Essential DJs

11/08/2024

😂

11/07/2024

Transform your special day with Essential DJs.
We provide exceptional ceremony and reception services, ensuring unforgettable moments with the perfect music and atmosphere.

Book your 2025 wedding now!

11/04/2024

New Music Monday:

Cyril has been coming with some heat lately. His remake Stumblin' In' breathed some life into a long forgotten or missed gem from the late 70s. This remake of Paramore's So Into You is a vibe and a half. Loving those effects on the chorus vocals beautifully performed by maryjo. This mixes well with a cheeky remix of Everywhere by your Aunt's favourite band, Fleetwood Mac. Even on the worst night, I'm into this song.

CYRIL, maryjo - Still Into You is OUT NOW! Stream/Download: https://spinninrecords.lnk.to/stillintoyouYTCheck out our 24/7 livestream: https://www.youtube.co...

11/02/2024

They went deep on the dinosaur vibes at the family event we were a part of earlier this week. Good times working with some great people. And with Halloween in the rearview mirror, event companies can take a second to breathe before the holiday events start rolling in.

10/28/2024

New Music Monday:

We've been bumping this one steady for a month or so. Keep your ears peeled for the Muzik Junkies Break Edit. That's the version we are liking the most right now. Pair it up with some Danza Kuduro and you've got yourself a party.

DJ Snake & Peso Pluma – Teka (Official Music Video)Listen to “Teka” here: http://DjSnake.lnk.to/Teka Join DJ Snake’s Discord server: https://discord.com/inv...

10/22/2024

Last wedding of the season is in the books ❤️ On to the Halloween festivities! 🎃

04/22/2024

Sound check ✅ 🎤 🔈 Robson Stage this weekend with . Thanks to and for the hook up. We had a blast! 🚀 🤠

04/18/2024

Taking the new Pioneer FLX-10 out for a spin at the Vancouver Convention Centre

12/31/2023

Excited for another year of epic NYE vibes with featuring and . Time to start off 2024 with a bang. It’s a celebration!!! 🎉

12/08/2023

Another holiday event in the books at the Italian Cultural Centre with our festive partners ESonic Productions
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11/30/2023

Chapter 9: The 90s

Once we hit the 90s DJing was in full stride and about to break into the mainstream. Nightclubs were proliferating and the few bedroom hobbyists found their demand beginning to grow at various venues and events around the world. Hip Hop was beginning its climb to overtake Rock as the most popular genre in North America, taking DJ culture along for the ride.

And what were the tools of the trade? We talked previously about the CMA-10-2DL mixer, a groundbreaking piece of gear from back in the day, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t speak of the legendary Technics 1200 turntable, evolved from the SP-10 which was the first direct drive turntable which helped facilitate scratching and other turntable techniques. These were the standard for decades until….

Denon released a rack-mounted dual CD player with variable pitch control in 1993. The Pioneer corporation leapt into the game shortly after in 1994 with the
CD-J 500 - a top loading single unit player resembling a turntable more than a piece of studio hardware. This was the beginning of the CD-Js assent into hardware dominance in the DJ world, but they would still have a few years to go before overtaking the dominant Technics 1200.

Turntablists, hip hop DJs, and music snobs alike would take awhile to come around. During this time the technique of beat juggling began to come to prominence with DJs mixing back and forth quickly between two records to produce unique patterns and sounds. DJs began incorporating this technique into their routines and eventually it became a category of its own at DJ competitions.

All the while, during the decade, an underground electronic music scene was developing at various clandestine events throughout the world. Eventually, this would bubble to the surface in the Electronica boom near the end of the decade.

More on that next week.
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11/21/2023

Evolution of the DJ

Chapter 7: House Music

New York City native Frankie Knuckles moved to Chicago in 1977 to assume his DJ residency at soon-to-be-legendary venue The Warehouse. It was here where the beginnings of house music began to take hold. Using tape edits of disco songs and extended instrumental sections, like that done in hip hop, allowed DJs to create new compositions more favourable to the dance floor. However, it wasn’t for a few years, until drum machines were added to the mix in the early 80s that the sound of house music really began to take shape, helped by such iconic pieces of hardware such as the Roland TR-808, TR-909, and TB-303.

Similar to disco’s roots, Black, Latino, and LGBTQ communities pioneered and shaped the origins of house music. While up for debate, the first true house record is generally agreed to be Jesse Saunders’s “On & On.” Recorded with Vince Lawrence in 1983, and test driven by Saunders at venerable Chicago nightspot, The Playground, shortly thereafter.

Photo of: Frankie Knuckles

11/18/2023

Evolution of the DJ

Chapter 6: Technical Innovators

When people think of DJing one of the first elements that come to mind is the scratch. Now, while most DJs will tell you the most important aspect of DJing is track selection, scratching does get a lot of fanfare for its creative elements and unique sound.

Joseph Saddler aka Grandmaster Flash is widely hailed as popularizing the scratch and early scratch techniques. He was the first DJ to garner mainstream success as an artist with the Furious Five. Their hit The Message is still widely hailed as one of the greatest hip hop songs of all time.

However, it is Theodore Livingston aka Grand Wizard Theodore who is credited with inventing the scratch in 1975, as well as the needle drop. Grandmaster Flash did develop further noteworthy innovations in the craft such as the backspin, quick-mix theory, punch phrasing, and the slipmat.

11/13/2023

Evolution of the DJ

Chapter 4: Disco Emerges

The 70s were an exciting, gritty, and ground breaking decade for the craft of DJing. With the rise of disco and the emergence of hip hop shortly thereafter, the conditions were ripe for creativity and innovation to begin to bloom. New York City was the Mecca being home to legendary nightspots such as Studio 54, The Loft, The Gallery, The Sanctuary, and Paradise Garage.

It was here that DJing began to rapidly evolve under the hands of disco pioneers such as Steve D’Acquisto, Larry Levan, Francis Grosso, and David Mancuso.
These taste-makers educated crowds with their selection of funk, R&B, and rock records, searching for the choice selections that kept the dance floor full while experimenting with transition techniques to keep the energy flowing.

With disco beginning to exert its dominance on the decade as both a musical style and a cultural force, the idea of the DJ, not just as a radio personality, but a centre piece at nightspots and events began to take hold.

“But there’s no question that a real DJ can shape a night of music with his personality, style, and spirit, magically turning a string of records into a spontaneous symphony.”

- Vince Aletti

11/10/2023

Evolution of the DJ

Chapter 3: The 1960s

Enter the 60s.

A revolutionary time both politically and technologically for the art of DJing. Things start to get interesting here with the proliferation of nightclubs and discotheques throughout America and Europe. Specialized DJ equipment, such as Rudy Bozak's classic CMA-10-2DL mixer, began to appear on the market. And in 1969, God bless this innovator, American club DJ Francis Grasso popularized beatmatching at New York's legendary Sanctuary nightclub.

Here in the late 60s is when disco emerged in the US cities of New York and Philadelphia seen by some as a reaction to counter culture’s dominance by rock and roll and pioneered by the Black, Latino and LGBTQ communities.

Some other notable personalities of the time were Dick Biondi, who first introduced America to The Beatles, as well as Cousin Brucie, and Wolfman Jack.

11/10/2023

Chapter 2: The 1950s

The evolution of the DJ continued through the 1950s laying the foundation for the innovations and progression of the craft over the following decades.

Let’s get groovy for a minute and travel back to a time when DJs continued to play records on the radio and at parties, growing in popularity as the years went on. The 45 was king (RIP Mark) and the rhythm of rock and roll, the sounds of jazz, and the soul of the blues filled the air, creating an unforgettable era of music and dance.

We’d be remiss not to give a shout out to Alan Freed. A pioneering Cleveland DJ who coined the term “rock n roll” and no doubt influenced the Hall of Fame’s location, years later. And let’s not forget about George “Porky” Chedwick, a Pittsburgh DJ whose 50+ year career was built on playing so called “race records” back when other stations wouldn’t. He helped give many black artists their due back in the day. Thanks, Porky.

The emergence of rock n roll began here and would be the driving force behind popular music for decades to come. From Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets to Elvis Presley, rock n roll and the DJs that played it, were extremely influential to the culture throughout the 1950s and beyond.



Photo of Alan Freed

11/07/2023

Evolution of the DJ

Chapter 1: Beginnings

Y’all remember Walter Wiinchell?

Ya, me neither. But this cat can be credited with coming up with the term “disc jockey” back in 1935 when describing radio announcer Martin Block. That was the birth of the name as Block played records whiie the station awaited updates in the trial of accused kidnapper Bruno Richard Hauptman. His schtick was that he was broadcasting from a ballroom with some of the best band’s in the nation. What a riot this guy was. DJ’s are fun!

While you might not remember the name of the aforementioned criminal in question, you probably should. He was responsible for the death of acclaimed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne’s young boy. This was dubbed the Crime of the Century, at the time and a dark link to DJ history.

Skip ahead a few years and we start to move the needle a little more. Across the pond in Otley, England where a young man by the name of Jimmy Saville threw the first live dance party in 1943. Over the next few years of parties he put two and two together, being the first DJ to use more than one turntable in a DIY configuration using two turntables welded together to form a singular DJ console. Pro tip: don’t dig deeper in Saville’s career. You won’t like what you find.
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11/04/2023

Halloween is always an interesting time in the DJ world. There are loads of events that can turn the fall spookfest into what I like to call ‘The Halloween That Never Ends!’. With Halloween falling on a Tuesday this year, that’s exactly what happened. However, for those of us in the event world, this surge of events around Halloween usually coincides with the end of the wedding season and as we await a busy December full of holiday productions, things can get a little slow.

So, it seems like now would be the perfect time to take a little stroll down memory lane. No, I’m not going to fill your feed with images of events of yore (although come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea – could be hilarious). I figured we could dig a little deeper in the world of the DJ and how we got here. Coinciding with this year’s celebration of the timing couldn’t be better. And now..

Evolution of the DJ

Let’s do this….