New York DJ

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.

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.

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

As I mentioned in a post in May about multicultural events, one of the reasons we love DJ-ing in NYC is the high prevalence of people of varied ethnic backgrounds at events. This gives us the ability to both play music from around the world for people and turn them onto it, and to receive requests from clients or from clients’ guests that turn us on to great music from around the world. But, most importantly, it usually means there’s an openness to – and often an expectation that – an international mix of songs will be played thoughout the night. This is something that we can’t thank the city for enough.

One artist we recently spun at a multicultural wedding reception at a hotel overlooking Central Park was Alabina, a group (now likely disbanded) comprised of an Isreali-born vocalist Ishtar Alabina (pictured), and a Spanish backing band from France named Los Ninos de Sara. Together, Ishtar and the band mix Arabic and Latin rhythms in their songs. Now, this might to some seem like it would turn out a bit forced, but Alabina makes it sounds seamless and irresistibly festive, even making you think why this musical hybrid isn’t more commonplace. At our recent event just described, Alabina worked perfectly on the dance floor for the incredibly international crowd, many of whom were from Armenia, and others who were from Israel, Russia, France, and Mexico.

Here’s an Alabina song which I think best captures the magic they make with their mix of sounds. “Habibi de Mis Amores” (basically translated as “Love of My Loves,” the first word in the title being Arabic for love or beloved, the last word being the Spanish plural for love) combines Arabic and Spanish not only in lyrics, but also in the wailing Middle-Eastern-style female vocals of the verses, and the Flamenco-y guitar and Salsa-ish percussion of the instrumental break. In the chorus, though, everything comes together as Arabic music dramatics and Latin music celebratoriness combine to create an elegant, sexy and euphoric tune. And while at the event described above this tune resulted in guests dancing, because the song isn’t ever overpowering in its energy, I think it also would work great to spice up any cocktail hour.