LETS GET READY TO SALSA AND MAMBO

The dance floor would go berserk once i banged this in from the very first beat…my light man Jumpin’ Jason would black out the room and build the lights right along with the build up of this track… not only that but the Funky Black Man, Timmy Butler would wait for my cue and play live keyboards as well…wow…what an experience!..i always felt like a conductor

yes we usually played almost the entire song…made dancers sweat their asses off and assisted in making many love connections over the years….very much the opposite of today’s dj’s that play for what i call the “short attention span theater”

you know what i mean if you have been to a club anytime in the last 10 years…you’re lucky if you hear even 30 seconds of any particular song…naturally not all,  but most of today’s club dj’s are more interested in showing off how fast they can call up an mp3 on their Denon Serato system and bring it in while three different effects are going on, than in programming a flow and ebb throughout the night…i know the times they will always keep-a changin’ but thats why the music biz is so fragmented.

It is ok though since i am still in the dance music scene to an extent, it keeps me young…and i can always take it back whenever i want right at home with my Bozak 1620, Original Technics 1200’s, some friends and a few cold ones.

Well, it looks like i am reminiscing lots lately of my tenure behind the turntables…i believe it’s because it was such an important part of my life. I started mixing in 1973 (get the calculators out to figure out the age…it’s all good)

Our music and the dancers that religiously showed up to dance to it was a “happening” more than a regular club night.

We really created a very mysterious vibe with our music…anyway, i am working on my book about those days and this is just a miniscule excerpt extracted from the first drafts…enjoy….house music all night long…..

Great Merengue version of an old standard!

Here is a house music track that became an anthem of sorts. Anytime i mixed this in it created a frenzy on the dance floor. I first became aware of the house music scene, mostly from Chicago and Detroit in about 1985, this track came out in ‘88.

So a 16 year old daughter of a friend  says “Mom,  J.I.Starr  has a lot of those big CD’s!  Her mom asks her what she was referring to….apparently it was my vinyl records collection …well i was playing Salsa House by Richie Rich at that moment and that’s what reminded me to dig this out of the crates…i will continue to play my “big CD’s”….. at home at least….

I remember that time fondly because i helped popularize this music in the North New Jersey area at the infamous Foxes Dance Club in Jersey City. This is the short “radio mix” that included all the elements that made this a dancefloor scorcher….so many fond memories… enjoy this instrumental masterpiece of dance music history while you continue your surfing around.

A weekly dose of celebrity news and gossip and some general silliness…a quick recording on my very portable Vado HD

ITS THE TOP  10  TROPICAL MUSIC COUNTDOWN

The Rock Horse Band performs Scandal’s “Warrior” featuring Eileen on lead vocals live at the Exchange in Rockaway, NJ on 2/26/2010…if you enjoy classic rock catch Rock Horse live at their next live gig…check http://rockhorseband.com for dates or peek at this:

Friday April 2

Arthur’s, St. Moritz
White Deer Plaza
Lake Mohawk
Sparta, NJ 07871

Friday April 30

The Exchange

160 EAST MAIN ST. ROCKAWAY, NJ

Friday May 14

Tap Room Somerset Hills Hotel
200 Liberty Corner RoadWarren, NJ. 07059

SOME BOCHINCE / GOSSIP NEWS AND SILLINESS IN GENERAL WITH…..J.I.STARR….LETICIA REYES….KELLY B.   YOU CAN CATCH ENLAESCENA.COM ONLINE TV FOR MORE…

Ok..Let’s go back to the year 1990…a young lady by the name Eileen was the lead vocalist of a group called the Girls Club on Active Records. Active a subsidiary of  Select Records was the label home of Kid N’ Play, Chubb Rock and UTFO among others.

Freestyle Music  never had many professionally filmed videos produced but made an exception with the Girls Club and their  1990 hit “I Lost the Love”.  Other singles recorded by the Girls Club were a remake of the Vanity 6 hit “Nasty Girl” and a remake of the timeless classic by France Joli “Heart to break a heart” which was a duet with fellow freestyle singer Noel (Silent Morning).

Although “I Lost the Love” was the song that garnered the radio play in NYC and most major markets, it was “Heart to break the heart” that I and my contemporaries were spinning on heavy rotation. I had the good fortune to make a name for myself at the club of choice from the mid 80’s through the mid 90’s for the New York Metro area,  Foxes in Jersey City, NJ. This is where I called home for many years as both the DJ and GM. Foxes Dance Club provokes many long lasting memories for many people, as evidenced by a “Remembering Foxes” group on Facebook.

My personal special memory involves the promoting of the weekend schedule. We had secured the services of France Joli, a citizen of Canada, and promoted the night extremely heavy on all the major radio stations and of course on flyers and ads in the local music mags as France Joli was the radio darling of the biggest dance station at the time in New York which was Hot 103.  At the very last second (a Friday afternoon) I get a call from France Joli’s manager stating that they were having a problem with her work visa and would not be able to travel to the states. Here we are expecting a minimum of 1000 hard core dance fanatics on a Saturday night and I had only half a day to think of something….quick!

“Well, the Girls Club had created lots of buzz with their version of Heart to break the heart, so lets hire them as the last minute replacement”…the crowd was understandably bent out of shape when I had to go on stage and explain what happened to the headliner they were expecting, but to everyone’s surprise Eileen’s stage presence and charm won over the crowd and soon, with the exception of a few grumbling customers who demanded a refund, she had all of us eating out of her hand.

A few years later after many more gigs, Eileen became my wife and yes we are still together. So in this case I “Found the Love” Enjoy the video and keep checking back for more excerpts from my upcoming book.

*this is an excerpt of the book I am working on TheRecoveringDj which will feature some prized photos of all the celebrities I had the pleasure to work with  throughout my years as the resident DJ/GM of one of the best nightclubs in the NY metro area ever!