Black History Month: CAJMERE

Cajmere 

Curtis “Cajmere” Jones was born in Chicago in 1967. He had early childhood dreams of being a doctor but eventually shelved the idea and attended University of Illinois as a chemical engineering major in 1991. While in the undergrad program, he made music as a hobby using a bottom tier keyboard, a basic four-track machine and a cheap drum machine. Never taking it serious, he was fully committed to building a career as a chemical engineer. Post graduation, he attended but eventually left a masters program at UC Berkley and returned home to Illinois where he produced his first record in 1991, “Underground Goodies Volume 1”. The following year he released what went on to become one of the most important records in the house/club genre entitled “Coffee Pot” aka “It’s Time For The Percolator” (Cajual/Emotive Records).

Cajmere grew up in a musically rich environment with a dad who was an occasional DJ and a budding musician. Because of this, he developed a love and deep understanding of the 80s house music sound that was deep rooted in Chicago. His music was very much influenced by this movement and after his first two official releases, he teamed up with a Chicago based vocalist, Dajae to produce “Brighter Days” which entered #2 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Interested in going in a different, more techno direction for a bit, Cajmere began using the moniker Green Velvet in 1993. In ’95, under the name, he produced the hits “Preacher Man”, “Answering Machine” and “Flash” which became a #1 US Dance hit. By 1999 he was Djing regularly using both names and released the full length album, “Constant Chaos” on the Music Man label. He released a second Green Velvet album on Warner Bros. in 2000 and began scaling down his Green Velvet appearances to just live performances as a band with two other musicians. He was still DJing out as Cajmere and gaining more attention in Europe than in the US. The third Green Velvet album “Walk In Love” came in ’05 and the following year, he announced he had become a born-again Christian after overdosing on magic mushrooms, marijuana and more. In 2015, he collaborated with fellow house legend Claude Von Stroke to form the duo “Get Real” and embarked on a world tour.

Cajmere has released some of the most important records in dance music from the early days of house to the present using various aliases including Geo Vogt, Half Pint, Curan Stone, Gino Vittori and more. His sets regularly hit Ultra Music Festival, Tomorrowland, Electric Daisy Carnival and other huge stages around the world. Catching one of his performances is a bucket list item for many dedicated fans of house music. Full Discography HERE.

Black History Month: KING BRITT

King Britt

King Britt is a Philadelphia icon. Born in 1968, he established himself fairly early as a musical presence in Philly as the import buyer for Tower Records. After graduating from Central High School, he took the job there and became a huge asset for the company and the city due to his extensive knowledge of dance music from around the world. He continued his education at Temple University where he studied marketing and business. in 1990 he started his first DJ residency at Philadelphia clubs, Silk City and Revival. The two gigs helped shape dance music in the city and established King as a mainstay in the nightlife scene. After teaming up with Josh Wink, he produced his first commercial release for Strictly Rhythm entitled “Tribal Confusion.”

In 1992, King began DJing for Grammy Award winning group Digable Planets and embarked on a world tour with the legendary Sade. After touring from ’92-’94, King and Wink started Ovum Recordings and dropped King Britt’s “Supernatural” featuring Philadelphia poet, Ursula Rucker. The tune became a classic in the international rave scene and a club mainstay in the US. 

Britt formed the collective, Sylk130 in 1998 and released the debut album “When The Funk Hits The Fan” on Ovum/Columbia. The project went Gold and received worldwide critical acclaim taking King Britt’s career to another level. The second Sylk130 project, more focused on the influence of King’s heroes from the 80s dance era, was released in 2001 and featured De La Soul, Alison Moyet, Grover Washington Jr., Lady Alma, and more. The same year, King resigned from Ovum and went onto pursue more production work on his own. He began taking on gigs remixing everyone from Tori Amos, Quincy Jones, and Miles Davis to The Isley Bros., Saul Williams, Macy Gray, Wendy & Lisa, among many others. In 2002, he released “Adventures in Lo-Fi” as part of BBE’s legendary Beat Generation Series. in 2005, he produced the acclaimed new take on Sister Gertrude Morgan’s “Preservation Hall” which went on to be featured on True Blood, Miami Vice, Live Without Dead Time, and the AdBusters Compilation. The following year, King did a more techno-focused project under the name The Nova Dream Sequence on Compost Recordings which was praised by legends Carl Craig and Derrick May. 

King created the Intricate Beauty album in 2010 for Nervous Recordings and in 2014 composed “The Phoenix” by Fhloston Paradigm for the forward thinking Hyperdub label. Keeping a true workaholic’s studio schedule, King Britt continues to release music at an astounding rate. Whether under his own name as an artist, as a remixer, or under one of his various aliases, (Scuba, ObaFunke, Sylk130, Fhloston Paradigm, Saturn Never Sleeps, The Nova Dream Sequence, Firefly, Soul Litchfield, Dynamic), King Britt continues to push the boundaries of soul, dance, and experimental electronic music to his global audience.

Black History Month: THEO PARRISH

Theo Parrish

Theo Parrish was born in Washington DC in 1972 and raised in Chicago, IL. He grew up listening to jazz, taking a liking to Miles Davis, Nina Simone, and George Gershwin. After graduating from the Chicago Academy of the Arts, he continued his studies at the Kansas City Art Institute with a focus on combining live instruments with human voices and looped samples. Once he received his Bachelors Degree in ’94, he moved to Michigan to start his music career.

Established since the late 90s in the Techno world, he dropped the “minimal” release, “First Floor” on Peacefrog Records. in 2000 he followed it up with a full length album he titled “Parallel Dimensions and released on his own Sound Signature label. "Sound Sculptures Volume 1" and "Et Tu Brute" both followed  a few years later in 2007. A standout tune from "Sound Sculptures" is "The Rink" which became a staple in many DJs sets around the US. His latest album, "American Intelligence" was released in 2014 to much acclaim. 

Theo Parrish is just as renowned for his multi genre DJ sets as he is for his releases. And his experience in the studio has helped Theo craft some of the best re-edits and new versions of disco, funk, and soul classics. His reputation for party rocking landed him a monthly residency at the now closed London staple nightclub, Plastic People. Theo Parrish has created his own lane in the genre of Techno and you can hear the influence of jazz, funk, and soul in his music. Catching his live DJ sets is a bucket list item of many house music fans around the globe and Theo does not disappoint.