DT646 – Marshall Jefferson (Disco Mix)

Marshall Jefferson is one of the founding fathers of house music as it is known today. Born in Chicago in 1959, Marshall was a central figure in the development of the Chicago house scene and produced seminal house anthems including ‘Move Your Body’, ‘7 Ways To Jack’ and ‘Open Our Eyes’. He has worked with the best in the business, from fellow founding father Frankie Knuckles to Roy Davis Jr., Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Felix Da Housecat and Lil Louis. Marshall has had a leading hand in the growth of the acid and deep house movements and even today continues to evolve these genres amid dooms-dayers predicting their collective demise.

Initially inspired by rock music, regular trips to Chicago’s famed Music Box Club in the mid-1980s turned Marshall onto the sounds of early house music. Having bought himself a modest synthesiser and sequencer set-up, Marshall began producing his own cuts and passed them onto Ron Hardy of the Music Box Club, who quickly began playing them to the love of the crowd.

Marshall’s first release, 1985’s ‘Go Wild Rhythm Trax’ on Virgo Records, demonstrated Marshall had the talent vital to succeed in such a fickle industry. ‘Move Your Body’, originally a production Marshall had passed onto Ron Hardy, was released on Trax Records in 1986 and is today recognised as a genre-defining release, having been subtitled and acclaimed ‘The House Music Anthem’.

Marshall Jefferson plays a rare disco set alongside Joey Negro (Z Records) at the Tropical Disco Records at Night Tale, Hackney, on Friday June 21st with support from Moodena, Sartorial and Dylan Pasqua. Info at https://www.facebook.com/events/2610219005715701/

Listen to it below, on Spotify or iTunes here

Sum up this podcast in 10 words…
Chicago flavoured disco mix for the house heads 

What’s your personal favourite track on it?
‘It Looks Like Love’ – Goody Goody

What’s the special ingredient in this mix?
Soul

What’s the best gig you’ve played recently?
At the Brighton Music Conference and there was some great energy from the crowd. The DJ Alexander Grayson wanted to give me some of his music and I offered to go back to back with him and we had a blast mixing it up together.

What have you got coming up?
My book ‘Marshall Jefferson: Diary of A DJ’ is coming out on May 31st and please feel free to pre-order it from the Olympic Publishing website.
I’m also planning a huge classical house concert in Chicago in October with all the original artists singing Live including Ce Ce Rogers, Ten City, Kym Mazelle, Curtis McClaine, Paris Brightledge, Jungle Wonz, Sleazy D (who made the very 1st house music record), Eddie Stockley,  Kenny Bobien and Vicky Martin. It’s going to be held at the Harrison Theatre with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra playing and the conductor is an old friend of mine who helped with all the early orchestration on Ten City and so forth so its really gonna be something to behold.

And finally, do you have a special message for our readers?
Buy my book but don’t read it – there’s some embarrassing stuff in there! Its a book that party people can have on their tables – it’s got a great cover – lol

Tracklisting
1. ‘It Looks Like Love’ – Goody Goody
2. ‘Disco Juice’ – Cloud One
3. ‘The More I Get, The More I Want’ – Teddy Pendergrass
4. ‘Mainline’ – Black Ivory – Marshall Jefferson Edit
5. ‘Love Sensation’ – Loretta Holloway
6. ‘Relight My Fire’ – Vertigo with Dan Hartman
7. ‘Got To Be Real’ – Cheryl Lynn
8. ‘You Saved My Day’ – Cheryl Lynn
9. ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’ – Sylvester