Hello funksters. I’m dropping the mix early this week to celebrate the holiday season. I’ve broken a few of my guidelines to bring you an hour of my favorite jazzy house tunes from some of my favorite producers and labels. I usually limit myself to no more than two (maybe three) tracks from the same artist or label, but I’ve ignored that limit on this mix. I also usually cap the track list to twelve tunes, but I push it out to sixteen on this one. I guess that makes this a holiday special.
I wanted a relatively chill jazzy house mix that would be fun to play while visiting with friends and family during the holidays. I had a few tunes in mind that I knew I wanted to include. Bunkergroove has been part of my sets for at least a year, probably longer. I still love playing it. Same with That’s Right—the horn solo near the end is so fine. Others, like Solana and Get Down, are also favorites that have a long history in my live sets. Then there are several newer tunes that I expect will quickly become go to records when I need to bring out the jazz. The Sax Man, Get a Little Groove On, and Jazzy Nights have all recently captured my imagination, but really I love all the tunes on here.
I’m pretty happy with my mixing here, but there are a couple of places where I’d do things slightly differently. For instance, the transition from Solana to Saudade Groove is more abrupt than I’d like. Some of that is due to the structure of the tunes themselves, but I can often find creative ways to deal with such troublesome tracks. In this case, there’s a breakdown near the middle of Saudade Groove with just some guitar that I could probably use as an intro. Once the track is fully mixed in, I could then jump to the actual beginning. On the fly edits like that are pretty common in DJ mixes and help keep the flow of music nice and smooth. Usually the goal is to make the transitions as seamless as possible so that you can’t really tell when one song ends and the next begins.
These critiques are mostly just me being a perfectionist and looking for skills and techniques that I want to improve. I doubt most people would even notice these “issues” except that I bring them up. Hopefully my highlighting my shortcomings doesn’t ruin the mix for you. If you want to hear how I handle it next time, you can always come down and hear me play at Falling Sky.
That said, my next dates at Falling Sky are coming up fast: December 5 and January 2. As always, it’s a pleasure to see everyone who comes down for the music, food, drink, and cheer.
Thanks for reading and listening. If you’re enjoying, please subscribe so you’ll always know when a new mix drops. Also, feel free to forward or share this with anyone you think would enjoy some holiday jazz.
Happy holidays and stay funky!
Tracklist
The Sax Man — Disco ‘N’ Fusion
Disco Freak RecordsMidnight Jazzer (Extended Mix) — Walter G
Groove CultureTrip Into Soul — Walter G
Tropical Disco RecordsStreet Players — Daisuke Miyamoto
Decade RecordsWater Splash — Daisuke Miyamoto
Groovebom RecordsBunkergroove — Matteo Matteini, feat. Claudio Sax Fabiani
Pink FunkThat’s Right — Dam Swindle
Heist RecordingsSolana — Dominic Balchin
Tropical Disco RecordsSaudade Groove — NovaVibes
GoosebumpTouch Of Jazz — Dominic Balchin
TDR LTDTurn Me Down — Daisuke Miyamoto
The Kyoto TraxDawn — Daisuke Miyamoto
Hive LabelGet Down — Doug Gomez
Merecumbe RecordingsGet A Little Groove On (Club Mix) — Modesti
Home RunJazzy Nights — Daz Paget
Soulful EvoltionSax Sensation — Dominic Balchin
Tropical Disco Records