Turntable Tour — Chop Suey Seattle WA 1.28.2005
Originally uploaded by isaidjon.
The Turntable Tour came through Seattle last evening. Needless to say it was a night of pure hip hop love.
After the trainwreck known as the house DJ played (although his selection was *nice*, the mixing was horrendous and a buzzkill), DJ Icey Ice came up to warm up the crowd for real, with classic vinyl selections and wonderful blends.
DJ Jumi from Japan came up — this is her first tour in the US…she got down displaying her fast scratching techniques. One wonders where a female, in Japan no less, picks up the art of turntablism. I was most fascinated with her obviously Japanese mannerisms, when the crowd cheered her on, and the host gave her props. kawaii da ne!
Next up was Grand Wizzard Theodore–the man for whom this probably wouldn’t be possible, since he is well known as he inventor of the scratch! He was technically on point–perfectly on beat like a computer, flashing back and forth. You can definitely tell he’s from the “old school” based on how he did his thing. He’s a great showman–and the highlight for me was when he started lifting the needle up and putting it down, perfectly on beat, for about 2 minutes–then he goes to put on his *blindfold* and does the same! Niceness. all and all he represented well, and displayed that he still keeps it fresh.
Qbert (pictured). What can we say? what needs to be said about the Grand Mixer?! He performs with his own turntable (meaning the one he invented). My mouth was open the entire performance. He did stuff i can’t even explain except he started to convince *me* that he really does talk to aliens with his turntable. bump an MPC or a metronome–Q always has impressed me as the cat who is the illest on the scratch, and has a complete sense of rhythm. So many DJs want to start off by scratching, and can’t even bob their heads to the beat properly. I’d love to see a rule for anyone aspiring to be a turntablist–if you can’t dance, you need to get lessons.
DJ Flare comes “out of his cave” for a performance. He’s the cat who invented his eponymous scratch (truly this is a night of legends!) When he first came up, i refused to believe he was who they said he was. He reminds me of an old DJ friend from back in high school (Whaddup Matty P!) he didn’t have his set rehearsed, so he spent time just cutting this and that–sometimes kinda just wild, and sometimes completely on point. i personally wished he would have spent some more time getting a little routine together, for the crowd sake, but some people weren’t really wired to perform.
Jumi came back up for a few minutes to cut, and Qbert came back hard as hell (pun intended) on the infamous “rock the bells” intro. more jaw dropping goodness.
By this time, my camera battery had gone dead, and i’d salvage it by leaving the camera off for a few minutes, then taking a few more pics. WHY OH WHY DID I NOT CHARGE THE BATTERY BEFORE THE SHOW?! (If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God)
Unfortunate camera situation, since now the Big Man, Jazzy Jeff, the man who made famous the transformer scratch, was about to take the stage–with a surprise emcee, Skills, emceeing the set. I only got three(!) pictures of the set, which was unfortunate, because Jeff was *incredible*. HE is the quintessential DJ–nice on the cuts, precise on the blends. All set we were treated to hip hop classics from all over the map, with plenty of the ill juggles and roboticically precise scratches that we’ve come to expect from Jazzy Jeff. You can tell that dude is mad quiet–just cool as all get out, and knows what he does best–rocks the tables. I’ve seen him perform on the CDJ-1000s before, but I don’t think that’s his main joint–he had a Power Book on stage, and he runs a setup like final scratch (my boy chris said what it was but i couldn’t hear him over the din). He convinced me that I need to look in something similar–there are certain things you can do with vinyl that you just simply cannot do on a CDJ. One major disappointment is that he didn’t do the Jazzy Jeff Fresh Prince Material, except for “Summertime”. I really would have gotten amped if he would have thrown on *Brand New Funk*. One major highlight, however, is that he ended his set cutting in Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to which the crowd just went bananas.
I left blessed, and inspired.
A night of turntable legends, and i got to go. Thanks wifey, and special thanks to Chris for the heads up on the show.
Several more pictures can be found in the gallery.