Throwing Bach into the Mix

By Serena Markstrom
The Register-Guard
Published: Sunday, May 7, 2006

This was no classic DJ battle; it was a classical DJ battle.

Three local turntablists faced off Saturday in the Oakway Center's Heritage Courtyard during the "Bach Remix," spinning and mixing for cash prizes and maybe attracting some young people to classical music in the process.

The event's sponsor, the Oregon Bach Festival, gave each disc jockey a vinyl copy of the "Little" Fugue in G minor by Johann Sebastian Bach for use in a five-minute showcase. Three became finalists in a mid-April audition at the University of Oregon.

During Saturday's contest, 20-year-old student Danny Straton, aka DV8, took the top prize of $500 and a gig at the world-renowned festival, which kicks off June 30.

Straton was first up and went heavy on the Bach, building intensity before using a spoken-word sample to transition into more traditional hip-hop beats, enlivening the crowd of about 300.

DJ Smuve, Bobby Green Jr. - whose father, Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green, was in the crowd - opted to go straight into beats and relied on the main four-bar theme around which Bach built the fugue.

Before the show, Green, who got second place and $300, said he would go heavy on the hip-hop if he saw the crowd was younger; though there were more than a few gray heads bopping during the event. His background as a top-40 DJ shined through as he sampled such mainstay hip-hop mantras as, "go shorty, it's your birthday" and "party people."

The last contestant, DJ Soulution, or Sharif Lindel, took the riskiest approach, at first trying to use three turntables, prefacing the feat by noting the fugue was recorded live by the Philadelphia Orchestra and its tempo varied a lot, making beatmatching tricky. That's DJ talk for "difficult to mix."

He scrapped the third table and started over, grabbing third place and $200.

Bach festival Communications Director George Evano said the event is part of a recent effort to attract new audiences. Allen Hall Advertising students distributed two-for-one vouchers good for three early July performances.

"We haven't heard any snooty responses. These days, people are realistic," Evano said about attempts to get the next generation interested in Bach. "The idea is to meet audiences where they're at - make it relevant to them."

The champion, Straton, didn't know whether the event would draw young people to classical music, but he said the message got through to at least one: him.

"It's intriguing. It made me want to learn more," he said.

As for his winning performance, after weeks of listening to the fugue, composed for organ, he said he had a "stroke of genius" Saturday morning. He pulled out his copy of DJ Shadow's "Organ Donor" and used one of his samples:

"You've got an organ going there. No wonder the song has so much body."

If the young Bach who composed the piece in G minor had been in the audience, he might have said, "Word up, G."