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.

Music, Inspiration And "Too Much Boogie"

I received goodies in the mail last week -- two erotic short story collections. I just finished reading one of them, Too Much Boogie: Erotic Remixes of the Dirty Blues by Cole Riley.

After looking over the "track list" on the back cover I immediately turned to "Effects of Moonshine" by Dorla Moorehouse. Due to recent happenings in my own life after drinking actual moonshine, I had to read this story. I wasn't disappointed. The heat, the dancing, the bodies...

Zumbi

You like what you like. Sometimes you can't explain why you're drawn to someone, a particular show/movie, song; you just are.


A few months ago I opened Jorge Ben Jor's discography in my iTunes and let it play in the background as I worked. I already had quite a few of his songs with 5-star ratings, I workout to some, I want to do a burlesque routine to one and I've used them in some of my mixes and playlists. Now I wanted to hear everything. "Zumbi" (A Tábua De Esmeralda, 1974) struck me.

Zumbi / A Tábua de Esmeralda / Jorge Ben

"What song is this?" I wondered. It made me move unconsciously and when I listen to the layers at the end of the song I feel surrounded. It has the energy of a rally song--every time I play it I put the volume up. I have a visceral response to that song. The crescendo of the song represents all coming together. I wish the song would go on forever (or at least 2 more minutes!) Although it's in Portuguese I started learning the words. I sang along with the chorus and I knew the word "Angola" was in the song. And "Nina" and "Congo". But what exactly was I singing?

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!