Marshall Julius Jefferson (born September 19, 1959) is an American musician, working in the

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

subgenres of

Chicago house Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the first ever house music productions, which were by Chicago-based artists in the 1980s. History and origins Disco ...

and

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music produce ...

Biography

Sometimes known as the father of house music, Jefferson was originally a record producer in the Universal Recording Studios in Chicago, where he met the owner of

Trax Records Trax Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It played a major part in the development of house music. History Larry Sherman was originally a collector of vintage jukeboxes, and, frustrated with ...

, Larry Sherman. Jefferson's 1986 single for Trax, " Move Your Body", the first house song to use piano, was a popular and influential song in the genre. During the late-1980s heyday of house music, he recorded solo and collaborative material under various names such as Virgo, Jungle Wonz, Truth, and On the House. Jefferson's deep house productions include songs by

CeCe Rogers CeCe Rogers (born Kenneth Jesse Rogers III, April 30, 1962), is a two time Grammy nominated American singer, songwriter and record producer from Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He was given the nickname CeCe by James Brown, who watched him perf ...

and Sterling Void, and Ten City's first two albums. In March 1987, the British music magazine '' NME'' reported that Jefferson and

Frankie Knuckles Francis Warren Nicholls, Jr. (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), better known as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the ...

were in the UK for the first house-music tour. "Move Your Body" appeared in the video game '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', playing on house-music radio station

SF-UR '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' is an open-world, action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. First released on 16 October 2004 for the PlayStation 2, ''San Andreas'' has an in-game radio that can tu ...

. This song also appeared in Michael Winterbottom's film ''

24 Hour Party People ''24 Hour Party People'' is a 2002 British biographical comedy-drama film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Wint ...

'' and in the 1991 documentary film ''

Paris Is Burning Paris Is Burning may refer to: * ''Paris Is Burning'' (film), a 1990 documentary film * "Paris Is Burning" (''Gilmore Girls''), the eleventh episode of ''Gilmore Girls first season * "Paris Is Burning", a song from the 1983 album '' Breaking the Ch ...

''. Jefferson took a break from music in 1990, then returned to DJing in 1993. He moved to Billericay in

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

where he had a five-year residency with the Tribal Gathering and Big Love events. Jefferson now lives in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, England and released a remixed version of "Move Your Body" (credited to Marshall Jefferson x Solardo, with the latter being a Mancunian production duo made up of Mark Richards & James Eliot) in 2019. In 2021, he teamed up again with

Byron Stingily Byron Stingily is an American R&B and house-music singer born in Chicago, Illinois, known for his falsetto voice. He is now a part-time principal at a school in Chicago while still performing. Career Stingily had several hit records in the 1 ...

to release "Be Free", the first single in 25 years to be credited to Stingily's house music group Ten City.

References

External links

Marshall Jefferson
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

Video: Paul Morley interview with Marshall Jefferson, ''The Observer'', 2010
*
Marshall Jefferson 2012 audio interview at Soulinterviews.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson, Marshall 1959 births Living people Musicians from Chicago DJs from Chicago Acid house musicians Deep house musicians American dance musicians American house musicians African-American DJs American expatriates in the United Kingdom 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people Electronic dance music DJs