From: "rshdolphin"
Date: Mon Oct 14, 2002 3:03 pm
Subject: Year of the "T" - Tracy Young is DJ of the Year !!!!
I was catching up on my CPI emails and ran across the one about Tracy Young. I totally agree with you that Tracy Young should be the DJ of the Year. Last year was Manny's year ...this year is Tracy's...I have started calling it "The Year of the T!"
Tracy has blossomed, come into her own sound, and become one of the hottest and amazing DJ's the circuit has seen. What a cycle to watch and experience.
Take it from someone who has come full circle in her music. Up until a few months ago, she wasn't one of my favorites. But a few months before the stars party, she TOTALLY got me with her music on a regular Sunday at Crobar Miami. Something had changed in her music.....She had a new sound ...she was on fire and she hasn't let up yet.
Tracy has a unique sound that has a power of its own. You cant compare it to Manny or to Victor. It is simply Tracy's sound. It can be hard and pounding, soft and teasing, and very sexual sound. Her music sneaks up on you ....your dancing ...feeling good....then she blows you thru the roof. Before you know it she's picked you up, tossed you around the dancefloor, and then punches you to the wall and the entire time you have a BIG GRIN ON YOUR FACE - BEGGING HER FOR MORE!
I am proud to say that she transformed my opinion and now I am one of her biggest fans. At the Stars party at Disney, for the first time in three years of circuit parties, I danced for FOUR HOURS without leaving my spot .....not ONE THING in my body, completely sober,......after being up since Saturday......I danced like a fool until the party was over and didn't even know it. I was stunned that music could actually consume you completely sober and lift your energy to an entire new level. Needless to say, I was exhausted at the end and my girlfriend said I cant believe you never left this spot, not once!! WOW!! I still cant believe it ...that was all Tracy and the music!!!
Everyone always bashes her for the foghorn thing, the Madonna thing, and not paying her dues. Well, after all the grief we here at CPI have given her and being one of the first woman to break out in this male dominated DJ world.....TRACY HAS EARNED OUR RESPECT!!!!!!
It's time we realize and recognize that Tracy is truly talented and gifted as a DJ and as a remix artist. She is her own sound and person. The woman really has talent..we should encourage it, embrace it, and cherish it.......no denying that!!!!!!!
She rose above the foghorn crap and she kicked all of our asses at the Stars Party. She continues to work us hard at Crobar once a month too.
AND!!!
This past weekend, Tracy is the FIRST WOMAN to EVER play Black & Blue. CONGRATULATIONS TRACY YOUNG!!!! She didn't get that gig for being pretty or because of Madonna....Tracy deserved that honor and she has earned it. I heard she was outstanding and that she turned it out!!!
From a non-fan transformed by your music to a DIE-HARD FAN FOREVER...... Speakerlvr sends Tracy Young MUCH LOVE and RESPECT!! Congratulations on B&B and Keep Working Us OUT!!
P.S. DEAN, I hear Tracy is not single. However, The line starts here.....I'M first in line ...you can be second......HEHEHE... I added my favorite pic of Tracy for you!
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From: "Paul Latiff"
Date: Tue Oct 15, 2002 5:58 pm
Subject: BLACK & BLUE REVIEW
Hats off to BBCM and the City of Montréal.....
EVERY DJ this weekend was just ON. (Paulette at the Main Event, and whoever did Recovery.....WOW...and Mark Anthony...was he pulling those remixes he played towards the end out of his ASS? Absolutely wonderful)
I was TOO THRU when they brought the Buddha out OVER the dance floor and he just spun around.
The fact that BBCM can throw such a large, multi-faceted event, and treat all the party-goers with such dignity and respect, while not letting them lose sight of the REAL reason for the event speaks to their professionalism and dedication.
When I was searched as I was going in to the main event, and they found my HIV meds, I was quietly taken behind a curtain, asked by a volunteer if I needed to have them stored in a fridge, told where I could find food if I needed it to take my meds, and given a "The Party Needs You" pamphlet detailing possible interactions with party drugs and meds, and then sent on my way. I was speechless.
THAT is how you throw a party.
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From: Ed Childs
Date: Tue Oct 15, 2002 10:39 pm
Subject: .:HUMANITE:. Black and Blue 2002
My first Black & Blue, and my second trip to Montreal, the first was way back in 1991. Unlike many cities that have had a resurgence in recent years, Montreal seems about as seedy and rundown as it was 11 years ago, perhaps even more so, lots of handicapped and homeless begging for change along Rue Ste Catherine. Montreal is a unique
combination of French party atmosphere like New Orleans, European culural influences, the regional pride of Quebec, and a bit of a New York edge as well. All in all this was very different than any other party I've ever been to. I was in Montreal Saturday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon.
SATURDAY TEA, DJ JOHN LEPAGE, CABARET MADO. Good music, small crowd, and cheap drink prices! Only stayed an hour or so before getting a bite to eat at La Pizzetta, then a disco nap.
BAL MILITAIRE, DJS GILLES MASSICOTTE & MANNY LEHMAN, METROPOLIS. The venue reminded me a lot of the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles in terms of size and the DJ booth on the stage and a large wrap around balcony. This place is huge! And it was filled! Much larger than I expected from the entrance on the outside. Great masculine energy of the Black Party type, everyone mostly in camouflage pants and barechested, a great equalizer of us as men. Although it really would be nice for a change not to find myself with GBA -- that's Glitter By Association -- the next morning after a military party no less. DJ Gilles Massicotte was awesome, I could have listened to him all night. Manny started with "Got The Groove" which he plays at exactly the right tempo at exactly the right volume with exactly the right lighting each time. Everyone went nuts, hands in the air and wild cheers. I think anyone else playing the same song would not get the same reaction, it's Manny's signature and works really well. From the opening things started downhill and he shifted into Top 40 Circuit diva stuff, unoriginal and nothing we haven't heard a hundred times before. But in all fairness the packed crowd seemed very into it even if I personally was not. Loved the stage shows but they didn't flow, the music always stopped, spoken announcements, show, applause, then the music resumes. Mark Baker's events with Gay Disney as the best example, that is how I personally like to see things flow. I left around 4:00am, thought I would take a two-hour catnap and head over for Victor Calderone at Stereo but the warm bed was too difficult to get out of. Heard great things about that the next day.
BLACK & BLUE, DJS TRACY YOUNG, PAULETTE/MINISTRY OF SOUND, TOM STEPHAN/SUPERCHUMBO, MARK ANTHONY. Apparently I arrived at exactly the wrong time for VIP ticket holders, took me about 45 minutes to get through coatcheck and security, which was basically a metal swipe and a respectful patdown with a slight shaking. Saw a few bullets on the floor which fell down from folks being shaken. Rude straight people cutting in line, or non-VIPs trying to get in through the VIP line, security were good at sending these people back to the end of the line. Folks with VIP tickets who arrived 30 minutes later than I did at 10:45pm breezed right in. Security was heavy-handed and all too present on the dance floor. Witnessed one case of uniformed security dragging someone off the dance floor, really killed my mood and lots
of others who saw this. Uniformed security patrolling the dance floor with flashlights really killed the party mood. Seemed like 75% straight ravers and 25% circuit boys to me, but more ravers at the beginning and mostly circuit boys at the end. Shows were kind of trippy and fun, some just kind of disturbing like the dancers in straight jackets getting zapped with electroshocks, well that's what it looked like to me, very Cirque du Soleil all in all: pouty acrobats and that gold painted buddha guy traversing the dance floor in a cage. The Human League show was basically the three of them singing on the front stage, two songs, not very long considering how much billing they got on the program. Tracy Young's set was pretty good, not as driving and intense as I've heard her at circuit parties, much more of the usual standard anthems and less of the intense trippy rhythms I've heard from her before. DJ Paulette was awful and put me right to sleep. Slow beats with a dropout about every 90 seconds. It almost became a joke with us, "I really like this, better enjoy it now, it will stop in about 45 more seconds!" But the ravers seemed very into her. The energy went way back up when Tom Stephan "Superchumbo" took over the turntables, had a great time with his set. Mark Anthony also did a good job, though not amazing like other folks have described his
Black & Blue sets before. All things considered it was a unique experience and I'm glad I went, but the circuit party vibe wasn't there for me, with the candy ravers and their pacifiers and the heavy-handed security presence and the straight women with their hair, ugh, just didn't feel like a circuit party to me for 75 percent of the time.
RECOVERY PARTY, DJS STÉFANE LIPPÉ, JAMES ANDERSEN, METROPOLIS. Not quite as crowded as Bal Militaire, but the same venue which I loved. Stéfane Lippé opened and I liked his style. Another Cirque du Soleil style show with acrobats twisting about elastic fabric hung on the stage, an audience member was tied to a chair while pouty go-go boys danced around him with unsmiling faces. Then James Andersen. Energy level was all over the map from really good, hard driving sounds to the occasional diva song, quite a number of complete fadeouts in the music, they seemed to be on purpose and had us all stopped on the dance floor wondering what just happened. This is the fourth time I've heard James Andersen so I can say he's one of the DJs whose music I generally do not like. The venue was great, the crowd was great and fun and frisky, Suzanne Palmer's show was great, her songs flowed well one into the next, she didn't stop to talk like so many divas do. For me, a recovery party in which the energy level grows over several hours, but keeps its focus on happy uplifting music, is the best way to close out a weekend and James Andersen did not deliver that.
MEMORABLE SONG OF THE WEEKEND: "Come Together" by That Kid Chris, I think I heard it at every party except the recovery party. It's on the Masterbeat Black & Blue 2002 CD, and I can't stop listening to it over and over again. It's not terribly new, but I really really like it.
OVERALL: I've checked Black & Blue off my list of big parties that need to be done at least once, not sure about going back, but I might. Expectations were set extremely high due to the longevity of this event and the life-changing religious experiences that others have written about. It would be hard for any weekend to live up to such lofty standards year after year. I didn't care for the straight raver focus of the main event, I could never escape the cigarette smoke anywhere in Montreal and the security presence was a huge buzzkill. However I will say that I only saw one guy on the verge of a swirl out, no messiness requiring medical attention, so security probably accomplished its goal. Favorite DJ of the weekend had to be Gilles Massicotte. Suzanne Palmer at the recovery party was the best show. I might come back next year, Bal Militaire and the Recovery Party had a good crowd even if the music was uneven, and circuit boys should definitely wait until the second half of the main event for the
kind of vibe we're used to experience.
