Jesse Saunders
Jesse Saunders was born in Chicago on 10th March 1962.
Saunders excelled at school and was an outstanding sportsman and musician.
He started to play the piano aged five and soon progressed onto other instruments.
He frequently cites his mother as a considerable influence in his life and a great supporter of all his musical and sporting endeavors.
He was identified as a 'gifted' student and, as such, won a place on the gifted program at Ray Elementary School, where he learned to program computers. He was also selected for the Chicago Children's Choir. These two things would become hugely significant events in his life.
At High School, he began to prove himself a very talented tennis player. He was selected to participate in Chicago's Youth Action program, which aimed to turn teenage athletes into professionals.
At the same time, he was also spending time with his step-brother, DJ Wayne Williams, who introduced him to the art of DJ'ing.
He joined Wlliams' 'Chosen Few Disco. Corp' in 1977 and from there here was unstoppable.
Aged 16, he started to explore Chicago's nightclub scene and was significantly influenced by House music pioneer Frankie Knuckles.
Saunders soon became a nightclub headliner, and his popularity soared, in part due to his move away from the disco and R & B that people had come to expect in clubs.
He chose his music from a wide range of sources and merged it with considerable turn-table skills.
He started to use looping and repetition techniques during his sets and often focused mainly on the drums and bass.
He opened his club, The Playground, in 1982, and it soon became one of the most popular nightclubs in Chicago, mainly due to Saunders's growing reputation as the DJ of the moment.
DJ'ing in his club allowed him to include original material in his sets, and before long, he was producing his music and started a record label, Jes Say Records, with Vince Lawrence.
He released 'On and On, widely considered the first 'House' record, on his label in 1984.
'On and On' started life as a replacement for a megamix stolen from Saunders record collection. This mix was his signature tune, and 'On and On' was borne from a need to replace the track.
The original mix included loops of various disco tracks. But now Saunders and Lawrence had vocals, a drum machine (a Roland TR-808 to be precise), a Korg Poly-61 Synthesizer, and a Roland TB-303 Bass Synthesizer. The finished track was distinctive, and several other releases followed soon after.
By the end of the '80s, Saunders focused more on producing, writing, and remixing than DJ'ing, although he revived his DJ career in the '90s and began touring extensively again.
He started another label in the '90s called Broken Records, one of the first labels to distribute music solely on the internet. Broken Records still focuses on digital releases and supports artists such as Inaya Day and Marshall Jefferson.
He features in a whole host of books about the origins of House and has recently released his book 'In Their Own Words', which includes personal stories about House's origins by people who were there.
Saunders has lectured around the world in top educational establishments, including Oxford University.
He founded the non-profit organization, The Music and Arts Society, the aim of which is to preserve and advance DJ culture.