The Blues and The Smooth. Music Music Music.

When Lisa and I decided to set up the UK Blues and Smooth Championships we knew that we would be walking into the continuous debate about the music to be played. What is Blues? What is Smooth? Is there a crossover? Now I am not going to go into in's and out's of the various arguments. I am just going to tell you, as the competition music DJ, what I consider to be the various styles and where you might find them in the actual competitions. This will hopefully help you in your decisions about what to enter and what to practise to. These are only examples and actually the range of music I could choose from is vast. Perhaps next time I will talk about the R&B I could use.

Blue, Blues Blues.

 

Let's start with the amazing Buster Benton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ILvoVn-T0 

This is a piece of classic "Middle of the Road" Blues. In competition terms you could get this for newbies or more experienced dancers.

 

Now a track from Jimmy Dawkins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVaCXCpv_4w. Much slower and In need of more dancers interpretation. Your only going to get something like this if your in the Opens or maybe Down and dirty.

 

Another Blues Classic originally by Muddy Waters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaRbgUDpBdo Why would I put this in. Because of it's short. swinging and those wonderful breaks. Hit them and the Judges might just be impressed.

 

Smooth, Smooth, Smooth

 

Let the debate begin. What you dance to Smooth is up to you. But here are a couple of what I consider to be Smooth tunes. Your going to get something like this as part of the Valentines Trophy and for sure in the Juke Joint Trophy. "Cause we play it a lot at Juke Joint"

 

 Tower of power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVWxYSko5FU. Great tune AND it also has breaks. This is smooth. Yep. Reckon this would be a pretty good competition track. Downside, its 5.20 long and I would not dare to chop it. Against my principals. Anyway the coolest breaks are at the end.

 

Here is a heads up. Somebody will get a Curtis Stigers track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT7DdqiMnkk This is a very Smooth piece of Jazz. It's so smooth if I tilted it a bit you would slide off. But will you get THIS Curtis Track!!!!

 

My last selection today is Blue Six. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByC96NIXNkA. Used to be a regular play at Juke Joint. It's starting to get near to the R&B vibe, But not quite.

 

Thanks for looking. If you are still thinking about booking then get shifting. Booking can be via the website at http://www.curlywurlyevents.com/blues-.php or you could contact Lisa direct on 07763 134026 if you want to talk to somebody.

 

The Facebook competition page can be found here https://www.facebook.com/events/1573372316239595/