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 that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...

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 ...

, 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 Sterling Void (born 1964) is an American house musician. Biography Void was an early innovator in the Chicago house music scene. He is mostly known for his song with Paris Brightledge called " It's All Right" released in 1987 on D.J. Internation ...

, and

Ten City Ten City (derived from ''intensity'') is an American, Chicago, Illinois-based R&B and house music act, that enjoyed a number of club hits and Urban radio hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was one of the first exponents of deep house. ...

's first two albums. In March 1987, the British music magazine ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' 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 1 ...

were in the UK for the first house-music

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

. "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 t ...

. This song also appeared in

Michael Winterbottom Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—''Welcome to Sarajevo'', '' Wonderland'' and '' 24 Hour Party People''� ...

'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 Win ...

'' and in the 1991 documentary film '' Paris Is Burning''. Jefferson took a break from music in 1990, then returned to DJing in 1993. He moved to

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town east of Central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It is ...

Essex Essex () is a 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 River Thames to the south, and G ...

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 t ...

, 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

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 la ...

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