New York DJ

When company budgets are tight, some of the first things to get the axe tend to be employee parties. The most popular corporate gatherings are usually end-of-the-year holiday events, but many companies – especially in New York City – also like to have a summer cocktail party for their staff. These events will often be held outdoors or at rooftop bars throughout the city, and they’re a great chance to say goodbye to the summer interns and/or give regular employees a chance to let loose a bit and refresh themselves after being cooped up in the office all winter.

But even if a company that’s really watching its bottom line comes up with finances to fund a summer party, it likely will be dramatically scaled back, and the music will probably be provided by some too-eager employee willing to put together a whole event-long playlist on their iPod. We all know this usually doesn’t work out. Come on – Mark in the mailroom doesn’t have good taste in music; he has one taste in music. You hear the constant “uhssh-uhssh” beat of his trance techno coming way too loudly from his huge headphones every time he passes you. And worse would be Bill from accounting making the playlist – do you think three solid hours of Phil Collins, Genesis, and Mike and the Mechanics would be in any way fun?

Because of our years DJ-ing corporate parties of all kinds, we know that music is especially important here. Okay, actually, the alcohol is probably just as important. But I’m sure you know a lot of people at your office who would agree that great music from beginning to end is the key to livening things up and loosening things up at an event where much of the crowd is only used to relating to each other through work, and therefore might be a little stiff and hesitant to act a bit silly, or to show a non-work side of themselves.

So whether you’re a boss who wants to have a summer party for your employees but also wants to still have a DJ, or if you know your boss really wants to have a summer party but you’re worried the music won’t be a primary consideration, here’s a few ideas that you can use some or even all of to try to cut some other costs so you can afford to have excellent music that stands a much higher chance of bringing everyone together – and maybe even bringing Rebecca out of her shell a little bit, or getting Brad to sing “The Lady in Red” like he always says he would if he ever had a mic and had a few moments to prepare.

Okay, here’s the ideas:

Get a Cheaper Venue – Having the summer party at the rooftop bar on the top of a trendy hotel in Tribeca might have been the way to go when the profits were flowing a little bit more, but when the company’s tightening its belt, there’s plenty of ways to get a cheaper location but still get the best of summer out of your venue. Try renting out a bar that has a backyard garden, or one that has large windows in the front that can be opened and pulled back so as to make the front of the place more airy. (Also, these bars will often let you rent out just a part of the bar for less.) Another way to creatively find a venue is to ask around at the office which employee has access to a rooftop, or even has an apartment or home with a large porch. If you bribe him or her with the offer to have the staff pitch in to buy the booze, they might just let you have the party there.

Go Basic on the Drinks and Food – Most employees know that these parties aren’t going to feature the most stellar alcohol and dining choices and don’t really care, so why not use this indifference to scale back the beer and wine selections a bit, save a little on the dinner, or simply don’t have dinner at all and instead just serve appetizers.

Limit the Guests – Often at a corporate party, it’s not just employees that are invited, but also significant others, and sometimes an employee is allowed to bring friends. If you want your party at all these days, the girlfriends, wives, husbands, boyfriends, and best buds are going to have to find something else to do. It’s a work party anyway – why not use it to talk to your co-workers? Yes, even that shy skinny girl who works in the office at the end of the hall that you think is a little weird and is always playing with her hair. Come on, not everyone’s the social all-pro. Give her a chance.

Veto the Other Entertainment – Much more expensive than a DJ, but often much less important, are the other games and contests that those in charge of the event think is necessary to make people loosen up. Bringing in a casino table and a dealer, hiring a magician, renting a karaoke machine, buying prizes for a raffle, and such might work great to enliven part of the night, but loosening things up can also be done just fine all night with a great DJ / MC (and, of course, enough booze).

Make it a B.Y.O.B. – You’d be amazed how much you’ll have to drink if you ask each employee to bring a bottle of wine, or a six pack of beer. Plus, you’ll likely have a wider variety than if you go to a bar or hire a bartender. Also, this opens you up to possible having more money to spend on the venue, or different types of venues, like lofts, halls, etc. Oh, and it also might give you some more moolah to hire the DJ for a bit longer. Just saying.

When guests arrive at an event and grab their first drinks, many years of DJ-ing have made me know that the music that goes best with most cocktail hours are songs that have a vibe that’s upbeat and fun, but not overpowering – regardless of the kind of music being played.

I’m not talking about “chill-out” music, though. Whether it’s vintage or new R & B, or the more recently popular genre of electronic lounge music such as those tunes featured on the seemingly endless editions of the Bhudda Bar CD compilation series, a chill-out vibe often has too much of an after-hours sexiness or a spacey ethereal feel to totally fit with cocktail hour. Usually, cocktail hour is the part of the event where guests only begin to interact, much less start to become a bit tipsy and become more prone to engaging in the kind of activities for which the chill-out vibe would be more appropriate. (You know what kind of activities I mean.)

I think that cocktail hour goes best with music that isn’t “all party,” but also isn’t “all chill,” either. Often at events I attend as a guest I find the DJ is playing one or the other – being too harsh with aggressive dance music, or too mellow with the electronic dreamy stuff. What people seem to really respond to at our events over the years had been the sweet spot in between – music with an easy groove, a pronounced melody, a catchy chorus, and, as a bonus, lyrics that are light, fun or positive. A song about celebrating some hard-earned good fortune that you can bounce to a bit as you head to the bar to refill your drink often works magic for the vibe during cocktail hour, be it in a ballroom or at a rooftop gathering. The goal of a great cocktail hour is, at most events, not to get people dancing, but to get them primed for it. Songs with this light, upbeat, melodic vibe put it in the heads of the guests that the party is rampin’ up, and dancing will soon follow. Basically, the music for cocktail hour should a bit of a tease.

The tricky thing is, while there’s long been a lot of great songs with a mellow, after-hours feel in both vintage and new R & B, as well as a growing number over the past 20 years in all kinds of electronic lounge music, the amount of songs that have this “rampin’ up” quality aren’t as easy to find in any genre. And to those not that familiar with hip-hop, you might think that there’s even less, as the media coverage of the genre seem to only focus on its most crude examples, like groups and songs with only booming beats and profane lyrics.

But if you look around a bit, hip-hop tunes with an airy, melodic touch are not that difficult to find. And it’s worth it, too, as often hip-hop songs of this type does the most to bring out the hip-shaking during cocktail hour – not just because these mellower hip-hop songs are usually fun and a bit sexy, but because older guests will many times recognize parts of the songs as well, as hip-hop artists will often use deftly-chosen samples of beats and melodies from familiar soul and funk songs from a generation or more ago.

I’ve put together an iTunes mix of bouncy, upbeat, but rather mellow hip-hop songs that we’ve found work for us during cocktail  hour and exactly fit the vibe of “rampin’ up.” Included is wide range of hip-hop styles, from the relatively newer genres of crunk (which tends to feature a lot of infectious call-and-response choruses and a lyrical obession with partying) and Southern rap (which tends to put a stylized lazy slurring on words and rhymes); California G-funk, which, with it’s slower tempo and spacey synth riffs, puts a laid-back, sun-drenched spin on ganstga life; old-school rap, with its disco samples, record-scratching DJs and freestylin’-on-the-streetcorner MCs; underground and alternative hip-hop with a less aggressive, often humorous and acoustic touch, from De La Soul to newer artists in this genre like Lyrics Born; a mellower side of the often sharper-tongued New York/East Coast-style hip-hop; and more radio friendly “pop” hip-hop, from Will Smith in the early ’90s to Jamie Foxx and T-Pain’s new hit single “Blame It.”

So get yourself some gin ‘n’ juice, and listen to the mix here.

Often when selecting music for an event – be it a private party, corporate event, wedding, art opening, fashion show, or almost anything else – the organizer will think about catering to certain guests by including a type of music they will like. But if these guests enjoy a style of music that the organizer isn’t very familiar with, instead of risking embarrassment by unknowingly choosing a song that’s inappropriate for the mood, or simply a lame choice in that particular style, the organizers of the event may simply play it safe and not include any of this more unfamiliar music at all.

Well, if that unfamiliar genre happens to be Arabic music, here’s a great classic to start with that will allow you to confidently expand the musical styles of your event. The song, “Salma Ya Salama,” is a traditional Egyptian folk song written in the early 1900s that was given a exhilarating “re-boot” in the late ’70s by Dalida, a singer who was (she died in 1987) and still is hugely popular and adored in Europe and Egypt.

“Salma” effortlessly achieves a perfect balance in so many ways: It has a lush, festive chorus that instantly creates a warm, relaxing mood that’s just as good for sitting down and enjoying as it is for getting up and dancing; the song’s arrangement – with a mid-tempo shuffling beat and a tight three minute pop structure – makes it accessible to Western ears, but at the same time the song never sounds bland or “emptied” of its native sound; and because it was a huge hit across Europe and in Egypt in the late ’70s and has spawned house music-style remixes as well as cover versions by the Gypsy Kings with singer Ishtar Alabina (go here for my post on one of her excellent Arabic-Spanish tunes), the song is familiar to both old and new fans of Arabic music. But beyond all these impressive qualities, the real reason the song works is simply because it’s infectious and fun and grabs you the first time you hear it.

Dalida, an Italian-born singer who grew up in Egypt and was unfortunately obscure in the U.S. but who had huge success in Europe from the ’60s through the mid ’80s, sings “Salma” here in Egyptian Arabic, but she also recorded the song in French, German, and Italian. Dalida is considered one of the first singers to have success with songs that fused Western and Middle Eastern cultural influences, long before singers like Shakira, Ishtar Alabina and Ofra Haza emerged and made these cross-cultural connections less unusual. Despite being recorded over 30 years ago, the production of the song and performance given by Dalida has aged remarkably well. Listen to the song, and I think you’ll feel it could’ve been recorded this year. (Keep in mind that during the late ’70s, it seemed every studio engineer across the Western world was putting a slick disco sheen on almost all genres of music, making the restraint and lack of “boogiefication” of this song all the more remarkable.)

So, while “Salma Ya Salama” is great for catering to guests who are fans of Arabic music, the song will also work great at any time during an event, regardless of the guests present – especially in the wake of the popularity of the Bhangra / hip-hop / house fusion of the song “Jai Ho” from the film Slumdog Millionaire. (Go here for my recent post on this song and Indian Bhangra music.) For those of you looking for another exotic multicultural song fix, Dalida’s invigorating take on this old Egyptian folk song may be the perfect find.

Dalida – Salma Ya Salama (Egyptian Arabic lyrics)