Thanks to Stephen Laviers I ventured into an L.E.S.-esque neighborhood in Paris to join him on the turntables at an old pool hall converted into a nice party space. The French get down, mon dieu! Tout le monde dans la chambre a dansé, I mean, everybody in the room danced at some point. It was like being in that cool downtown NYC lounge that always had a cabaret license - in New York, a venue needs a cabaret license in order to be a place where dancing is legal. Depending on where you are out in New York City, if you get up to shake your groove thing, you might be politely nudged and instructed to ease back on down into bounce in your seat mode. Or the venue could get a citation, fines, and threatened with a complete shut down - and they're not opening up again until they go through a maze of appeals to city government agencies and neighborhood counsels. And when they're back, they've got to be paranoid about how loud the DJ plays that they've hired to entertain and seduce the crowds to stay a little while. With that pressure, no one's relaxed with what's at stake and how do you think that affects the audience that's there for an escape? When you've got mandated volume timidity, it's tough to keep a vibe in a room where the sub woofers have been disconnected and the sound system consists mostly of well worn or burnt out satellite speakers positioned ceiling high on the walls. You've been in a room like that, nice music, but it's just not grabbing you like it should. Venues, it's all about the warm embrace of the bass - DJs don't have to tweak the EQ to push the mids and highs which leads to that everybody in the room is screaming to talk sound. Even if your guests want to feel it, that's going to send them home earlier than they intended. Soundproof and school your DJs on the nuances of your sound installation and your venue can sound invitingly and magnificently plush. So yes the venue in Paris, Les 9 Billards, judging by the celebratory feeling of this dancing feet crowd has never been subdued by cabaret laws. Some people were dancing like they were on one of those TV competitions, at least two women got flung and spun right into the turntables. Instead of reacting like Martin Lawrence's DJ character in the movie "House Party," I took it all in stride because I knew that the groove had them whirling and I like that. You can see photos from the party and why I went ahead and put this mix out there for you despite the couple of times that the needles skips because of the boogieing booties on my beats. Photos here: http://www.funk4food.org/parties.htm Scroll down, mine was jam #11 And Stephen does music too. He makes those organically funky, organically meaning musicians are involved - dance floor catalytic music that's rooted in the roots of Africa. You should never be surprised of the faces in funk. It's a worldwide groove y'all. Check samples of his release on his page or right here: The band's called The Motivators and the songs are Jobu & Le Groove De Prune http://www.myspace.com/hereandnowrecordings http://www.fatcity.co.uk/Sales/pages/MusicPageRichMedia.aspx?pageid=13740