Winter Music Conference recap

REFLECTIONS ON WINTER MUSIC CONFERENCE 2010

From the start of this year’s Winter Music Conference (WMC), I promised myself I’d take it easy and wouldn’t be running around like past conferences trying to get everyone and their mother for an interview or being at all the events.

I started off at the Alize Relaxer Event at the Raleigh Hotel where they gave free lunches, massages, hair-cuts, manicure and pedicures (yes you read it. Yours truly didn’t take advantage of the other stuff except for the free lunch, but now that I think about it, I should have gotten a massage at least.) Then I went to Nikki Beach to the “Welcome to Miami” event where they had a circus and many artists and DJs spinning. I was brought in by publicist Lainie Copicotto who kicked it with me while I was in there. Lil’ Jon was in there spinning live. I got to say that man is as live in person as he in on record. He can rock a party!

The next day I went back to Alize event, then went to the Belvedere Vodka event for a while and ran into Bryce Wilson of Mantronix/Groove Theory fame. We shot the sh*t for a minute and then got home, rested, and headed out that night again for the party to celebrate the re-launch of Big Beat records. I was able to see the legendary dance singer Robin S (of “Show me Love” fame) perform. On Friday, I went back to Belvedere and saw Mya, Mary J Blige, and the Crystal Method being interviewed at the Sirius Satellite tent. I went upstairs and interviewed Fery Corstein, then I went back to the Alize event and interviewed French DJ/producer Cedric Gervais and Mya who are collaborating together. That same night, I went to the Giant Step Sunset Sessions where Giles Peterson spun a mix of Latin rare grooves and Fania All Stars Salsa which had the crowd dancing the night away. Saturday, I went to the record convention and found some great vinyl including a Todd Terry twelve inch, then headed to the Shelborne Hotel for the Pacha/Ibiza Pool Party which was the best event of WMC that I attended. All the old school house legends such as David Morales, Dennis Ferrer, and Todd Terry spun alongside new blood such as Bob Sinclair and the hip hop trailblazer DJ Jazzy Jeff. I ran into Todd Terry as I left the event. He was nice enough to take a picture with me and autograph the record I bought earlier.

After that, I went to the Salted Music party and was able to do a video interview with label owner/artist DJ Miguel Migs. Sunday, I went to downtown Miami and attended Sunday School for Degenerates which was a rave type event. There was a big yellow school bus in the outside area where the DJs were spinning and the people were hanging around. I was able to see spin newcomer French DJ Agoria whose set was out-of-this-world! Check out the double mix CD he just released in the Balance series. This year I noticed that signs of the economic recovery were showing with a lot more people attending WMC compared to last year. I’d like to thank the following publicist for helping me get the interviews and cover events during the chaotic five day event: Lainie Copicotto @ Aurelius Ent, Betty Kang @ Plexi PR, Alexandra Baker @ High Rise PR, Dennis Wheeler @ the Shelborne Hotel, Caroline Hoste @ Salted Music, Justin Kleinfeld @ Rephlektor Inc, Catherine Carter @ Funkdumplying PR.