Have tunes,
will travel

>> Selectors of the world unite for
the Kwanzaa Dancefloor Countdown

LIBERALLY ARTISTIC: Kris Rios and Tahira

By SCOTT C

On December 23, local DJs Andy Williams and Kobal will team up with New York City’s Kris Rios and Brazil’s DJ Tahira to present the Kwanzaa Dancefloor Countdown at la Sala Rossa. Tahira is known in his native Brazil for transcending scenes with his eclectic selections and a mixture of styles, an approach that has taken him to places like London, Berlin, Hanover, Odessa, Tartu, Cologne and now Montreal. Kris Rios graduated from a small liberal-arts college in the U.S. that granted him a fellowship to travel the world, studying the music that he loved. Now a full-time employee of funk, soul, jazz and hip hop bible Wax Poetics magazine, Kris brings his own unique assortment of music to the floor. The Mirror reached Tahira and Rios by phone in New York.

Mirror: How easy is it for you to jump genres in Brazil? I mean, how did people first respond to your DJ style?

Tahira: In Brazil most DJs just play one segment of music, like just hip hop, just Brazilian music, just house, y’know? I like to play all of these things because I think that people really want diversity in music. It’s a mix of culture and nobody wants to listen to four hours of just one style anymore. Usually, normal people don’t do that. I play jazz and soul, but I play house and breaks as well, and it’s possible for one person to do this.

M: I understand that you got involved in producing music this year.

T: Yes! After eight years as a DJ, this year I started to think about making my own music and helping people to produce. Now I have a better understanding of the rhythms people like to dance to, with the breaks and the melodies, and this helps me a lot with production. It’s a dancefloor feeling.

M: Kris, tell me a bit about the fellowship you received to travel the world chasing music, because it sounds wild.

Kris Rios: I was eligible for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship because of the school I went to in New York State. You apply as a student, and if you get it, the foundation gives you :25,000 to travel and fulfill your proposal. I said that I wanted to travel the world studying the influence of West African rhythms and beats, specifically Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian music. I started in the U.K., working with Miles Cleret from Soundway Records, and that’s where I met Andy [Williams]. The guys from Soundway gave me all their contacts in West Africa, and I spent four months in Ghana hanging out with most of the musicians that are still alive from the Ghana Soundz compilations. I also went to India, Korea, Egypt and Brazil, where I met Tahira and got schooled on tasty Brazilian sounds.

M: What do you do over at Wax Poetics?

KR: They brought me on as an intern, but I’ve tried to work my way up. I take care of their Web site, but I’m also one of their contributing writers and editors. It’s a small operation, so everyone has to wear a lot of hats. It’s funny, because I pulled a lot of info for my proposal from the pages of Wax Poetics, kind of like a reference, and in the end, I end up working for them.

With DJs Kobal and Andy Williams at la
Sala Rossa on Sunday, Dec. 23, 9 p.m.,
$5/$10 after 10 p.m.