Image from underwoodpix.com

We hit up Day 2 of the 22nd annual UCLA JazzReggae Fest over the holiday weekend to chill and listen to some fresh riddims. Despite very atypical Memorial Day weather, it was very good times. It’s always interesting to return to the little part of this giant city that used to be pretty much my entire world, too.

I had been starting to distinguish between reggae and dancehall since hanging out with Wonderboy, and it was cool to hear the two back to back to really juxtapose the genres. Reggae has been what I put on to chill when not dancing to EDM, so I couldn’t see how it could be dance music in itself. Well, the dancehall guys, Mr. Vegas and Cableton, really got the crowd going! Stephen Marley busted out all his dad’s classics (which was perfect), and Alaine added an R&B element to the reggae sound–I really liked both.

Ultimately, I don’t think dancehall is for me, but it was very cool to experience since it’s outside my largely electronic scope. Was an incredible live performance, but the cultural differences about the function of the DJ threw me off a bit. Spin-backs two minutes into each track, bouncing from classic to classic with lots of breaks to toast–it was 100% track selection and 0% mixing. I understand that it is the style for the genre, but it just runs so contrary to my understanding of a DJ’s abilities as being measured just as much or even more by how well tracks are mixed than simply what is played.

In addition to the good music and people watching, I scored some delicious banana bread pudding and it was sweet to kick it with the homies. On the way out I also got a flier for another HARD party in July featuring my boys MSTRKRFT. Hell yeah!