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

 

Jesse Saunders - On & On

JS 9999
How about a record that was actually made in Chicago?  How about something by one of the originators of House Music?  How about what is arguably the first commercially released House record?  Jesse Saunders’ On & On is it.

Jesse Saunders was already a well-known DJ when he laid these tracks down on wax in 1984.  Legend has it that Jesse’s signature record (a bootleg disco mix by MACH called On and On) was stolen so he decided to recreate the main loop on his own and thus was born Jesse Saunders' On & On.  I don’t know how true this is but it’s a good story.  I do know that when this record came out, DJ’s and fans alike went nuts.  Everybody had to have a copy of this single by a local boy we could relate to.

Musically, On & On was not especially groundbreaking to Chicago audiences.  Other DJ’s were also using the 909 and 808 to create their own beats and mixing them from cassette or reel-to-reel in their sets.  The handclap-heavy, four on the floor beat with incessant cowbells and rimshots was already in fashion in the Windy City.  Jesse’s innovation was to show that you could sell this music.  He proved that House music fans would support a thriving local scene that included record sales as well as club attendance.  This record's success also showed that pure drum tracks (what would later become known as DJ tools) could sell well to the general public. Pretty soon every DJ was putting out a disc of their "go-to" drum tracks.

The flip side of this record, five classically sparse Chicago House drum tracks, has what I consider to be the most significant track on this release: 119.  This “song” became an even bigger hit than On & On.  Jesse had been using this track in his sets long before the record came out (hence the parenthetical, 1984 in the title) and crowds knew it well.  They even knew it by name.  I remember hearing folks at the Playground (club) yell “119!” from the dancefloor as a way of requesting it.  I think it was named after it’s BPM but how everyone (my friends and I included) knew it’s name before the record came out remains a mystery.  After this record was released, every DJ in Chicago began including it in their sets and it remained a popular break long after On & On was considered a dated novelty.

Jesse Saunders continued to record music on his own Jes Say label, Mitchbal, Precision, and others.  His collaborator for On & On, Vince Lawrence, also continued to create music in collaboration with Jesse, on his own, with his band Z-Factor, and under the pseudonym, Virgo.

Track List

Side One
On & On

Side Two
119 (1984)
5A
1A
4A & B
Im the D.J.

Sides1&2