential embarrassment to record Christmas songs!

Some highlights of the mix include the Cocteau Twins' dreamy take on "Frosty the Snowman," which manages the difficult task of sounding ethereal and otherworldly while remaining faithful to the song's simple melody; a remixed version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" that uses thick beats and well-placed horn samples to do a great job of sexing up this often-played song (featured on the album Merry Mixmas that's pictured); and Soca General's "Santa Bring de Soca," a quick, happy burst of tropical-sounding festiveness that will surely get you to look for a place to put your winter coat if you hear the song while anywhere near a dance floor.

So, throw some of the songs from this mix on your iPod, and you might even be able to get through the whole season without even hearing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."

You can listen to the mix here.

Whatever the event, if there's a dinner component to it, clients usually want the energy of the music to be lowered a bit so they don’t need to "fight the songs" to have a conversation. At a corporate event, clients tend to request tunes that are light and playful; at weddings, we often get requests for more sentimental and romantic songs; at private parties the music during dinner depends on the reason for the celebration, but often it's a mixture of both aforementioned styles. And while we get requests for the softer side of many different genres of music, everyone almost always wants to hear a few jazz vocals.

Of course, being in New York City for your event naturally brings out a desire in many clients to hear some Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra (for my previous post about our favorite Sinatra tunes, go here). But, since the dinner part of an event is less about particular songs being played than establishing a specific kind of lively but gentle atmosphere, we like to mix in jazz vocal songs that aren't as familiar as the first tier of famous male and female jazz vocalists. Sometimes we play some newer jazz vocalists, like Madeleine Peyroux or the vintage-sounding, loungey electronic jazz of Koop, but sometimes we spin lesser-known vocalists from the mid-century heydays of Sinatra and Ella.

One of my favorites of these artists is a jazz vocalist named June Christy. Popular in the mid-'50s to mid-'60s, Christy shares the clean, crisp, slightly husky vocal style of Keely Smith or Ella Fitzgerald. But in Christy’s more swingin’ and playful songs – such as the two sampled here, “Sing Something Simple” and “You’re Making Me Crazy” – her vocals come across not as smoky or sultry like these other great female voices often do, but instead as simply warm and sweet.

It’s as if when Christy sings these songs, you can imagine her walking down a city street or a country road as colorful animated birds flying around her – like she’s singing nursery rhymes for adults. Yet since she doesn’t have a high or a tiny voice, things never feel too precious or “cutesy.” Because of the touch of huskiness and depth to her vocals, the sweetness of these songs take on a rich, lush quality that’s rather lovely and unique. And, of course, goes great with whatever you’re having for dinner.

Download 04 Sing Something Simple.m4a (4316.8K) Download 04 You're Making Me Crazy.m4a (2336.7K)

One of the best things about DJing in New York City is that clients who we meet with often want to hear a diverse range of musical styles from around the world at their event. Much of this openness to diversity in music comes from the fact that the city is home to so many different cultures and ethnicities, and often those organizing events want the music to reflect this. Whether this is because the client planning the event knows their guests are from a mixture of cultural backgrounds, or because the client planning the event personally loves many different types of music, or because the client simply wants a to project a multicultural musical atmosphere, we’re always happy when we get to take guests on a bit of a “world tour” of music at an event.

One genre that is at the top of many clients’ lists to include is salsa. They know how its festive rhythms can really take an event to a higher level on the dance floor. But we also sometimes meet clients who are very open to it, yet seem a bit unsure if it would work for their guests, since they think their guests wouldn’t know how to dance to salsa and therefore might be intimidated.

What we tell these clients is that there’s more than one speed of salsa. They’re likely thinking of the really fast kind, the kind that one often sees in movies or at live performances, where expert dancers in elaborate, brightly-colored clothing sexily and seamlessly twist and slide and dip their way through the air. Of course, most people out there – even those who’ve taken a few salsa dance lessons – can’t live up to this, so we understand how one could get this impression that playing salsa might make some people not want to try to dance to it.

However, we’ve found that at the events we’ve performed at over the years that the exact opposite is true – it simply gets couples out to the dancefloor, whether there is anyone there who knows how to salsa dance or not. This is because – unless we know that a crowd wants very fast, intricate salsa – we always begin with a slower, more accessible, more vintage kind of salsa. If played at the right time, we’ve regularly seen these songs elevate the energy at an event. They give couples a chance to get close and try some more adventurous moves than they would be able to do while doing a foxtrot to a jazz standard by Sinatra, or the usual box-step to a more recent pop song. Other couples will be lured to the dance floor by these salsa numbers simply to try out some moves they might recall from a salsa dance they recently took. But, best of all, because these slower salsa songs are so fun and festive, couples will often get up and improvise what they feel are dance steps that fit the songs. They might not be completely right, but that’s the magic of playing these songs – it doesn’t matter. These vintage salsa songs are like a bar with great lighting – they make everyone look good.

Have a listen to two of our favorite salsa classics, the first, “La Murga,” by Willie Colon (pictured above, in his gangster trombonist persona), and the second, “Ran Kan Kan,” by Tito Puente (also pictured above, in his impressing-some-nice-young-ladies persona).

Willie Colon – La Murga

Tito Puente – Ran Kan Kan