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Short controlled bursts >> DJ Uzi pulls a secret weapon on Montreal house by SCOTT C
Born in France, Bary moved to Montreal when he was 13, spending only a short time here before going off to college in Syracuse, N.Y. to play football at 17. Playing corner for Syracuse University, Bary started in four Bowl games and was named Pre-Season All-American as a sophomore. As a powerful runner, he also ran track in the 100 and 60-meter sprints, making him pretty quick on the field. After receiving a degree in International Relations, Bary was picked up by the N.Y. Jets to play in the NFL. "I signed with the Jets as a free agent," he laughs, and continues to laugh, telling me that the relationship would have lasted a lot longer if he hadn't been smoking so much weed back then. After two years, Bary was released to NFL Europe, where he played for Barcelona as property of the Jets, with plans to be re-introduced into the Jets roster later that year. When he did finally return to New York ,though, they suggested he go back to Canada and play in the CFL and that's when it all changed. "I just quit, man. I'd had enough and I wasn't going backwards to the CFL." Sporting chance Although Bary's roommate in university was a DJ for the campus radio station, he himself never even tried playing records at the time. "I would program the show for him and he would play from my playlist, but I would never spin." With college radio the biggest outlet available to underground music at the time, they received releases from artists all across New York who wanted some airplay. Still, it was football that allowed him to take the next step. "I was travelling all across the States when I was in the NFL, and I got to go to the best clubs in N.Y., San Francisco, L.A. and Chicago. Making connections with DJs and club owners was very easy as a member of a professional sports franchise." With musical knowledge and connections growing, Bary's moved and spent 14 weeks in the off season in Ibiza, the Spanish island famous for its decadent and hedonistic approach to clublife and culture. "NFL Europe made it easy for me to make club contacts in Ibiza, London, Amsterdam, Scotland, Germany and France. I was even in Tokyo for three weeks." Although he didn't know it at the time, he was setting himself up for some interesting arrangements. Rooftop residency "When I went back to Europe for the second time after quitting football," he says, "I was working in a record store for three weeks and got hired to throw four parties at Pascha, and I still wasn't even DJing." Pascha, one of Spain's over-the-top Euro superclubs, also hired Bary's girlfriend Natasha to head their promotional team. Those parties lead to him dropping records in one of Barcelona's more fashionable gay shops, where all the industry types hung out in droves. "I was throwing parties on the roof of my apartment that overlooked the beach," he laughs. "Everyday there was a party with the exclusive clientele from the store." Pretty soon, people started ordering tapes from all over Europe and the offers started rolling in. A residency at a club in Amsterdam called Roxy was a particularly tempting offer that he probably would have taken, had it not been for a family illness back in Montreal. Uzi's first goal upon his return was to open doors to deep and vocal house, and all you have to do is pick up some flyers to see that garage, jazzy and deep house are getting some work. "I don't know if it's my influence or not, but it's good to see. I still don't consider myself a true DJ. I have no equipment--not even headphones. I get all my practice at the club, with a full dancefloor." DJ Uzi and the Underground Network at Jaï Bar's "Classic Tuesdays"
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"My dad had a huge record collection of mainly black music," explains Ousmane Bary, aka DJ Uzi. "When I was 10, he bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and it was my job to record six-hour reels of the various records in his collection--every weekend." Although much too young, with no dancefloor to react to his musical choices, this was probably the first incarnation of the DJ Uzi we know today.