March 21
I finally landed in Miami on Monday March 20 after a 10 hours flight which seemed like a never ending thing. I met a guy called Peter on the way who, like myself, lucked out in getting a seat at the emergency exit which made the trip much more comfortable than it would normally be in economy class. At the airport, I then met my old friend KidCat. Together we took a ride to Miami Beach in Peter's rental car. And, as it was a cabriolet, we could fully enjoy the sights of the city while the sun was going down and everything was illuminated.
I decided to take some time at the beach the following day while enjoying the nice warm weather. Later on, I picked up the M3 Masterlist which no longer is a handy brochure but a full sized magazine, the festivities also being a part of local media. For example in The Miami Herald (miamiherald.com) via a half page article mentioning that there will be 327 events at 88 venues in seven days. And this, only in Miami Beach!!! Saturday being the peak of the whole with no less than 70 events taking place. Meanwhile, the Miami New Times have an x-tra 48 pages in their March 16-22 edition (miaminewtimes.com / Volume 20, Number 50).
This March 22 sees the official start of the M3 Summit - and it also features the 16th edition of the legendary Magic Sessions featuring Tony Humphries and 'Little' Louie Vega, with Jazzanova playing in the upper room. I’ll definitely pay them a visit…
March 22
Hey folks, here after a quick snap from last night’s Magic Sessions with a couple of pics pics of Tony Humphries and Louie Vega (was hard to get a good shot at them as so many people were in the booth dancing!!!)
The M3 Summit officially kicked off on March 22 as the badges could be picked up at Surfcomber Hotel and the Remix Hotel opened it doors as well, showcasing the latest in music technologies. Remix Hotel was already crowded, demonstrating how producers, artists and DJ’s are into the latest development as far as technologies are concerned with the whole amount of new opportunities they give. This March 22 also saw the official opening of this year’s festivites with the Magic Sessions that took place for the 16th time featuring the legendary DJs 'Little' Louie Vega and Tony Humphries in the main room, while Jazzanova were playing upstairs. As usual, Tony kicked off around 10 PM and got the crowd jumping with his unique style that combines various flavors of dance music, even including classics (for instance, "Go Bang" by Dinosaur L). Around 1:30 AM, 'Little' Louie Vega took over to get the crowd to the next level. Gladly, the Magic Sessions has not been as extremly over-crowded as in previous years, but still it was a melting pot of the who-is-who in today’s house music industry - some of the notables present include Big Moses, Groove Junkies, Jamie Lewis, GoGo Music posse (Ralf Gum, Benny Pecoraio, Roberto DeCarlo), UDM Show, David Harness, Haldo, Mark Mendoza & Sweet Sarah and many, many more... just too many to list here. Unfortunately, Jazzanova did not get the support they deserve – the upstairs room war more or less empty (at least at the times I was checking it out). The weather forecast indicates cooler weather for the coming days here in Miami, but for us - the party people - things will heat up with the massive amount of parties taking place over the next few days. Speak soon.
March 23 - Rain, business and politics
The weather forecast had a 40% chance of rain, but who did think that it would turn out in such heavy rainfalls??? This is exactly what happened with the Defected Party after it was runnning for about an hour, but this did not stop the whole nor the people getting excited inside @ Nikki Beach...
The Defected Party has always been a great place for networking - and so it was this year as well. Wether they are from the USA, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan - they were all there. While on the way inside, I bumped into Soul Creation (Jose Burgos and Deuce Martinez), Jose Gonzales (freshsolus.com) and David Corales (Marketing & Public Relations Consultant). We had some interesting talks and I gotta tell you be on the lookout for the forthcoming Soul Creation material picked up by a famous producer/DJ for his label!!! This party was a great proof that the business is changing drastically with digital taking more and more over - only a very few vinyls were handed out as CD’s are the choice now for many producers and artists to showcase their new material. This also has an impact on the importance of Miami and promotion in general - but this is another story (watch out for an upcoming article on this matter).
Soulfuric presented Friends of Ours 2006 that featured Ron Carroll among many other DJ’s like Jask, Brian Tappert and Jamie Lewis to name just a few. Ron Carroll delivered a hot set as DJ while singing live on some of his productions with the crowd going wild. That night also saw the Underground Collective party taking place, but for whatever reason the door people could not find my name on the guestlist... Meanwhile, others simply called their buddies that were already inside and could just step in. The venue for this party was a smaller spot that was packed and heated up (I wonder if they ever heard of air condition), with the DJ’s creating an intense vibe.
At the end of the day, yours truly once more got the impression that Miami is lacking support for journalists as many DJ’s and producers keep their new material between themselves and don't care about those that put all their passion into supoorting the industry (this is yet another story to be covered in an upcoming article).