Grégoire de Villanova
Paris
DJ Gigs :
Electro Tropicale w/ Prinsess Jorge @ Le Pigalle (Paris, France)
14.01.2017
DJ Set @ Balneario Universitario w/ DJ Ryan (Havana, Cuba)
19.11.2016
Abel Ferrara "Live @ Salo" w/ Abel Ferrara band @ Salo (Paris, France)
22.10.2016
Avenida Brasil w/ Tom B, Bronco da Cuica, Emile Omar, Soulist @ La Bellevilloise (Paris, France)
17.09.2016
Zanja 607 launching party @ Zanja 607 (Havana, Cuba)
17.06.2016
Kosmos w/ Ioannis Koukotzilas @ Bord de l'eau (Thessaloniki, Greece)
21.02.2016
Davadur w/ Adamantios Kafetzis @ Tesla (Athens, Greece) 19.02.2016
Direçao Brasil w/ Gramophiles & WAGD @ Café de la presse (Paris, France) 05.02.2016
Canicule tropicale w/ La mano peluda, Philippe Noël @ Inspecteur épingle (Montréal, Canada) 12.12.2015
Greg de Villanova hears the link between American Funk and African pop, between tropical bass and salsa, between disco and dancehall reggae. It’s a dancefloor-packing instinct that has garnered the Paris-based DJ gigs in a dozen countries, including the US, Canada, Brazil, and countries across Africa and Europe.
De Villanova’s thoughtful yet funky sets show: You can think globally and still bring the party. You can bust through transatlantic genre barriers and mix old and new. “I play brand new tracks, I play decades-old vinyl,” Greg explains. “I travel a lot and buy whatever I can. There is so much music you’ll never find anywhere else, that’s only distributed locally, not online, be it on LP or CD. You can put it all together, you just need to have the knowledge, the sense of history, the ear.”
Genre- and era-hopping comes second nature to de Villanova, who has long had eclectic tastes. Growing up in Paris with a Brazilian father, Greg heard soul, R&B, and classic Brazilian songs from childhood. As a teenager, he sought out obscure hip hop, swapping tapes with friends, and got hooked on the thrill of the hunt. The hip hop of the era turned de Villanova on to other music from America: funk, disco, r&b, soul, house. He chased down samples and found himself stumbling into a musical passion that spanned the Atlantic and club music history.
De Villanova’s debut as a DJ speaks volumes about his roots and his approach. One Friday night in Salvador, Bahia, de Villanova toted a bunch of the records he had recently snatched up, the collection he had already managed to amass in a few short weeks since his arrival in the provincial but creatively inclined Brazilian city. He took them to a friend’s party and spun his first professional DJ set.
That night, he discovered how his many musical loves could come together, in high-energy sets with just the right element of surprise. “I began putting salsa, say, with funk and reggae and afrobeat in Bahia,” Greg recalls. “For the next 3 years, living in Salvador, I was DJing. And every day of the week, I was going through the city, digging for old vinyl in all these experimental styles with small, really local audiences.”
Greg continues to hunt for music around the world, and he continues to push dancefloor tastes in new directions by sneaking unknown styles into his sets. “You try to trick your listeners in a friendly way,” he smiles. “You play a hit song and then you can play a few obscure tracks, so long as they have that good, sexy, light vibe.”
GREG DE VILLANOVA’s tracks
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