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My friend Peter Kirumba the other made a Facebook post on his timeline telling off those who post stuff about DJs who only know how to spin using laptops.
Kirumba is a veteran who watched legends like Spanish DJ Paco Perez (Kenya’s first celeb Disc Jockey who revolutionised the spinning craft at Club Boomerang), DJ Adamz, DJ Hussein Abdallah, DJ Tony Tubbs and DJ Sweet Njoro do their thing on santuri. I had the same discussion with my childhood friend, Rashid Kilanga, after he posted a mix by DJ Paco this year in Spain. The difference was that the old vinyl DJs waited for the music to play near to completion before mixing, unlike this ‘Gmail generation’ DJs who play for only one minute before mixing.
If the musicians wanted one-minute songs, they would have recorded one-minute songs!
I really hate it when the mahewa generation DJs play soul — one hardly gets any satisfaction from the one-minute mixes. Old songs had a climax, then slowed to conclusion. Most of us had crammed the climax lyrics word for word.
On the same post, I saw a comment by DJ Paco Perez saying that he would have liked to work with turntables as they have no comparison to computers, the problem is that he keeps on travelling from one country to another and to move with 100 kilos of vinyl is very hard!
But one day when he gets fixed in some place (I pray in Kenya), he will go back to santuri. For the new generation, vinyl discs are also called albums. They have like 10 songs, five on each side. Though they also came in special edition for DJs for mixing that have only two songs, one on each side, but on a longer mix version or club mix. With vinyl, one can hear drums on one speaker and guitar on the other especially, Franco songs. I am sure those who drank maziwa ya Nyayo know the likes of DJ Paco Perez, who returned to Kenya in 2011 and played at Nairobi’s Gallileo Lounge.
For me, to be in the presence of DJ Paco Perez is like having dinner with President Obama. This is the guy who played a major role in music mixing in Kenya and who introduced music to matatus. The first ones were Rosa, which plied the Eastleigh route. The first time I heard Paco’s mix, I thought a band had sang for 45 minutes non-stop, only for my childhood best friend, David Okumu, to inform me that it was a DJ mix. Paco Perez was that good!
Most of the soul DJs of our generation learnt a lot from him. That’s the reason I only attend soul sessions when the DJs on the decks are DJ Adrian, Kareez Ngaara, Mato Makasi, Maurice Makasi, DJ Steel and for reggae it has to be DJ Shiqs, Kris Darling or Ken. When a DJ mixes using santuri, I am usually next to the decks just to see how the timing of the mix is done. You should see for example how DJ Adrian values his vinyls: he carries them himself and doesn’t allow anyone to touch them!
I miss the days when DJs came with bread crates filled with vinyls unlike these days when they come with a laptop full of premixed songs and with a software that helps in mixing. Sometimes technology constrains. The old DJs may use laptops, but still carry vinyls and mix them when doing the scratches! l support Kirumba. Today’s DJs are only assisted by technology.
@AineaOjiambo
