New York DJ

On New Year's Eve, we had an excellent time ushering in 2009 by DJ-ing a huge party at a venue in lower Manhattan that featured a Roaring Twenties theme. (You can see some photos of the party below, and a photo slideshow of the night at Dan's blog, located at www.discjockeynyc.com)

Most guests brought a lot of Jazz Age spirit with them, and it was cool to look out into the crowd and see many of the women sporting stylish flapper hairstyles and the guys adjusting crisp fedoras. The event featured bands playing Dixieland-style jazz, a burlesque show, and even a group performing a fire-throwing routine (not exclusively 1920s, but it does get your attention!).

For our part in adding to the atmosphere, we played original and remixed versions of big band and swing tunes from Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Louis Prima, Cab Calloway and revivalist swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, along with rockabilly and rock 'n' roll that had a swing-style rhythm to it, like Bill Haley, Elvis, and revivalist rock 'n' roll bands like the Stray Cats. Even though space was tight, everyone seemed to find enough room to dance, and the sexy vintage mix really went well with the retro Bacchanalia of the evening. And it was great to see the crowd sharing a sentimental moment to the swingin' big band version of "Auld Lang Syne" that we played the moment the clock hit midnight.

DJ-ing theme parties is great fun, and gives you and your guests a chance to delve deeper into genres than you usually can, and if the crowd is into these genres from the beginning, it can be an amazingly unique experience. But, being locked into a few genres for the whole event can also get boring quickly unless you have ways to freshen things up. This is especially true if the theme only involves a single genre or just a couple kinds of music, and if some of the crowd are neutral in their feelings toward the genre(s) that are featured.

Keeping things lively, though, can be done in many ways, such as playing lesser-known songs in these styles that still have a great rhythm; playing more cover versions of well known songs in the specific styles; throwing out a few mash-ups of songs; or finding related music that might not be instantly obvious to play, and stretches the borders of the theme a bit while still feeling right – in the case of our New year's Eve party, this was the "newer" (from the '90s and '80s) swing- and early rock-influenced artists I mentioned above, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Stray Cats.

The most venerable way, though, for the DJ to liven things up and extend the party when spinning at a theme or any event is the remix. And while remixes have been used to extract maximum sweat from dance floor patrons since the disco era, for music from the first half of the 20th Century, this really hasn't been much of an option (save for that irritating version of "Puttin' on the Ritz" and its remixes done by Taco in the mid '80s). But recently, there have been more remix versions being made of big band, swing and rock 'n' roll songs from the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s. Most of the good remixes of this type add thicker, modern-sounding beats to carefully, stylishly re-assembled versions of the original songs. (An album cover of a compilation of these remixes, Big Band Remixed & Reinvented, is pictured above.) At our New Year's Eve party, being able to sprinkle these songs in our set was a welcome addition, as it gave the crowd something that was at once both familiar and accessible, but also new and different, and our crowd really responded well to this fresh vibe.

We'd definitely suggest including a few of these remixed vintage songs at your event – whether your event is a theme party featuring vintage music only, or if you simply want to feature a set of songs from these older eras at a non-theme event. Ultimately, this emerging kind of "vintage remix" is great to have available, as it re-energizes older genres that can sometimes sound tired to many ears, yet are often wanted or needed at events that feature multiple age groups. Better yet, there's a range of moods to these remixes as well – some more suited for a lounge atmosphere, some for the heavy dancing part of the event that usually comes later on.

See what you think. Here's some samples of these kind of remixes: the first takes the Gene Krupa version of the swing classic "Bugle Call Rag" and attaches to a set of sexy, late-night beats; the second tune is a high-energy, swinged-out remix of the even more classic "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley. If you want the full range of these remixed songs, go to our complete iTunes mix, located here.

Well, the New Year is almost here and along with midnight kisses, champagne, and Auld Lang Syne often comes the tradition of watching the ball drop in Times Square. So with New York City in many people's mind's tonight, we thought this a perfect time to bring you a mix of great New York City songs for your events to not just feature at year-end events, but throughout the whole year.

Often at events located in or near the city, no matter what time of the year, we find that playing a few songs that reference New York in some way add an extra sentimental touch, both for those who live here or nearby, and those who have come to the event from out of the state or out of the country. The great thing about the city is that there's been so many songs in so many styles written about it, so therefore we've chosen songs are from a wide range of genres – jazz, soul, rock, folk, indie pop, reggae, hip-hop, merengue, and more. The songs are also from a wide variety of moods, some quiet, some loud, some in between, so you'll find many songs here to everything from a small dinner gathering to a huge corporate party. Many of these songs even helped define these genres they come from. Some of these are classics you've heard many times but still love and would want to hear many more times, some are newer and likely completely unfamiliar, some are only songs you want to hear when drunk, but all feature the city as a central part of the tune and capture an essence of the Big Apple in their own memorable way.

Here is the list of the songs included in the mix (arranged in a consecutive order, generally, of rising party-ability):

1. Take the "A" Train – Duke Ellington
2. Let Me Off Uptown – Mel Tormé
3. The Brooklyn Bridge – Mel Tormé
4. Manhattan – Ella Fitzgerald
5. Autumn In New York – Frank Sinatra
6. Spanish Harlem – Ben E. King
7. Brooklyn and Jamaica – Morgan Heritage
8. Take the L Train (To Brooklyn) Brooklyn Funk Essentials
9. Breakfast In NYC – Oppenheimer
10. Walk on the Wild Side – Lou Reed
11. Going Home – Luna
12. NYC – Interpol
13. Coney Island – Death Cab for Cutie
14. Wintering in Brooklyn – The Last Town Chorus
15. The Only Living Boy in New York – Simon & Garfunkel
16. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) Simon & Garfunkel
17. The City – Joe Purdy
18. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl
19. Angel of Harlem – U2
20. New York, New York – Ryan Adams
21. Broadway – Goo Goo Dolls
22. New York City – They Might Be Giants
23. Rockaway Beach – The Ramones
24. Rockin' the Bronx – Black 47
25. Brooklyn – Mos Def
26. South Bronx – KRS-One & Boogie Down Productions
27. New York New York – Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & The Furious Five
28. No Sleep 'til Brooklyn – Beastie Boys
29. Brooklyn's Finest (feat. The Notorious B.I.G.) – Jay-Z
30. Big Pimpin' (feat. UGK) – Jay-Z
31. Across 110th Street – Bobby Womack
32. Native New Yorker – Odyssey
33. Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) – Christopher Cross
34. New York Soul – Ray Barretto
35. Funky Broadway – Wilson Pickett
36. 110th St. & 5th Ave. – Tito Puente
37. Un Dia en New York Los Hermanos Rosario
38. Fiesta en el Bronx – Frank River
39. NYC Beat – Armand Van Helden
40. New York City Boy – Pet Shop Boys
41. I Love New York – Madonna
42. I Love NYC – Andrew W.K. 
43. New York State of Mind – Billy Joel 
44. Theme from New York, New York – Frank Sinatra

So, as Frank Sinatra sings in his famous rendition of "New York, New York," let those little town dreams melt away and go listen to the mix here.

When it comes to events that include a cocktail hour or dinner in which jazz standards by classic male vocalists are wanted, clients often eagerly suggest either Sinatra, Dean Martin, or Tony Bennett. The name Mel Torme, a contemporary of these others, doesn’t often come up, though. I think it’s because in the casual listener’s mind – a mind that's not familiar with Torme's entire range of musical moods – his vocal style is considered a bit too showy or cutesy, and therefore might pose the risk of giving the event a schmaltzy air.

It’s unfortunate. In a gentler world, you’d be able to play a tender, lullaby-esque Torme song like “Brooklyn Bridge” at the early part of an event without fear that those under 65 will think you’re lame or a wimp, but for now, we’ve got to keep most of these playfully sweet vintage songs (come on, a lot of you like listen to them now and then) confined to our headphones, car stereos, or Valentine’s Day.

Mel Torme recorded a lot of albums during his career, though, and there’s a good amount of his songs that aren’t light and cute, but sexy and swingin.’ And some songs even veer into soul territory. The best example I’ve found of this is his hit from 1962, “Comin’ Home Baby.” The song kicks off with a bluesy piano riff and a gritty, smoky vocal that makes you think you’re listening to Ray Charles. Because Torme abandons his velvety romantic croon for this more soul-esque sound, coupled with the female back-up singers sultrily calling back in response to his singing, you get the impression in this tune that Torme isn’t interested in comin’ home to sweetly give you flowers and a peck on the lips, but that instead, when he arrives he'll take his girl right into the bedroom and – well, you get the idea.

We’ve played this song before during cocktail hour at events, and once a man asked who did it. When I told him, he looked surprised. I recall he seemed to expect me to say it was someone like Ray Charles or Otis Redding. But I think he walked away with a more impressive image of Mel Torme. Hopefully you will as well.

Mel Torme – Comin' Home Baby

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.