House music

I've been into jazz since I was about 4, and still love it, but, sadly, there aren't a lot of people who like jazz near me, and there are very few venues where it can be heard live.

About 6 or 7 years ago, I ventured out to the downtown clubs and hit paydirt immediately. I found a bar where an excellent DJ team was playing progressive house. Their track selection was superb, and I was very impressed.

For those who don't know, house music is on a "grid", in 4/4 in 8 measure segments. Each track has a simple intro which is used by the DJ to find out where "one" is and to set a cue point. There are two (or more) players, originally vinyl turntables but more often CD players (and now, memory sticks with the tracks in mp3). The DJ gets one track playing, and then loads up a second track, adjusts the speed (BPM) to that of the first track and pauses the new track on "one". As the first track is drawing to a close, the DJ starts the new track, with the beats synchronised, and then, using the volume slider on the mixer, slowly brings the new track in over the speakers. The first track is either left playing until its end, or it is faded out. This technique creates a seamless stream of music without any gaps. If vinyl is used, then adjustments to the speed will also alter the pitch of the music, meaning that the music goes off concert pitch, but with CD players, they have a way of locking the music on concert pitch regardless of the speed.

There is a lot of commercial and boring house music out there, and some of it is very mediocre, but house is only limited by the imagination of the composer, and the best of it is superb. It is my opinion that the best house music is at the cutting edge of music today. Also, there is a large audience for it. Superb composers that one has never heard of keep popping up out of nowhere.

House owes a lot to jazz and fusion. In spite of its simple structure, it can be very interesting, it can really swing, and it can have a lot of soul to it.

I recommend it to you all. Some top composers/remixers include Jimpster (Jamie O'Dell), 16 Bit Lolitas, D Ramirez and Eric Prydz. That brings up another exciting feature: someone will create a new track, and then others will do a remix, which usually amounts to recomposition and sounds very different from the original.

It lacks the improvisation of jazz usually, but one (including myself) can play along with a track on a live instrument such as a saxophone or a flute. (That is where you need the music to be on concert pitch.)

Yet another feature of house is the use of a lot of Latin percussion. A lot of tracks are sambas and rhumbas, possibly without the composers knowing that.

I will start you off with one track, which also features an excellent, recorded alto saxophone solo: Laurent Garnier - The Man With The Red Face (Mark Knight & Funkagenda remix). Look for the 10 minute version.


Edited by Shrdlu - 31 Jul 2014 at 4:19pm

I am music producer and love to mix old classic jazz with new house music