Kenny "Jammin" Jason - Jam Tracks

DJ 891
Jesse Saunders pioneered the tradition of DJ’s pressing and releasing their self-made beat tracks with the B-side to On and On. Within a year or two, most of the major radio jocks and quite a few club DJ’s followed suit with varying degrees of success. Probably the most widely played was Farley “Funkin” Keith’s Funkin With The Drums and Funkin With The Drums Again. The latter was released after he’d changed his name to Farley Jackmaster Funk. The record here was not quite as influential. It was made by Kenny “Jammin” Jason, another founding member of the pioneering DJ collective known as the Hot Mix 5 who presided over the airwaves every weekend on legendary station WBMX.

The influence and effect of the Hot Mix 5 (Farley, Jason, Mickey “Mixin” Oliver, Ralphi “Rockin” Rosario, and Scott “Smokin” Silz) probably cannot be overstated in terms of spreading House Music throughout Chicago. Remember that although in many ways House began as an underground movement, ‘BMX ensured it didn’t stay underground for long. House music began as music played in clubs that were primarily Black and gay but the Hot Mix 5 consisted of a straight Black man (Farley), three straight White men (Silz, Oliver, and Jason), and one gay Latino high-schooler (Rosario),. Pretty soon it wasn't just club kids and party-goers who listened to this music. EVERYONE did. Well at least everyone under a certain age did. It didn’t matter if you never set foot in a club, you could hear this music everywhere thanks to Chicago radio. I won’t go any further into the history and influence of the Hot Mix 5 and how they came to dominate the radio. There is a very good write up of their history here.

Kenny Jason remained a popular radio DJ for years even after leaving WBMX. He dabbled a little in music production too as evidenced by this record and several others for which he has producing credit. The six tracks here are classically unadorned 808 patterns. Personally, I’ve always felt they were a little all over the place and a bit busy sounding to really hold a groove (or a dance floor) on their own but were certainly useful to layer under other tracks to give them that “Jack” sound. I think the strongest tracks here are Jam Track and No Water Needed although obviously the last track has the best title.

Track List

Side A
Jam Track
Jammin The Snare
Jackin The Tracks

Side B
Clap Crazy
No Water Needed
The Shit

side A&B

As a bonus I’m also including a Kenny Jason mix recorded from WBMX sometime in 1984. It’s an interesting mix because you can hear Jason trying out music production as he plays keyboard over a few of the tracks. I don’t think it works very well and actually would probably enjoy the mix more without his intrusions but it’s an interesting historical relic nonetheless and there are definitely some bangin tracks in the mix. 

KJ-WBMX1984 
Track List
Telex – Brainwash
Doctor’s Cat – Feel The Drive
Stephanie Mills – Pilot Error
Shannon – Let The Music Play
Two Sisters – High Noon
Wide Boy Awake – Slang Teacher
New Order – Confusion
Freeez – I.O.U.
Gary’s Gang – Makin Music
RIS – Love N Music
Stopp – I’m Hungry