DJ Abbie Debut (Recap)

Ten days removed from my DJing debut. I've since come down off the high to the point that I haven't listened to music since. Which is astonishing for me. But I guess, subconsciously, my body and brain knew a detox was needed. I had a lot of fun controlling a room with music. In the weeks leading up to it, I organized most of my "world" music onto one playlist to make it easy. Then I organized them based on their sound or the mood they set. It's all about mood for me.

A Random Moment with Jay White

Jay White, DJ

I can never blame anything on the alcohol. It was the music. It took his sets for me to learn who Adele is, choose a Franki Valli song for my burlesque routine and discover The Supermen Lovers. Always an hospitable host, I had to get up with him for a interview even though he claims he's not as cool as everybody thinks he is. DUMBO. Halcyon. He rolled up on his motorized scooter and we got to it.

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My name is Jay White. Brooklyn. I am in the hospitality industry. I’m also a student and a DJ.

A DJ. That’s why I chose you, that’s how I met you… but what do you do in the hospitality industry?

I’m a maître d' at Apothéke, in Chinatown. I was also a general manager for the same owner's previous business, The Wall Street Burger Shoppe and was a hospitality specialist during my college years at Starbucks—that’s where the hospitality background comes from.

Ok, with the DJ’ing, what was your first gig, your first break?

My first gig, DJing, believe it or not, was at the Chelsea Hotel. I was nervous, I was sweating, I didn’t know what to play next. I had a friend who was trying to mentor me through the DJ process, Richie Beretta, and he was telling me, “play this next, play that next” – my set was like an hour but it felt like the whole night to me. But that’s when I realized I wanna do it, everything clicked.

Backdrop: Apothéke

The following took place between 10:30PM Wednesday and 4:00AM Thursday


Following a relationship & race forum event, Geraldine* and I stood on Allen St deciding what to do next. Nah, let me rephrase that, we stood on Allen St deciding where to get drinks. I knew I wouldn't be able to drink without eating first. I had a great workout a few hours earlier and my metabolism was still revved up. We pregamed with pizza and water on Houston St.


Afterwards we walked to Chinatown to Apothéke. I hadn't been in that part of Chinatown since the Chinese New Year. I first learned of Apothéke on The Real Housewives of New York City. My interest was piqued when LuAnn walked there with her date, it was an out-of-the-way sort of place. The streets didn't look like they were in NY; I like places off the beaten track. The theme of the bar intrigued me as well--an apothecary. So when my friend told me he was working there I was very excited and admitted my RHONY viewing habits.

Feeling The Love

Early this morning I was tinkering around with my DJ software. The urge to listen to music came over me then I remembered I was working on a mix a few weeks ago that I never finished. I ended up trimming, crossfading and panning songs until 3 in the morning.

The mix I completed last night was mainly 70's music - majority being Jorge Ben Jor, Asturd Gilberto with some Lingala beats, George McCrae and Jamiroquai thrown in. I love the sound. Music you can feel. On Thursday night, I met DJ Sami (Fuzzanova). He was rocking the event with some great 60's & 70's sounds. A song I thought was Jorge Ben was actually Emilio Santiago he told me - a new artist to add to my music library!