by Alain Wong

Photo by Peter Loggins

1.    What’s your story? Where and how did you start dancing?

My story? Okay. It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin’ on the porch with my family, singin’ and dancin’ down in Mississippi. But that’s probably not the story you want to hear.

Back in 1995 a few friends of mine started talking about how they’d go out dancing to Big Bands around the LA area. It wasn’t until January of 1996 that they finally got me out to a place called the Blue Cafe in Long Beach. That’s where the Eddie Reed Big Band played once a month. These days of course he’s playing something else, but that’s another story best left untold. Having a Big Band like that packed into a tiny club was awesome, and I was hooked, so we went every month. Then we realized they had a band every Sunday, then we realized other places had bands too, and it just turned into a crack habit. Soon enough I was out dancing every night of the week, usually into the wee hours of the morning.

2.    How about DJ’ing – do you remember the first time you ever DJed and how it was like?

I figured that would be the next question, haha. I started Djing at the original Memories in Anaheim. We went there a lot, but in it’s “early” days most of the DJs sucked. One of our favorites though, was DJ Wolfman. He’s a great guy and was a big personality at Memories.  Eventually I asked if I could play a couple hour sets and he agreed to work me in. I don’t think I had more then 15 CDs to play from, and all the things most DJs worry about now wasn’t even part of the thought process back then, so it really was just a matter of playing a bunch of songs I liked. I think my sets really took because most of those who were coming to Memories were also dancing to live big bands and wanted that authentic sound when it came to DJed music. From there it just grew and eventually I had nights to myself at Memories.

Peter Loggins took notice of what I was playing as well and started “selling” me to a lot of the more national event coordinators he’d been working with. That’s certainly what put me on the national scene.

3.    Swingdjs.com – What’s it’s background, and what’s your take on the forum? Would you say it’s relevant today as part of the swing community?

SwingDJs was started as a Yahoo Group by George Gana back in 1999.  There’s a link to this old group in the SwingDJs link section. It was very active place, but after a few years though, George was less and less active in the scene and didn’t really have the time to maintain the group anymore, so he handed it over to me in 2002. I added Jesse Miner and Rayned Wiles as moderators to make sure the place kept it’s credibility, haha.

It wasn’t much longer though until the Yahoo Groups format was getting tiresome, especially next to the phpBB run boards that were gaining popularity. Jesse stepped up to the plate and volunteered to build and host a site dedicated to SwingDJs and the board as we know it today was born. For the most part it’s stayed the most welcoming, civil and on topic swing dance related forum around, and I’m very pleased with that. As such, I think it is definitely very relevant to today’s swing dance community. A couple hours spent reading up on that forum can put a lot of value advice, tips and tricks into the hands of a green DJ.

4.    If you had a single piece of advice to give newcomers to swing djing, what would it be?

Don’t over think things, it’s easier then you would imagine it to be.  So long as you push the buttons right and play good music, you’ll do fine. Well… usually.

5.    You played “Come Sail Away” sung by Eric Cartman in the Diversity Contest at Showdown 2006. What’s the story behind this song, and it’s significance to Showdown attendees?

Well, it was played in 2006 as a tribute to the first Diversity contest at the first Showdown. Back then it was just a last second song choice that happened to work perfectly at that place and time.  So, really, it’s only significance to Showdown attendees would be to those whom were at the first one. And for the record, I love Mikey Pedroza.

6.    You’ve got a list of Top 33 albums on your site. Any changes you would make to the list today, or have those favorites remained the same over time?

That list changed a lot in the past. These days however it’s stayed pretty solid. That is not to say that I don’t have a lot of new favorites that pop up from time to time that I’ll play more often in recent sets. However, that list of 33 really has stood the test of time in terms of albums I’ll often turn to. Now that I’m looking at it again though, hmm, perhaps I would make a couple tweaks. I’d be tempted to add a couple albums from some modern day New Orleans band.

7.    All-time favorite jam song?

Favorite jam song… well, it’s really hard to pick just one but I guess I’ll go with Earl Hine’s “G.T. Stomp.”

8.    Finally, where do you look for musical inspiration?

I’d still have to say that the music that came out of Harlem in the mid to late 30’s is still what inspires me the most.

Reuben Brown has been the head DJ at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown since it’s inception in 2002. You can read his DJ bio here.

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