House music lover, Kelli Bigelow turns the table on John Johnson to see what's the motivation behind the blackbookscafe and get his thoughts on the current state of things..................................................read a little about Kelli Bigelow here

(From June 2003)

What is your all time favorite song line up ... give me the top 5.

This is a very hard question with there being thousands of nice House tracks.  I am going to have to answer with the songs that have meaning for me.  I can say that I have a preference for lyrics though.

  1.  Brand New Day(MAW f/Blaze)-  this song will forever be in my head as it will forever be attached to my memories of my first trip the the Winter Music Conference in Miami.  I can’t describe the feeling I got hearing this performed live with all the House headz from all over the country(Black, Puerto Rican, White, etc.) chanting the lyrics along with Kevin Hedge.

  2.  In my arms (DJ Pope f/Una) -  This song is sung by my favorite House vocalist(Una).  Some might say it’s because she is so attractive but her voice is so smooth and rich to me.  I love to hear her voice.  When I was younger I used to love Liz Torres.  When I saw her live at Odell’s with the Master C & J it was magic.  Una reminds me of Liz Torres, with a voice as soothing as a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

  3.  All loved out (Ten City) -  This song is so deep with bass that moves my heart.  It doesn’t get a lot of play which keeps it fresh in my mind.

  4.  Any Gospel-influenced House music.

  5.  Any Latin flavored House music.

 When did you first realize that the music you love was "house, club, disco" of that genre?

Interestingly enough, as I explained in a story on the website called “Retrospective,” I grew up on this music.  My mom used to go to Odell’s and took me and my younger brother to a few kiddie discos and Halloween parties.  I actually use to call the music “Odell’s music” until Marshall Jefferson’s “Move your body—the House National Anthem” came out.  Then I gave in and start calling it House music. 

Give me 3 of your favorite house music memories...( if you can keep it to only 3  lol )

I have seen it all.  But what sticks in my mind are the following:

1.  Seeing Ultra Nate’ perform “Rejoicing” live at the Paradox with the brotha’s from Mass Order as her backup singers. 

2.  Being in Odell’s to see the Fly Girl championship contest when the women just started stripping naked. 

3.  My first trip to the WMC in Miami.  I always liken this experience to Malcolm X’s pilgrimage to Mecca.

 What are your feelings about being over 30 and party scene in Baltimore versus other cities, such as NYC, Atlanta, Chicago.  Now relate that to the House music scene...

I really don’t party in other cities too much except for trying to get to the Shelter in NYC.  One thing I want to say is a lot of people always put Baltimore’s party scene down and compare it to D.C. and NYC.  I don’t think it’s fair to make those comparisons and this is why.  NYC has 6-10 million people in it.  If they can’t have a thriving music scene and nightlife then something would be seriously wrong with that city.  Also people sometime say how cool the D.C. scene is and that’s ok.  But Washington, D.C. is the Capital of the United States of America.  They have people from all over visiting there because of this.  You would really have to expect that they would have an international feel about the party scene. So the fact that Baltimore is continually compared to these other cities is somewhat of a compliment to us, especially since we don’t have millions of unified people of different races.  I really got to say that if it were not for House music I probably would never go out to clubs in Baltimore.  The regular radio music does nothing for me.  I love to dance but other genres don’t move my soul, except for Salsa.  But I can’t do those Latin dances.  Partying and being over 30 means nothing to me as far as being too old for partying is concerned. I see House music as many older people see their Jazz music.  You can never be too old to love your House music.  I actually have ambitions to own a House music/expresso/internet Café just like there are Jazz shops or Starbucks.

I am scared to ask but rate the following DJ's 1 being the best the last being least preferred. And explain why: Spen (Sean Spencer/Basement Boys) Wayne Davis (Paradox Owner/Cignels/Odells/Fantasy's) Bizkit (Good Vibrations) KWGriff (Good Vibrations/95.9) Boobie (92Q) Tanz (G-Fab Parties/x105 DJ Marcus (Courtneys) Oji (no need to mention Pope LOL LOL  *hollern* )

You tryin’ to get me in trouble with this one.  I better be politicalJ.  The dj’s you’ve listed are not in the same category and can’t be compared to each other by me.  But I must say that after communicating with and hearing a lot of the Baltimore dj’s over the years, I think this area has some of the best on the east coast.  I guess you can say that, although I like most Baltimore dj’s, dj Karizma is one of my favorites.  He never talks bad about other dj’s and hearing how he prepares for the Sky Lounge is cool.  He might re-edit a song during the week or that day and play it at the party that night.  You won’t hear it anywhere else but when he plays.  That’s cool.  If someone gave us(Baltimore House scene) a weekly place to play then all the great dj’s can rotate and really show what they got.  There is absolutely no reason why we can’t have a “Shelter” in bmore.  One question for you Kelli.  Who in the world is dj Marcus? 

At What point in time do you believe that our crowd (30 and over)moved away from actively supporting the underground music parties? OR was the it moved away from us... I.e. Venues weren’t catering to House parties (except for PDox) and many not all House DJ's conformed to survive.

I don’t think that Baltimore House lovers, who are now mostly over 30, didn’t really stop supporting Underground parties.  What I believe happened was many years ago the Paradox’s started having special parties like “Man Black”.  All local clubs try to sometime copy the bigger clubs to so what the city is feeling so they can promote similar parties.  Well Saturday nights at the Paradox started getting confusing and the vibe had changed.  You started seeing less and less familiar faces.  So people seemingly stayed away.  Area clubs looking up to the Paradox seemed to stop having Underground music.  If they did, it was always classics that people remember from club Fantasy or the early Paradox.  It seemed like dj’s Pope & Oji were the only ones trying to throw parties during that period.  Many dj’s just started playing any ole’ crap at parties.  A lot of people like me really admire Wayne Davis and looked up to the Paradox like a big brother.  So it was probably thought that if we just wait it out someone will do something to bring us back to the club. We all just kept working and raising our families.  Well, it never came.  But if you went to the Wayne’s 50^th bday/Odell’s reunion you saw all of the people from this era that I just talked about.  That party has to go down as the best party of the last decade.  I loved it.  

I would like to get your assessments on the following aspects and how they relate to the previous question:

     a.) We are mature adults and not partying 4 days a week due to families, careers, and old aged LOL.

This one may be related to convenience.  It’s hard to get baby sitters or party during the week when you have to go to work in the morning.  A lot of clubs only want to give Underground parties the “weak”nights.

     b.)Radio One has "transplant-non-Bmorians" as program managers and have no previous history of growing up and partying here in Bmore.Therfore, the indigenous music of this city is not played on the radio for the masses to hear.

This is an excellent observation because a lot of these people you speak about try to make our town into some kind of mini NYC or northern Atlanta.  They have no clue that House/dance music is to Baltimore what Go-Go is to D.C. or Hip-Hop is to NYC.  I can’t say that enough times.  X105 failed miserably and tried to use Frank Ski as a tool to win the city over.  The hell with a “Hot Boys” concert, give me the Jasper Street Company.

     c.) The current condition and state of the music industry being profit driven has resulted in a materialistic and hedonistic culture  developing.

Well I realize that a person should get paid for their talents but right now there is a bunch of garbage on the radio and good music get the label “Neo-soul”, etc.  I have to end this one here because it gets me all fired up.

     d.) The 20 something crowd can't dance *AT ALL LOL* they simulate copulation *wink* and need slower music to do that mess to.

Although I am not into “Baltimore Club” music at all, I got to say it is sexual in nature.  It makes a female shake her ass.  Which is not a bad thing, but the younger crowd can’t dance beyond that and the music isn’t built for smooth moves on the dance floor, only grinding.  This is why they can’t feel House music like we use to.  We can dance.

What do you attribute the revitalization of House Music Parties to? Why are House parties so hot again?

Wow.  This is big.  I believe I am one of the few who understands how this one got kick started.  I am not being arrogant, but I just have been in some places and observed things from a dancer’s point of view.  Here’s my feeling.  After the Underground Experience was cancelled things got miserably boring.  We sought House music anywhere.  Then it was said that House music was being played at the 5 Mile House on Sunday.  The dj’s were DJ Tanz & Biskit.  DJ Biskit played a lot of the deeper House that could satisfy many House lovers considering there was really nowhere else to go.  Tanz played some House and a lot of R&B and Hip-Hop.  This went well for a while then something changed with the make up of the crowd.  The dress code got ghetto.  I saw brothers who looked like “Omar” from HBO’s “The Wire” in there.  One of the final straws for me was after Biskit played his usual set before Tanz, the music immediately would change.  Tanz had the habit of slowing down the last record almost to a stop so people would know who was now in the booth.  Well, one time he did that after Biskit and I heard some girl yell out “yeah, turn that shit off”.  I really like Tanz a lot but I never saw him the same after that and I know that wasn’t his fault.  Then I went up in there one final time and the dj’s were different and the music was all f***** up and commercial.  One day I heard DJ Biskit on 95.9 mentioning that he was having a party at Street Folks until 4am.  I didn’t believe it.  In fact the night I drove to the party, I told my wife that I was just going down Liberty road real quick to see if it was true.  I did not return until well after 4am.  This, along with the cancellation of the "Underground Experience", actually gave me the confidence to start the website.  I started seeing all of the old Odell’s/Fantasy/Paradox faces.  This is the party that sparked it all to me.  It gave us what we wanted…..a party on a convenient night, House music only, and beautiful people.  The good free food & water wasn’t bad either.  So I can state publicly, in my opinion only, that this was the start to the resurrection of our scene.

 With the present climate in Bmore... can House/Underground music rebuild, support, and sustain itself as a prominent form of entertainment. And if so ... what has to occur for it to do so.

I believe it can. But I am just a very optimistic person. I have the unique advantage of seeing things from an insider point of view and a “party goer” point of view. Behind the scenes things have become a little more unified and supportive. DJ’s are supporting each other and coming out to each other’s events. The website makes a lot of dj’s/artists feel proud to be from this area again because I treat them like the stars that they are. I feel how energetic they are. In fact, with all the new music that came out of Baltimore over the last 6-8 months we could have had a Baltimore music conference at a big club and created a huge buzz around the industry. But we need an ally in the clubs to make unique ideas like this happen. You know, a club owner like Wayne who will give B-more a night to shine again. Hell, I would take the “Chamber” over nothing at all any day. I do notice that even though we support each other’s party, no one has successfully joined forces to secure a night at a big club. The big clubs need money to give up a Friday or Saturday. I would throw a little money in a pot if it meant securing a big club so that more big name dj’s and producers could rotate. Plus have a week for up and coming dj’s. But for now everyone seems to be supporting each other at all the smaller spots around town. House headz are starting to come back out to dance. I think most of the party people understand now that it’s all about support. Even if they show up at a party once every other month, that’s still support for our scene. I am real close to securing a monthly spot for my “Soul Fiesta” where I can bring vocal performances. I remember seeing Ultra Nate’ on the Ru Paul television show years ago because the album she had out at the time was huge. I thought to myself, “damn, we can’t even bring our own artists here to perform anymore”. I really felt that way after hearing Sheila Ford give a super performance at the Walters Art Gallery a few weeks back.  But the current state of things are excellent. I can honestly say that I can’t remember this many House music parties when House was huge in Baltimore.  In terms of House music, I am proud to be from Baltimore.