Ace Boogaloo

Eli “Paperboy” Reed discusses the finer points of the blues with a patron of the Ace Hotel.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed, as all readers of the Boogaloo Bag should know, is a contemporary soul singer with one foot solidly in the R&B tradition and another with its big toe dipped into the future. (The Boogaloo Bag writers await with baited breath the release of the Paperboy’s new album, due this spring.) He is also a world-class record collector and a super-fine DJ. So it was with much excitement that Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus agreed to guest DJ with him at the lobby of the Ace Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday February 4^th.

The Zagat guide to New York City calls the Ace Hotel “young,” “stylish,” “spendy” and “trendy,” and that it “delivers a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic with lots of character.” But let’s face it; at about $300 a night for a tiny room, it’s a yuppie joint! Thus, it was like going deep into enemy territory when these two ace DJs, armed only with a couple boxes of R&B records, pushed forward in their attempt to round off some of the cubes that populate the lobby bar.

Because the Paperboy is, at heart, a bluesman, it was a preponderance of blues records that were played. If no one else in the packed lobby seemed to care, the two DJs definitely wowed each other! The Paperboy has great records, that’s for sure and The Boog thoroughly enjoyed listening to the records he played. Man, that one by Big Daddy Simpson sounded great. Plus he played records by James Brown & His Famous Flames and The “5” Royales that sounded fabulous turned up so loud! What was the Little Milton on Bobbin that he played? That was cool, also. He played too many good ones to list here!

But the Ace Hotel isn’t so bad—at least they are smart enough to round up such DJs as the Paperboy (who will be there most of the Tuesdays this month) and Mr. Fine Wine (who did swung the place last year, and who will guest with the Paperboy on February 11). A place like that could easily be a creep-with-a-laptop joint. Plus, the food is GOOD!

Here’s a list—and a couple scans of labels—of the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus: