![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ajdancelegacy.com\/~ajdance\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/BeFunky_BlackCoffeeOnstage-2.jpg.jpg\" "\\"BeFunky_BlackCoffeeOnstage")
<\/a><\/p>\nBLACK COFFEE<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Load. Lock.\u00a0 Click. Boom.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been shot by a South African DJ.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Coffee is a feel-good addictive substance.\u00a0 The early legend of Kaldi states, when the Ethiopian goatherd saw his goats eat coffee berries from a certain tree, the goats grew so spirited they were unable to sleep at night.\u00a0 Soon after, during the 15th<\/sup> century-coffee seeds, yes seeds not beans-traveled from the region of southern Arabia, North Africa, Middle East, Europe and then to the Americas.\u00a0 Along the journey coffee developed distinct flavors in certain regions of the world by the importers of the seed.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n House music is a feel-good addictive anomaly.\u00a0 When discovered in America during the late 20th<\/sup> century by overseas music enthusiasts, house music\u2019s sound was handpicked, cupped, roasted, ground, brewed, and filtered into a regional dialect they could call their own.\u00a0 Over time, the world would morph and shuffle the 4-to-the-floor sound to align with their regional tastes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s house music and Durham born Nkosinathi Maphumulo are the above examples.\u00a0 As South Africa\u2019s popularity of deep\/soulful house music has eclipsed its popularity stateside or perhaps worldwide at any particular time during house music\u2019s lifespan; artist Nkosinathi music\u2019s styling is deep, mildly bitter yet extremely rich with robust flavors.\u00a0 South Africa house music and Nkosinathi are addicting forces.\u00a0 Each possesses curious fascinations; where Nkosinathi claims soulful house music, the music that mainstream Black America refuses to acknowledge, as his own and the voice of his beloved South Africa; South Africa house music has become a disputable bond to all things Africa-some kind of noir roots that binds lost heritage of self-identity discovery through black music.\u00a0 The attraction lies somewhere between the two.\u00a0 Bottom line: The Diaspora of Africa soul has returned full circle to its indigenous people.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n DJ BE<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There is a line outdoors.\u00a0 An actual line!\u00a0 Native South Africans mingle with out-of-towners who mingle with local family, all are giddy with anticipation.\u00a0 Sixty degree temperatures marks spring\u2019s arrival.\u00a0 Spring feels great.\u00a0 Spring laughs.\u00a0 Spring blows a mild breeze.\u00a0 How refreshing.\u00a0 In the line, various shades of brown agree.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When \u201cTake Me To My Love,\u201d another Ralf Gum hit featuring Monique Bingham on vocals greets guests, the event is sure to be rewarding.\u00a0 Tambor\u2019s<\/a> resident, DJ BE serves up the unreleased afro remix followed by an extreme outpouring of soul fro house that seems generous enough, if not superfluous. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The venue\u2019s main and largest room is shell-shocked with activity.\u00a0 Afro house plays the soundtrack to a March Madness game playing on two monitors in the back of the room.\u00a0 Serious dancers occupy speakers.\u00a0 Several familiar faces, not seen in ages, occupy tables.\u00a0 Drinks and small plates are ordered.\u00a0 Staff scurries about the room waiting on tables and clearing empty glasses. Upstairs a private party packs the VIP area.\u00a0 Activity aside, this party is destined to put the capital T back into Tambor.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n DJ Mike Dunn<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Surprise!!!\u00a0 Chicago\u2019s famed producer\/remixer\/DJ Mike Dunn appears onstage wearing a black baseball cap and facial frown.\u00a0 Is playing at Tambor that bad?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n At Tambor, South Africa is not the only movement rising but too the dance floor.\u00a0 B boys showoff tightly executed choreography of syncopated steps and triple spins.\u00a0 While B girls pop and lock in robotic staccato.\u00a0 The dance circle spells s-e-r-i-o-u-s. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Mouths drop.\u00a0 Digital recorders rise.\u00a0 Look onstage.\u00a0 All hail South Africa\u2019s flag.\u00a0 Its diplomat arrives.\u00a0\u00a0 Nkosinathi Maphumulo.\u00a0 AKA Black Coffee.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Radio Star<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n DJ Black Coffee opens with a compelling narrative of R\u2019n\u2019B.\u00a0 The sound most fit for urban radio than club ready.\u00a0 This is the material that stateside adult urban-contemporary radio should play intermingled next to R\u2019n\u2019B\u2019s royalty.\u00a0 Romantic vocals conquer bleeding hearts.\u00a0 Slow-motion beats per minute.\u00a0 Global melodies of global dance.\u00a0 Detailed song writing-a craft amiss in most American house music-<\/em> enough to warrant prestigious academy awards.\u00a0 An afro world filled with rapturous lyrics, percolating percussions that ooze soul in all matters.\u00a0 Perhaps the sound is difficult to digest for aged house purists. While newbies to the scene, short swallow the sing-alongs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTake Me To My Love\u201d<\/a> sings a jazzy a capella vocal until a soft percussion strikes.\u00a0 The commencement of beats begins.\u00a0 The Raw Artistic Soul Vocal Dub of the Ralf Gum track sets the mood for what is to come.\u00a0 Sampled drum loops, minimal instruments, dazzling dancing keys, warm strings and sporadic handclaps play in the atmosphere.\u00a0 Black Coffee wastes no time.\u00a0 He pounds the drums and drops the music with skilled precision.\u00a0 Monique Bingham\u2019s vocals spin \u201cOn and on and on and on and on and on and on and on,\u201d across the room, until she commands, \u201cI want you to lead me.\u201d This is what the crowd anticipates Black Coffee to do.\u00a0 But the cautious spectators ask, \u201cWhere to?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMOVE.\u201d\u00a0 Black Coffee commands the audience on his latest import. Once again, where to?\u00a0 Moving or dancing proves difficult.\u00a0 Bodies are packed tight like addicts in line awaiting a caffeine fix.\u00a0 Apropos, Tambor has not seen these numbers of bodies in years<\/em>.\u00a0 Regardless, Black Coffee featuring Soulstar is out to \u201cRock My World<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Sadly the song rocks nothing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHer Majesty\/The Queen Is In The Booth\/Come To The Dance Floor.\u201d\u00a0 Poetress Busiswa Gqulu\u2019s command actually works.\u00a0\u00a0 Additional mini-shorts and stiletto spikes arrive to dance on the already packed floor.\u00a0 Voices scream.\u00a0 Arms fly in the air.\u00a0 A dub of South African\u2019s premier female disc jockey, DJ Zhile\u2019s \u201cMy Name Is<\/a>\u201d brings the house down.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Art of Mixing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Black Coffee is dark roasted.\u00a0 He gives the people a taste of his original home brew.\u00a0 The flavor not found on street corners at specialty baristas or copy-cat retail chains.\u00a0 His brew goes deep. Dark.\u00a0 Robust.\u00a0 There are no floor fillers.\u00a0 No sugar.\u00a0 No cream.\u00a0 Black Coffee gives it raw.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The super DJ puts a fresh brew on his past; Zakes Bantwini a cappella conjures \u201cJuJu<\/a>,\u201d Thiwe\u2019s haunting ache sounds on \u201cCrazy<\/a>\u201d and Bucie says, \u201cTurn Me On<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Dark clouds give way to light.\u00a0 Dispair turns to hope.\u00a0 DJ Kent arrives.\u00a0 Just as vocalist Malehloka Hlalele sings the hook on, \u201cFalling<\/a>,\u201d the music drops into a sleek sexy R\u2019n\u2019B slow burner that floors every mouth in the entire room.\u00a0 DJ Black Coffee leaves the radio sound behind for the art of mixing.\u00a0 Look out!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Black Coffee is on fire.\u00a0 And so is the room.\u00a0 The room\u2019s heat index breaks scorching records.\u00a0 Feeling uncomfortable?\u00a0 Honestly. This is to be expected when two-hundred plus hot mochas are dancing and sweating.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n DJ Kent turns DJ Superman.\u00a0 As the Princess of House, Bucie loudly proclaims \u201cSuperman<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The crowd approves with vocal praise.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Out of nowhere like a speeding bullet.\u00a0 Black Coffee surprises with Louie Vega & Jay “Sinister” Sealee’s golden, \u201cDiamond Life<\/a>,\u201d starring Julie McKnight on vocal lead.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The crowd sings.\u00a0 They can\u2019t control themselves, neither can Black Coffee.\u00a0 Rhythm and blues a cappellas dialogue for one hook and one verse over sonic booms of tribal tech dialect.\u00a0 The mixing is just the way the audience prefers their coffee.\u00a0 Black.\u00a0 Hot.\u00a0 Strong.\u00a0 No froth.\u00a0 In the midst of the action Black Coffee uses his index finger to stop the music and strike a round button aglow on the disc player.\u00a0 He moves his index finger right to the mixer and then to his laptop where he drops EFX.\u00a0 The music starts again.\u00a0 The people dance.\u00a0 The music stops.\u00a0 Black Coffee nods his head to the tune of the sounding EFX.\u00a0 The music starts again.\u00a0 The people go mad.\u00a0 The music stops again.\u00a0 Black coffee nods his head to a lock and load gunshot EFX.\u00a0 Black Coffee, through the music, fires a gunshot at the audience.\u00a0 The music starts again.\u00a0 People fall over each other.\u00a0 Digital cameras and mobile devices record the entertainment.\u00a0 Mouths of DJs in the room are awestruck at the spectacle.\u00a0 All of Black Coffee\u2019s mixing is executed with one arm and one hand.\u00a0 He can\u2019t be contained.\u00a0 As if Coffee\u2019s mixing brilliance could not enter the stratosphere of mixing genius, it does.\u00a0 Theatric horns sound. \u00a0The tune the entire world recognizes sounds.\u00a0 People catch their breaths.\u00a0 Jack Son\u2019s \u201cThrill Her<\/a>\u201d falls upon the crowd.\u00a0 South Africa’s Black Motion treatment releases the most excited fanaticism of the party.\u00a0 If weave and wigs fall off this would be the time.\u00a0 The room goes ape shit.\u00a0 Pandemonium is unleashed.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If a DJ playing the same song (different remix) twice in the night is not your cup of coffee.\u00a0 Too bad.\u00a0 Black Coffee delivers another fresh cup of DJ Zhile\u2019s, \u201cMy Name Is<\/a>,\u201d this version contains Busiswa Gqulu\u2019s vocals in full, spoken in both English and indigenous tongue Xhosa, also extracted from the SA collection of the song\u2019s many recently released remixes.\u00a0 The song of the party goes to Ralf Gum\u2019s \u201cTake Me To My Love\u201d that plays for the third time.\u00a0 An unreleased remix keeps the song fresh, piping hot and enjoyable.\u00a0 Throwing dance hall in the mix, Masters At Work featuring Puppah Nas-T\u2019s \u201cWork<\/a>\u201d gyrates hips as vocalist Denise commands the crowd to, \u201cGo Down\u201d which they do.\u00a0 The room\u2019s temperature increases a notch.\u00a0 Someone might have to call the fire department to put the coffee pot out.\u00a0 Actually things cool off a bit with a remix to the late Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cHow Will I Know.\u201d\u00a0 Uh oh.\u00a0 DJ Stan Zeff walks onstage.\u00a0 This signals the brew is about to exchange hands.\u00a0 However, Black Coffee is not ready to exit without another scorcher. This time MJ\u2019s \u201cBillie Jean\u201d (Rocco Deep Mix) is on tap.\u00a0 The crowd goes crazy.\u00a0 They are too distracted to note\u2026\u201cTambor.\u00a0 Give it up for the man Black Coffee.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n DJ Stan Zeff<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n To ease everyone off their caffeine high, DJ Stan Zeff plays Black Coffee\u2019s \u201cWe Are One<\/a>\u201d featuring South African trumpet great Hugh Masekela.\u00a0 The time reads 2 am.\u00a0 Family faces stream through the door arriving from an earlier concert.\u00a0 Stan Zeff is primed to serve them some brew.\u00a0 Tambor Music\u2019s debut release \u201cSet Me Free<\/a>\u201d (Stan Zeff Vocal Mix) by Mr. Funk Daddy featuring DJ Sue sweetens the crowd.\u00a0 Black Coffee\u2019s music partner Culoe De Song shows off his remix to the South African band, Goldfish with \u201cCall Me.\u201d\u00a0 At one point, a seafood chain\u2019s LobsterFest commercial, playing on the room\u2019s back monitors, proves more entertaining. Alas, DJ Stan Zeff being the professional he is places the focus back on the music with Kee Lo\u2019s \u201cSad Soul<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The Baffa Jones\u2019 Vocal Destruction Dub destroys the dance floor with sliced vocals bouncing against chopping chords over minimalist drums.\u00a0 The mighty O\u2019Jays play closer with \u201cDarlin\u2019 Darlin\u2019 Baby (Sweet, Tender, Love)\u201d a 4-to-the floor number that rides into the moonlight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n D<\/strong>J<\/strong> Black Coffee proved why he is addictive.\u00a0 In his native South Africa the beloved DJ\/producer\/songwriter packs out futbol stadiums.\u00a0 The same ethos is what Black Coffee brought to Tambor with numbers far less than thousands.\u00a0 The ability to supersede great expectations of hype and glory of DJ extraordinaire showed uncanny.\u00a0 These are the ingredients of a true DJ.\u00a0 No froth.\u00a0 All substance.\u00a0 Much like the Kaldi Legend, when you taste the potent brew of Black Coffee there is no sleeping tonight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n