Jesse Saunders (born March 10, 1962) is an American house music artist, DJ, record producer, film producer, and entrepreneur.[1] His 1984 single, "On & On", co-written with Vince Lawrence, was the first house record to be pressed and sold to the public.[2][3] Since his emergence as a DJ, Saunders has run several independent labels and worked extensively in music and film production, as well as artist promotion and management. He is also a long-time member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Jesse Saunders was born and grew up on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. He attended St. Columbanus for kindergarten and until fifth grade attended Reavis Elementary School, where his mother, Lois M. Saunders, was a teacher. A Roosevelt University graduate in Early Childhood Education, she was her son's primary caregiver and supported his pursuits in sports and music.
Jesse Saunders then enrolled in Shoesmith Elementary School, where he was a straight-A student. He was selected to participate in the gifted program at Ray Elementary School. There, at the age of 10, Saunders learned to program and operate computers. He was also selected to perform and tour in the Chicago Children's Choir.
Saunders eventually graduated from Charles S. Deneen Public School before going on to graduate from Hyde Park's Kenwood Academy. During his high school years as an honor student there, he played intramural tennis, leading his team to three City of Chicago Championships and once to second place, which earned him the three white letters on his letterman's jacket. During this time, he was selected by the city of Chicago's "Youth Action" program, which trains exceptional student athletes with the goal of professional careers.
During this time, his older stepbrother, DJ Wayne Williams, mentored Saunders in the art of DJing. In 1977, Williams brought Saunders into the fold of his Chosen Few Disco Corp. Starting in 1991, the two went on to produce the Chosen Few House Music Reunion Picnic yearly in Chicago to a crowd of over 30,000.
Saunders's interest in music began with studying piano at age five, eventually making his way through every instrument available to him. Amongst his early musical influences were Aretha Franklin, Fleetwood Mac, Smokey Robinson, and Earth Wind & Fire.
Career
Chicago house
House takes its name from Chicago's Warehouse nightclub,[4] where the genre began. As the music moved to a wider community, the sound changed significantly and became what is today known as house music. One of Saunders' biggest influences, Frankie Knuckles, another instrumental figure in the development of the scene, confined himself to gay nightclubs (primarily the Warehouse). Meanwhile, Saunders took the unique sounds of the Windy City to the masses. Instead of relying solely on disco and R&B, as Knuckles did, Saunders expanded his musical repertoire and developed his signature style. As a DJ, he would use loops and repetition for accentuation, focusing on sections that were stripped down to just the drum or bass — a tradition he would carry on as a producer.
At the age of sixteen, Saunders was exposed to Chicago's night club scene through the music of Frankie Knuckles and others in the scene. In 1982, he opened up his own nightclub, the Playground. Attendance figures soon outnumbered the Warehouse's, and Saunders used the opportunity to incorporate his original material into his sets.
In 1983, he began producing his own music. In early 1984, he released the first official house music record along with Vince Lawrence, "On & On", on the label they founded together, Jes Say Records. Saunders composed the track with Lawrence in order to replace a record which had been stolen from Saunders's collection, the "On & On" bootleg disco megamix by Mach (1980). That megamix, a pastiche of loops from several disco records, particularly the bassline from Player One's"Space Invaders" (1979) and Lipps Inc's "Funkytown" (1980), had been Saunders's "signature" tune as a DJ; it was one that other DJs in the city didn't have or didn't play. Saunders & Lawrence added hypnotic lyrics and electronic instruments, utilizing a Roland TR-808drum machine as electronic percussion as well as a Korg Poly-61synthesizer and Roland TB-303bass synthesizer.[5][6]
"Funk U Up" (the first house track to ever chart on Billboard), "Real Love", "Love Can't Turn Around", and "Dum Dum" soon followed. His group, Jesse's Gang was eventually signed to Geffen Records, releasing the album Center of Attraction shortly after, with the single off the album, "I'm Back Again" becoming a top ten club hit.
Touring
By the late 1980s, Saunders decided to focus all his efforts on writing, producing, and remixing instead of DJing. Throughout the 1990s, he made his way back to DJing, touring the world, as well as trying his hand at producing music for television. His independent label, Broken Records, embraced the digital revolution by distributing music solely via the Internet. Since 1991 he has been involved in House Music Reunion Picnic, celebrated every Fourth of July weekend. The event brings together over 100 DJs and attracts upwards of 30,000 people. In 1997 he reunited with the other forefathers of house music to release Chicago Reunion Album.
Saunders went on to be featured in a number of books including What Kind Of House Party Is This? by Jonathan Fleming of Mixmag and his own semi-autobiography House Music...The Real Story[7], co-written by James Cummins. He has co-starred in documentaries including the Sun Dance award-winning "Modulations", the Channel 4 (London) mini-series "Pump Up The Volume", the BBC audio documentary "The 2nd Summer of Love", the TV1 Unsung: "Frankie Knuckles and The Roots of House", the Channel 4 (London) "I Was There (When House Took Over The World)", the BBC "Can You Feel It", and the award-winning "Put The Needle on the Record". He has been featured in Rolling Stone, MixMag, Urb, and Keyboard. Saunders has lectured at The Red Bull Academy, Oxford University, Boston University, The Winter Music Conference (Miami), Popkom (Germany), The New Music Seminar (New York), and the Amsterdam Dance Event (Holland).
In 2004, after touring the world, Saunders revived his Broken Records label. The label releases digital content many major download sites and features artists such as Inaya Day, Scott Langley, Sound Syndicate, Igor Garnier, Didier Vanelli, Mia Calderon, Joe Smooth, Marshall Jefferson, and Jesse Saunders himself.
In 2009, Saunders released the album 25th Anniversary of House Music, which resulted in a worldwide tour featuring Art depicting the culture and pioneers of the genre. The tour hit all over the US and as far as Johannesburg, South Africa.
After the 25th anniversary of House Music Tour, Saunders founded the Electronic Music Cafe in Vegas 2010 to display the Art from the Tour. It has turned into a major broadcast network featuring DJs and fine artists interpreting their music. He also founded the Music & Arts Society, a non-profit entity for the advancement and preservation of the DJ culture, with the launch of the word's first DJ Culture exhibit entitled "SPIN – Evolution of the DJ", that same year. Mayor Goodman issued a proclamation during the red carpet ceremony for the highly publicized affair for his outstanding contributions to education and the culture of Las Vegas.
In that same year, Saunders produced and released the first installment of the Above The Sound Cloud compilation series. He also produced and released the first Chilled & UnBroken compilation series, as well the internationally acclaimed DJ Divas album.
Writing
In the year 2020, Saunders has announced he is writing a book, titled In Their Own Words. It was released on June 4, 2020.[8]
Personal life
His maternal grandfather, Robert H. Miller, a funeral business owner and founder of the National Funeral Directors and Mortician's Association, was voted "Mayor" of Bronzeville from 1937 to 1939. He also became heavily involved in the American civil rights movement, walking with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, later erecting a statue in honor of King in Selma, Alabama. Miller also promoted the career of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and owned and operated the Grand Ballroom, which showcased artists such as Cab Calloway and Count Basie.
Saunders married actress and musician Jazsmin Lewis in 1992. The couple divorced in 1998. He now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's Black gay underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
François Kevorkian, also known by the stage name François K, is a French DJ, producer, remixer and label owner of Armenian descent and based in the United States of America, who started his career DJing in clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54. Kevorkian has produced and remixed work by a diverse range of musicians including the Smiths, Adam Ant, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and U2, and is considered one of the forefathers of house music.
Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the original house music DJs and producers from the area, such as Ron Hardy and Phuture.
Lawrence Philpot, known as Larry Levan, was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential post-disco DJ François Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music. He DJ'd at Club Zanzibar in the 1980s as well, home to the Jersey Sound brand of deep house or garage house.
Laurent Garnier, also known as Choice, is a French electronic music producer and DJ. Garnier began DJing in Manchester during the late 1980s. He became a producer in the early 1990s and recorded several albums.
Ron Hardy was an American, Chicago, Illinois-based DJ and record producer of early house music. He is well known for playing records at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club. Decades after his death, he is recognized for his innovative edits and mixes of disco, soul music, funk and early house music.
Francis Warren Nicholls Jr., known professionally as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer, and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music, a genre of music that began in Chicago during the early 1980s and subsequently spread worldwide. In 1997, Knuckles won the Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical. Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often called "The Godfather of House Music".
Todd Norton Terry is an American DJ, record producer and remixer in the genre of house music. His productions helped define the New York house scene in the 1990s and used extensive samples that blend the sounds of classic disco, the Chicago house sound, and elements of hip-hop. He has remixed a wide variety of artists.
Jamie Principle is an American house music artist and producer born in Chicago, Illinois.
Walter Gibbons was an American record producer, early disco DJ, and remixer. He helped pioneer the remix and 12" single in America, and was among the most influential New York DJs of the 1970s.
Trax Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It played a major part in the development of house music.
Milk & Sugar is a German house music producer and record label, represented by Mike Milk and formerly Steven Sugar. The duo collaborated between 1993 and 2022 under a variety of names, including Axis, Hitch Hiker & Jacques Dumondt, and Mike Stone & Steve Heller, and have scored major club hits internationally, including a re-make of John Paul Young's "Love Is in the Air".
Nathaniel Pierre Jones, better known by his stage name DJ Pierre, is an American DJ and performer of house music based in Chicago.
Nicky Siano is a former resident DJ at Studio 54.
"Your Love" is a 1986 Chicago house song that was recorded by American house artist Jamie Principle, who wrote its lyrics about a meeting with a woman Lisa. The lyrics were later given to Frankie Knuckles, a DJ who worked in Chicago clubs Principle frequented. Despite having not produced any original music, Knuckles agreed to work on the song after hearing Principle's original version. Knuckles added more music to the song and played it at his club, generating an enthusiastic reception. His version of the song was played from tapes and is different from later releases; according to Jacob Arnold of Wax Poetics, the edit Knuckles played at his club was musically a snare with vocals. For the first publicly available release, DJ Mark "Hot Rod" Trollan later revised the song by adding a synthesizer intro and a bassline; this version was first released in 1986 by Persona Records.
Secret Life was a British R&B/house and pop band active from 1991 to 1996, particularly popular in the UK and Europe.
Vince Lawrence is an American dance music record producer, businessman and is one of the leading innovators of the genre of music called house music. Industry insiders recognize Lawrence as co-author of "On and On", the first recording officially designated "house music". He worked with Jesse Saunders in the initial creation of Jes Say Records, designing its logo by hand. He served as head of marketing and was the lyric writer for "Funk U Up", "Undercover" by Dr. Derelict, "Real Love", and many other songs released in the label's heyday. He also co-authored "Love Can't Turn Around", which featured Daryl Pandy and reached No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart in 1986, starting the house music revolution in the UK. He organized Trax Records, a Chicago house label. He is the founder of Slang MusicGroup, which has received numerous gold and platinum awards for their contributions.
Tony Humphries is an American electronic musician and DJ. He was one of the earliest proponents of house music and has been instrumental in spreading the genre on both sides of the Atlantic.
DJing is the act of playing existing recorded music for a live audience.
"Mystery of Love" is a 1985 house music song created by Larry Heard under the alias of Mr. Fingers. It was released by Heard's label Alleviated Records in 1985. The track was developed in 1984 after Heard felt his creative input was not being incorporated into the rock music cover bands he had been drumming in. This led to Heard buying a Roland Jupiter-6 and developing two tracks in one night: "Washing Machine" and "Mystery of Love" which he recorded to via tape cassettes. Cassette tapes of these tracks were given to musicians local Chicago DJs and became popular at dance clubs in Chicago.
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