Weekend Roundup

It was all supposed to start on Thursday night.

Lenni, an unknown of an unknown, though clearly a known man about town - and how could he not be with that look(!) - had told me that I could spin some of my 45s that night at Makena as part of a party called AfroMama Jams. I was told to show up around 1am: I would have 45 minutes on the decks; I would not be paid. Lenni also told me to bring the heat, for the good people in Buenos Aires like to party hard. That was all fine by me, as I have sincerely missed DJing, and feel like I can let a heat rock loose when called upon. Unsure of how Northern Soul, and, for that matter Northern Rob, aka Roberto del Norte, aka DJ Good Flavor, aka DJ Buen Sabor, would be received in El Sur, I felt nervous all the same.

In the end, I had no reason at all to be nervous. There were no turntables at AfroMama Jams that night, and my debut on the Southern scene was not meant to be.

There was, however, a pretty good funk/soul/hip hop cover band at work. They even covered "I'll Bet You" by Funkadelic, which I though was pretty hip.



My favorite part of the evening, though, was when the B-Boy break dancers started making their moves. One, in particular, felt confident enough in his skills to get up on stage and dance when the band was in the middle of a "Give it to Me Baby" (Rick James)-"Thriller" medley of sorts. (Only now do I realize how the basslines in those tracks are strikingly similar, so the combination ultimately makes great sense.) As I looked closer at the B-Boy, however, I noticed that his sleeveless t-shirt had something written on the front of it. After struggling to make out the letters, in a flash it all became clear: his sleeveless muscle t simply read "The Beatles." I found this to be a supreme cross-cultural moment, and wondered aloud if the B-Boy had ever break danced to Ringo's drum solo at the end of "Abbey Road."

In the course of that Thursday night, a young man named Fabrizzio approached me to see if I would be interested in spinning records at his bar that Saturday night...

"Of course! That'd be great! What's the name of the place?"
"..."
"La Evita?"
"..."
"What? I can't hear you. Is the bar called La Evita Bar? Like, Evita Perón?"
"Levitar!"
"Aha, Levitar. Like the verb. To rise up. To levitate. I get it."

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Fabrizzio told me to arrive at Levitar at 1am as well on Saturday night. Parties in Buenos Aires go late, to say the least, and the function at Levitar would go all the way to 10am. Hence, very few heard my spot from 1-2:30, save those that worked at the bar and were setting things up. In fact, the place didn't really get going till around 5am. Nevertheless, I had fun, I danced, I enthusiastically sang along to Wild Cherry, Kool and The Gang, KC and the Sunshine Band, and, who could forget, Jamiroquai, and got home around 6am. I think the young people ultimately want to hear hip hop and the hits down here, and they don't really seem to care whether the music they're hearing and dancing to is off vinyl or mp3, so that's that.

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In other DJ news, at this point my Scandinavian tour looks to be set: April 18th in Malmöe, Sweden, at Club Funtion; April 25th in Helsinki, Finland, at Soul Sides; and April 30th and 31st with The Fabulous Mr. C in St. Petersburg, USSR. That's what's up!