- It's not every day Kenny Dixon Jr. whizzes past you on a pair of skates. It's not every day you spend a Thursday night at the Red Bull Music Academy's Rollerskating Jam. You would think that big brand sponsorship and underground dance music would be uneasy bed fellows; yet Red Bull's recent series of events in London prove that corporate cash spent in the right hands can lead to some truly memorable and intriguing nights. Moodymann's appearance at midweek Roller Boogie is a perfect example. You can't imagine many UK promoters would be willing to spend their own money to fly an artist all the way from the USA and ask them to play in anything but a peak time club situation—let alone get them to DJ the Thursday slot at a roller rink. Yet, strangely enough, this seemed to be the ideal environment for Moodymann to play.
Photo credit: Thomas Butler
Anyone who saw Kenny Dixon Jr. at his in-store at BM Records would have heard him waxing lyrical on the fact he only ever plays what he wants to hear: something which probably disappoints those expecting him to play a set of club bangers. So with half the crowd trying to haphazardly navigate their way around the room on skates, there was absolutely no pressure to try and make people dance. A situation which Moodymann took to perfectly. Starting with the pop disco of Jamiroquai's "Little L," Moodymann's set spanned Slum Village, Roy Ayers, Prince and Masters At Work. It was much more the kind of set that would make you nod your head than dance your ass off, but Moodymann and everyone who attended the night seemed to be grinning from ear to ear throughout.
This was because the music, as good as it was from both KDJ and the Horse Meat Disco crew, was only a very small part of what made this night great. Although most people had been drawn in by the headline DJ, the crowd joined in with the skating with remarkable gusto. Seeing a mixture of fashionable house music types, bears from Horse Meat Disco and bearded DJ geeks all tentatively wobbling around a skate rink is a pretty hilarious sight; and one that's not forgotten in a hurry. People careened unsteadily around the place, looking on in wonder at the professional skate dancers in the center of the floor pulling coordinated breakdance moves without even breaking sweat. Plenty of people, including myself, ended up on the deck at one point in the night. Whether you were a spectator or in the thick of the action, it was all undeniable fun.
Kenny Dixon Jr.'s whole persona is like something straight out of a blaxploitation movie. Usually this wouldn't add much value to a night, but in this situation Moodymann's presence put a sense of American authenticity to proceedings making you feel as though you were in downtown Detroit rather than South London. Taking to the stage in shades and with three beautiful but stone-faced women he called his "security," KDJ's un-scriptable interjections could have been lifted straight out of Soul Train. He was constantly talking throughout his set, shouting out his crew selling merchandise and ordering the people who were skating in front of him to change from an anti-clockwise to clockwise circuit of the rink with the call, "Reverse!" It wasn't what anyone expected. But somehow it worked.
Photo credit: Thomas Butler
This was in no way your conventional club experience, and something that could probably never be repeated again in the UK with any credibility. In some ways it genuinely did feel that you'd gone back in time to an authentic '70's Roller Boogie. Although the whole experience may have seemed a little gimmicky from the outside; RBMA's Roller Skating Jam showed that sometimes, if the concept is good enough, a great theme can make a night all on its own.