I've been watching this great 10 part Jazz documentary by Ken Burns. In the 1930's there were two major clubs in New York -- The Cotton Club and The Savoy Ballroom.



The Cotton Club was a lot like the Studio 54 of the day. It was the place "to see and be seen", but the Savoy was, I believe, much more like Twilo. You see, The Savoy was the only place in the city where white and black dancers could both go, and dance all night to the "swingingest" music on the planet at the time. You can see the from expressions on peoples faces that they knew they were experiencing something special.




So what does this have to do with djing? At the Savoy, they were so committed to giving the dancers a peak experience that they never wanted the music to stop. They had two bands, one would open and the other would close. When they were ready to switch, the second band would get up and start playing the same song as the first band. Then they would 'cross-fade' from one band to the other and the night would go on! How cool is that? They were beatmatching live bands for the benefit of the dancers!

This may be the earliest occurrence of 'mixing' for a live audience.

quote:

Originally posted by JamesAndrew I've been watching this great 10 part Jazz documentary by Ken Burns. In the 1930's there were two major clubs in New York -- The Cotton Club and The Savoy Ballroom. The Cotton Club was a lot like the Studio 54 of the day. It was the place "to see and be seen", but the Savoy was, I believe, much more like Twilo. You see, The Savoy was the only place in the city where white and black dancers could both go, and dance all night to the "swingingest" music on the planet at the time. You can see the from expressions on peoples faces that they knew they were experiencing something special. So what does this have to do with djing? At the Savoy, they were so committed to giving the dancers a peak experience that they never wanted the music to stop. They had two bands, one would open and the other would close. When they were ready to switch, the second band would get up and start playing the same song as the first band. Then they would 'cross-fade' from one band to the other and the night would go on! How cool is that? They were beatmatching live bands for the benefit of the dancers! This may be the earliest occurrence of 'mixing' for a live audience.

haha cool!

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Very cool stuff indeed...if you're interested in this kind of stuff I recommend reading the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton...talks about alot of the early forms of DJing which began in 1906!

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Originally posted by DJslantzz Very cool stuff indeed...if you're interested in this kind of stuff I recommend reading the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton...talks about alot of the early forms of DJing which began in 1906!

ive been kinda interested in finaly reading this... what section of a book store would that be in?

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quote:

Originally posted by DJslantzz Very cool stuff indeed...if you're interested in this kind of stuff I recommend reading the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton...talks about alot of the early forms of DJing which began in 1906!

Yeah, it's a nice book. I've been reading it over and over, that's probably the only book that I actually finished it without skipping pages....

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That Jazz video series is super cool. I would highly recommend it.

I will definitely check out the book as well! I've heard that it's a good read.

quote:

Originally posted by Frequency Mike ive been kinda interested in finaly reading this... what section of a book store would that be in?

music theory

i would personally order it off amazon.. much cheaper!

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word.. any serious dj should read it. it tells you about the DJ in general whether its turntablists, edm, disco, reggae etc. highly recommended.

btw, jay, bring back my book. its been long enuff foo..

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I've probably read that book 10 times since I got it a few years ago. I really can't get enough of it. Very well researched and organized. I need to get the new updated one!

-Dan

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Cool James. Thats the earliest dj'ing I've ever heard of

The sign says 'dancing to night til 4am'. You know they danced longer some nights.. lol. Swing dancing is sweet.. like a bouncy wiggle.

I'd like to check out that book too.. a lot of positive reviews from y'all !

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