ONE Joseph Malik / Take It All In and Check It All Out TWO Meshell Ndegeocello / Earth THREE The Luna Project / I Wanna Be Free FOUR The Easy Access Orchestra / Lazy Busy FIVE Jamiroquai / Little L SIX Manu Dibango / Soul Makossa SEVEN Los Chicharrons / Sunny EIGHT Willie Bobo / Spanish GreaseNINE Black Mighty Orchestra / Ocean Beach TEN Nightmares On Wax / Thinking of Omara ELEVEN remy shand / the way i feel TWELVE Belladonna / Moon Jumping THIRTEEN Kings of the Wild Frontier / Our Girl in Havana FOURTEEN Dennis Edwards / Don't Look Any Further FIFTEEN Zero 7 / give it away SIXTEEN Nina Simone / Feelin' GoodMixed live June of 2002 for the Roberto Cavalli show at Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills
No pretense, just pure disco classics, volume two. Mixed live from the vinyl.ONE It’s Raining Men / The Weather Girls TWO Gloria / Laura Branigan THREE Do You Wanna Funk / Sylvester FOUR Disco Inferno / The Trammps FIVE Ain’t That Enough For You? / John Davis and The Monster Orchestra SIX Turn The Beat Around / Vicki Sue Robinson SEVEN You Bring Out The Best In Me / Gladys Knight EIGHT Shame / Evelyn “Champagne” King NINE Jump (For My Love) / The Pointer Sisters TEN You’re The First, the Last, My Everything / Barry White ELEVEN Heaven Knows/MacArthur Park (Reprise) / Donna Summer TWELVE Dancing Queen / Abba THIRTEEN Don’t Leave Me This Way / Thelma Houston FOURTEEN Last Dance / Donna Summer
No pretense, just pure disco classics. Mixed live from the vinyl.ONE Never Knew Love Like This Before / Stephanie Mills TWO Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now / McFadden and Whitehead THREE Love Come Down / Evelyn "Champagne" King FOUR If You Could Read My Mind / Viola Wills FIVE This Time, Baby / Jackie Moore SIX I Love The Nightlife (Disco Round) / Alicia Bridges SEVEN We Are Family / Sister Sledge EIGHT I Will Survive / Gloria Gaynor NINE Funkytown / Lipps, Inc. TEN Vertigo/Relight My Fire / Dan Hartman ELEVEN I Feel Love / Donna Summer TWELVE Don't Stop / Sylvester THIRTEEN So Many Men, So Little Time / Miquel Brown
A late afternoon tea dance at an Atlantis vacation in Punta Serena, Mexico (Blue Bay). Recorded live from the vinyl in the late '90s. This photo is the view from the DJ booth. I remember watching dolphins gently playing and leaping in the bay to the strains of "La Vie En Rose" as the sun began to set.ONE Strong Enough / Cher TWO I Still Believe / Mariah Carey THREE High / Lighthouse Family FOUR Where Love Lives / Alison Limerick FIVE Don't Let This Moment End / Gloria Estefan SIX Nobody's Supposed To Be Here / Deborah Cox SEVEN Perfect Day / Indigo EIGHT Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot / Sting NINE Everywhere / Indigo TEN Breathe / Vick Moore ELEVEN Love Is In The Air / John Paul Young TWELVE La Vie En Rose / Grace Jones
Classic Tea Dance was one of the most popular events on an Atlantis vacation. As resident DJ I played over thirty of these parties, and put this CD together to highlight some of the bigger songs. Most of these tracks were huge records at the legendary New York nightclub The Saint.ONE Mac Arthur Park / Donna Summer TWO Without Your Love / Cut Glass THREE Never Can Say Goodbye / The Communards FOUR Left To My Own Devices / Pet Shop Boys FIVE Blue Savannah / Erasure SIX No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) / Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand SEVEN The Love Parade / The Dream Academy EIGHT Together In Electric Dreams / Giorgio Moroder NINE Souvenirs / Voyage TEN Hold On To My Love / Jimmy Ruffin ELEVEN Ain't Nothin' Gonna Keep Me From You / Teri DeSario TWELVE Heaven Knows / Donna Summer with Brooklyn Dreams THIRTEEN Mac Arthur Park (Reprise) / Donna Summer FOURTEEN Love Is In The Air / John Paul Young Mixed live from the vinyl in 1993
Hypnotic house music with few lyrics, chosen to create a "trance" feeling, with particularly long mixes/overlays. Mixed live from the vinyl in 1997. For Matt S.ONE "In An Ocean Of Joy"/Dreamcatcher TWO "The Fifth Symphony"/Street Corner Symphony THREE "Morning Moon"/Chage & Aska FOUR "Sharde"/Tin Tin Out FIVE "So In Love With You"/Duke SIX "Love U More"/Toni Di Bart SEVEN "Look Inside Your Heart"/D.D. Faith
Hypnotic house music with few lyrics, chosen to create a "trance" feeling, with particularly long mixes/overlays. Mixed live from the vinyl in 1997. For Matt S.ONE "Love Has No Name (Ars Longa Mix)"/Babble TWO "Hypnodelic"/Francois Kevorkian THREE "Stay Gold"/Deep Dish FOUR "Wrong"/ Everything But The Girl FIVE "That Look"/De'Lacy SIX "Love Commandments"/ Giselle Jackson SEVEN "Two To Tango"/Vanessa Daou EIGHT "Releasing The Beauty Within"/Glorified Magnified
Soulful vocal house. Some of the best songs from a great period in the '90s, and one of my all-time favorite mixes. Mixed live from the vinyl in 1996.ONE "Beautiful Morning"/Sensation TWO "Direct Me"/ Reese Project THREE "Back In My Life"/ Joe Roberts FOUR "Caught In The Middle"/Juliet Roberts FIVE "Love You All My Lifetime"/Chaka Khan SIX "How Can I Love You More?"/ M People SEVEN "Where Love Lives"/ Alison Limerick
Soulful vocal house. Some of the best songs from a great period in the '90s, and one of my all-time favorite mixes. Mixed live from the vinyl in 1996.ONE "Sight For Sore Eyes"/M People TWO "Trippin' On Your Love"/Kenny Thomas THREE "Newborn Friend"/Seal FOUR "Love Is Energy"/Joe Roberts FIVE "Tears"/Frankie Knuckles SIX "Your Eyes"/Groove Corporation SEVEN "Positivity"/Chosen Few EIGHT "Promised Land"/Joe Smooth
America after all it is you and I who are perfect, not the next world. -- Ginsberg This project began when I was invited to play at a reception hosted by the Orange County Museum of Art in honor of Robert Rauschenberg. I took my inspiration from Rauschenberg’s art as I programmed music for the evening, and the great range of his work gave me the freedom to choose from a variety of sounds including world music, jazz, and pop, along with other forms of electronica. Contemporary world music reflected Rauschenberg’s global vision and especially his work in the 80s which focused on local cultures and indigenous traditions. Cutting-edge electronica and acid-jazz were used liberally in the spirit of innovation and for their frequent use of sampling techniques (a form of collage) and their nature as technological art. The work of John Cage was incorporated, as was that of Fluxus artist Yoko Ono. Elements of spoken word were layered over instrumental tracks, reflecting Rauschenberg’s use of text. While I was pulling this material together, late at night, a bird perched near my window and began to sing (loudly). At first annoyed, I was soon struck by the strange beauty and complex patterns of the music. I put a tape recorder near the window so that I could capture the song and use it as a recurring bridge between selections. The bird song, along with background traffic and kitchen noises, was a nod to the audio component of Rauschenberg’s 1/4 Mile Piece, and was meant to evoke a multitude of associations, including the birds used in some of the artist’s works and his environmental concerns. After the event, I was left with a number of ideas not necessarily appropriate for a party setting, but which I wanted to explore. The late artist/director John Boskovich suggested that I make a companion piece to the live recording, and the result is the Rauschenberg Alternate. Rauschenberg’s aesthetic and artistic approach (especially his work with the combines) influenced the form, content, and tone of the piece. Essentially, the work is a meditation on America, community, and individualism. Its elements are lifted directly from my life: my reading, my work with electronica, and the sounds from my window. So the aural “collage” is composed using the sounds of my life, as Rauschenberg’s combines incorporate newspaper clippings, and as some of his installations include recorded sounds.At the time I had been reading Allen Ginsberg’s “Deliberate Prose” in addition to researching Rauschenberg, and was thinking a great deal about American politics and the place of the outsider in America. Some of the notes of introspection, spiritual resilience, and sadness reflect those musings (though certainly I view the piece as ultimately hopeful). The use of electronica then gains another dimension as it is, in other forms, the backdrop to life in many urban subcultures, and perhaps the score to modern-day disassociation. The range of rhythm tracks gives a varied texture to the collage, underscores the sentiments expressed, and helps to create the arc of the piece. The spoken passages and the bird song add counterpoint with their own distinct rhythms. Ginsberg’s poetry (from a June, 1959 reading in San Francisco) is placed prominently, along with readings from Amiri Baraka and Carl Hancock Rux. The bird sounds, beautiful and complex, are also almost sinister in their grating, insistent tone, especially when mingled with the muffled sounds of passing cars, and to me add a certain pathos. Used as a motif and an architecture, they are ultimately ambiguous and color the piece differently depending on one’s sensibilities. Because of my background as a club DJ, I approached the piece much as I would a condensed evening of dance. The arc that arises naturally in such an evening is reflected here, along with a sort of narrative progression. The piece opens with Ginsberg’s benediction and Leary’s initiation, and unfolds from there. It peaks with the twin statements of Ginsberg and Rux, separated by the hypnotic and melancholy "Sunbeams." "Argha Noah" is perhaps the most hopeful note, envisioning a new age emerging from the receding waters of chaos. "Because" is a directly personal statement, and the coda by the Red House Painters is meant as a tonic to all of the the electronica, and a representation of pure and simple acoustic American music. Programmed and mixed in May of 2001