Category: WCS General

Hey guys,

Thank for all of the support these past 7 years of WCS at DNE. Unfortunately these lessons and dances have to be put on hold for a while because I had 3 DJs move too far away to work on Friday nights any more. This means that I am back to DJing on Fridays instead of teaching and swinging with all of you. 

Classes and lessons will continue at Longfellow’s on Sundays and I am taking a more active roll in the swing program they have on the Second Saturday of every month. So look for Hazel and Tybalt Ulrich in February (valentines weekend) and John Festa in March. 

Dance on,

Mr. Jonathan

There is no class or dance this Friday because I am DJing the Longfellow Staff party. I am running class and DJing on Sunday night at Longfellows so swing on by for even MORE new music. 

Also John Festa is coming up for the weekend of March 14th and 15th. After some considerable begging and pleading on my part he is booking a few – 45 minute private lessons on the 15th at Longfellows for couples only. One of the spots is taken already and my students are getting first shot at the rest because I am announcing his arrival earlier than any one. If you and your partner want a once in a lifetime lesson with one of our living legends please let me know yesterday so I can get your name in to hold the spot! The cost is $80 for the lesson and they will sell out quickly so please don’t wait on this…let me know ASAP!

Sunday Night 

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson w/Mr. J

6:45-7:30pm WCS w/Mr. J

7:30-? California Mixer w/Mr. J

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD

(Rt 20) Wayland, MA

Leadership is the manipulation of energy. 

Following is the embodiment of energy.

Connection is the tie that binds the two together.

Mr. Jonathan

www.MrJonathanIsMyDJ.com

603 475 1391  

Dance on! 

There is no class or dance this Friday because it is Black Friday and I doubt many people are going to feel up to dancing after hitting the malls. I am however both teaching and DJing at Longfellow’s Club JoEllen this Sunday for the second week in a row. I still have lots of new music to play from the Living Legends Of Dance last weekend. I hope to see you all out dancing…The following week I am the DJ doing the closing shift for the Club JoEllen Holliday Party…Thats 3 in a row for me…its like I hit the lottery!!!

Next week I really will share with you how and why the “Free-Jay” proved to be as good as what they paid for him and how because of Free-Jays Promoters slowly changed the music that was played at events and how they turned music into money!

 Saturday Night

$15
7:00 Lesson
8:00 Ballroom Dance w/DJ Brenda
DNE School of Dance (up stairs)
78 Princeton St
N. Chelmsford, Ma

Sunday Night 

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson w/Mr. J

6:45-7:30pm WCS w/Mr. J

7:30-? California Mixer w/Mr. J

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD

(Rt 20) Wayland, MA

Leadership is the manipulation of energy. 

Following is the embodiment of energy.

Connection is the tie that binds the two together.

Mr. Jonathan

www.MrJonathanIsMyDJ.com

603 475 1391  

Dance on! 

In 2007 I was in love with West Coast Swing music! I would spend my free time on Napster and iTunes looking for new music. If I had an extra $10 I bought an extra 10 songs. Night after night I would dig through song after song longing for the next big hit. The only issue was not one promoter would hire a “wedding DJ” to DJ a swing dance. At that time I was in the rotation as one of the DJs at Longfellow’s Country California Mix nights, but even they would not let me play their swing nights because I had no experience in the very fickle swing world. Something just had to be done.

Dance Boston was hosting their annual swing competition the summer of 2007 and I had just purchased a brand new Bose tower that could handle 500 people. I offered the use of my sound system in exchange for letting me DJ. The music that I collected was so good, in my opinion, that I just knew I could build a name for my self if I could get it in front of an audience. That summer I was part a select group of people that inadvertently played a big role in the demise of swing music at swing events.  Because some of us where wiling to DJ in exchange for building our resumes, we, “The Free-Jays” gave swing event promoters something better than a happier audience. We gave them a greater margin on their events. 

Next week I will share with you how and why the “Free-Jay” proved to be as good as what they paid for him and how because of Free-Jays Promoters slowly changed the music that was played at events and how they turned music into money!

Swing dancers owe a great deal to the Moving Pictures Expert Group. With out them the MPEG-3 or MP3 would not exist and DJs would still be buying Vinyl and CDs. Although CDs are much smaller than vinyl records, DJs that played CDs in the early 2000’s still had to buy the entire album to have the one song that everyone wanted to dance to. Music changed extremely slowly from the 50’s through the late 90’s. When MP3’s came out, a DJ could download the one song he needed for little to no money. New music became the norm and dancers were never happier! 

The barrier to entry for DJs prior to the late 90’s was tens of thousands of dollars and it took years to amass a collection of music that made you worth hiring. DJs saw it as a point of pride if it took several hours to set up their systems because it meant they had more music than everyone else. It was obvious why they charged what they charged and promoters were willing to pay extra to get the guy who took the longest to set up and break down because he was obviously the best. 

Starting in 2000 the barrier to entry was only a couple of thousand dollars and a computer that had a CD burner. DJs could “swap” music and burn the songs to a CD. This made set up much simpler and faster and beyond that it allowed DJs to carry WAY more music of value at once. Instead of having CDs that had one or two songs on them that dancers wanted, they could make their own compilation disks that held 15 songs each. Every song on each disk could be a winner! 

If we fast forward to 2007 a DJ could get started for about $1000…$500 for his equipment and $500 to buy 500 of the most important songs. Just about anyone with a laptop could amass enough music as a dancer to eventually be a DJ at a dance event. Which is what I did! Next week I will share how a revolution was started in Boston that was nearly the down fall on this dance in the North East.

Thursday – Saturday Swingin New England is in town and is a googol search away!

I am not holding class as I will be down south for “The Living Legends of Swing”

Sunday Night 

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson w/Steel

6:45-7:30pm WCS w/Steel

7:30-? California Mixer w/Steel

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD

(Rt 20) Wayland, MA

Leadership is the manipulation of energy. 

Following is the embodiment of energy.

Connection is the tie that binds the two together.

Mr. Jonathan

www.MrJonathanIsMyDJ.com

603 475 1391  

Dance on!