A scene from the August 2013 Vinyl + Vino at Wisdom. Photo by Randall Myers, The DC Eye.
Though they aren’t as portable as MP3s or even cassette tapes, vinyl records hold a special place in the hearts of many, whether it’s for the subtle “pop” noise transmitted through the record’s needle or a particularly funky album cover. As a result, it shouldn’t be a surprise to find a group in the District focused on celebrating music recorded onto large, circular platters. Vinyl + Vino (spoken “Vinyl and Vino”) started as a small gathering of friends around a record player with libations in an apartment and has grown into a venue-packing event of acetate lovers featuring some of the District’s finest DJs. The seeds for Vinyl + Vino were first planted in co-founder Jennifer Bryant’s head during her time living and working in South Africa for a cultural magazine that often sponsored vinyl-only DJ sets. Now that she’s back stateside, Bryant is using records and DJs to get folks with a common love for the medium and music in the same room together. As she and her two other partners in the V + V venture prep for their latest event this Sunday (November 10) at Wisdom with legendary local DJ Sam “The Man” Burns, Bryant took time to answer some questions DCist posed:
What was the impetuous for starting Vinyl + Vino, and how did you get involved?
Vinyl + Vino actually got its start as a Facebook status. I wrote a Facebook status update one day asking if anyone wanted to get together for a listening session. A few people responded, including my friend Tanya Ellis. She and I started planning a listening session and that’s how Vinyl + Vino came about. After a month or two, another friend, Alexis Weathers, came on board. The three of us throw the event together.
Vinyl + Vino started off very small: just a few of us sitting around a turntable in someone’s living room with a stack of records and a few bottles of wine. It was a very informal sort of thing. Each month it got bigger. After three months it got too big to hold in an apartment so we moved to Wisdom in Capitol Hill.
How long has the group been active?
The first Vinyl + Vino was October 28, 2012. In the beginning, there was no plan to turn it into a recurring thing. Everyone was having such a great time that it just kind of happened naturally.
As you mentioned, your events first took place at people’s houses. What were those sessions like?
The best part of the house sessions were the conversations the music created. I remember us listening to Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear and then having a long conversation about the nature of love. Records aren’t just about the music; they’re about the stories behind the music. The stories of the artists and also our own stories. Songs have memories attached to them. So the albums we brought to the sessions formed a sort of autobiography of each of our lives.
Is there something inherently special about pairing records with wine?
No, Vinyl + Vino was just a catchy name. Tanya came up with that. Vinyl + Jack Daniels didn’t have the same ring to it. When we moved the event to Wisdom the vino aspect took on more significance. Erik, the owner, crafts a special wine cocktail to feature each month. Last month we had a wine tasting with FLO Wines. FLO is owned by the musician Marcus Johnson, which keeps with our whole music and wine theme. We’ve got some cool ideas for expanding the wine aspect of the event in the future.
Now that you’re holding events at local bars, what goes into you considering a venue?
Our preference is low-key, intimate spaces that are off the beaten path. Some areas of D.C. – I’m looking at you U Street – have become over-saturated with sameness. It’s hard to go out on U Street and not bump into the same people you always see. Vinyl + Vino, on the other hand, always feels fresh. We’ve held it in Southeast and in Georgetown. The music is always different, and there’s always new, interesting people coming through. We like smaller venues because they encourage strangers to speak to each other. That’s one of the beautiful things about the event. It’s a space where everyone feels included and that’s hard to come by sometimes in DC.
You’ve managed to attracted an impressive lineup of local DJs to spin at your events such as DJ Underdog and 2-Tone Jones. What’s the thinking in terms of who you get to work the tables?
We go for DJs with deep musical knowledge and deep crates. The idea is to give them the space and opportunity for exploration. They get a chance to play the records that really inspire them and to venture outside of their usual sets/genres/comfort zones. The beauty of that is we never really know what we’re going to hear. I think that’s one of the reasons why people love the event. Everyone leaves having heard something new.
Over the past few years, there have been multiple articles written about vinyl records and people’s reverence for them. What is it is about records that draws folks out to the events?
Records have a distinctive sound quality. If you have a good [turn]table the sound is much crisper. Even if you’ve heard a song a million times the first time you hear it on vinyl it sounds different. It’s a fuller sound. The main thing about records isn’t the music though, it’s the experience. It’s the process of digging through the bins at a record shop, reading the liner notes, appreciating the cover art. It’s the pleasure of dropping the needle on a new record and hearing that crackling sound. The whole experience of it is what makes vinyl collecting special.
A highlight of Vinyl + Vino is the open turntable hour where attendees can bring in their own records to play. What thought went behind having this feature?
The first Vinyl + Vino house sessions were modeled after the all-night listening sessions I used to go to in Cape Town. Instead of just listening to a DJ, we allow people to become the DJ. The open turntable hour is part jukebox and part adult show and tell. It makes things more interactive and more interesting. You never know what someone is going to bring.
If you had a choice, what song from your own collection would you play?
I would play something off the Rahsaan Roland Kirk album I bought last week. It’s called “Blacknuss.” The first time I heard about Roland Kirk, I was at a poetry reading in the basement of a Barnes and Noble in Brooklyn. This guy did a poem about how Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s music changed his life. I always think of that moment whenever I listen to his music. It was actually a pretty decent poem.
Going forward, what are your goals for Vinyl + Vino?
We’ve got a lot of exciting things cooking. Our goal is to continue pushing the musical envelope and to expand our event portfolio beyond Vinyl + Vino in 2014. For Vinyl + Vino we created a dream list of DJs and collectors we’d like to invite to come spin. I don’t want to jinx it by naming names, but I’ll give a hint for one of them: Shades of Blue.
Vinyl + Vino’s latest event will take place Sunday, November 10th at Wisdom with Sam “The Man” Burns from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. From 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., there will be an “open turntable” where patrons can bring in their favorite record to be played. Also, there will be a contest for “Best Album Cover.”
