Fri, Feb 4, Joe Maz

As a former piano and jazz student, it took me a while to take deejays seriously. Especially club deejays. Sure, hip-hop deejays use turntables as their instruments, but so many club deejays just regurgitate Top 40 hits over pounding speakers (so much for learning music theory). Yet there are rare deejays who are musicians, creators of mash-ups and electronic music artists. Joe Maz is one. He’s part of a group called DiscoTech, but he’s equally skilled solo, remixing, mashing and innovating. Check him out if you’re equal parts hip-hop, international music, house and rock fan. 1116 15th Street, http://djjoemaz.com.