GENERAL ECLECTIC @ UMA NOTA TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
also featuring MANINHO COSTA e BATUCADA CARIOCA, DJs Andy Williams, Petri G, K-Suede. Fri, July 17. The Gladstone Ballroom, 1214 Queen W. $10.
“I was the kid on the margins with a keen interest in music history,” says Jay Sanders, a local visual artist and DJ who plays under the name of General Eclectic.
The St. Catharines native has always had a taste for esoteric music, falling for the likes of musique concrete, John Coltrane and drum ’n’ bass in his early teens. He dug for records weekly at flea markets, swapped cassettes with older friends who travelled to T.O. for raves and mixtapes and had his ears opened wider after being passed a copy of one of Symon Warwick’s globally minded mixes in 1996. Sanders was 16.
“That mixtape blew me away and was really influential,” he recalls now. “I just wasn’t finding the records that he had on there, and I really wanted to.”
Sanders moved here two years later to study graphic design, and soon became immersed in searching for jazz, funk, soul and Latin music. A stint washing dishes and playing music at coffee and community hotspot XXX Diner led to meeting many like-minded music fanatics — Warwick among them — and soon Sanders was DJing around town as G.E.
In 2003, he and others founded a hip-hop- and funk-focused weekly at Fressen. Dubbed Red Beet Lounge, it ran for two years and taught Sanders plenty.
“It was an amazing night that let me know that there’s a sense of community in parties, that music really can bring people together to share a synergy.”
This sentiment has since been a guiding light for Sanders who frequently translates the concepts steering his DJ residencies into both music and visuals. Currently, he can be found spinning in the Drake’s Lounge each Thursday and he and DJ Jason Palma have revived their beloved Freedom Time jazz event — held the third Sunday of every month at Tequila Bookworm — but Sanders is especially recognized for his role in co-producing two unique events: Footprints and Uma Nota.
Founded almost seven years ago (the Sept. 26 anniversary party will feature live guests Hypnotic Brass Ensemble), Footprints features jazz, soul, funk and related “rhythmically challenging beats from past to present.” Sanders spins with co-residents Palma and Stuart Li, while charismatic “promotivator” Lybido plays host.
“Footprints has, literally, the best crowd that I’ve ever spun to,” raves Sanders. “They sing along to even the most obscure songs. It’s a real pleasure.”
He’s certainly been able to cultivate an audience that is a DJ’s dream: adventurous, passionate and trusting.
“I tend to attract people to my events who maybe don’t want all the hype; they want something a little left field,” Sanders says. “They’re people who have patience and enjoy a sense of history in their sets.”
And it’s all the better if they appreciate polyrhythms, since he loves complex percussion as much as melodies.
“I think I was born with a metronome in my head; I can match any beats. My dad was a drummer and I do have a good sense of rhythm. By and large, when you’re DJing, your goal is to make people move and there are rhythms in everything. To me, the idea is to bring out an innate sense of rhythm, even in a Joni Mitchell tune.”
Which leads us to Uma Nota (“one note” in Portuguese), the popular bi-monthly event celebrating its second anniversary this Friday. Founded by Sanders and musicians Alex Bordokas (of Maracatu Nunca Antes) and Jonathan Rothman (of Samba Elégua), Uma Nota features a cornucopia of polyrhythms as Sanders and guest DJs share a stage with live musical acts, ranging from Afro-Brazilian percussion troupes to Cuban hip-hop artist Telmary and jazz pianist Elizabeth Shepherd.
“My catch phrase is ‘Celebrating unity on both decks and drums,’” says Sanders, who also goes to town in creating fresh stage designs and four projectors’ worth of animations for each event. The anniversary edition boasts a performance by revered Rio samba bandleader Maninho Costa and his 20-member Batucada Carioca, as well as a DJ set by Montreal collector, selector and historian Andy Williams (whom Sanders credits as “one of my influences and mentors”).
Fans of Sanders will also be pleased to know that he’s recently added “budding producer” to his list of titles.
“I do things from the heart and produce things that I’m satisfied with, but that challenge me,” he says excitedly. “I knew that I would be producing music at some point in my life; it was always just a matter of when.”