HMC Rewind: Marshall Jefferson

By Byron Burke

I was very fortunate to work closely with House Music Pioneer Marshall Jefferson and my former Ten City band members Byron Stingily and Herb Lawson from Chicago.

Marshall Jefferson was the creator of the legendary house music song called “Move Your Body”. Marshall was a former Post Office employee and decided to become a recording artist at the age of 35. He never had instruction on how to create music, but someone told him to purchase a Yamaha QX 1 music sequencer; Roland 707 drum machine; Roland JX 8P keyboard and a simple mixer that could be used to hear the music coming from the musical devices.

Mr. Jefferson spent countless hours teaching me how to use these electronic music devices and various troubleshooting techniques to use if I encounter any problems. One weekend in June of 1987, he allowed me to take all his equipment home. I was so excited, I locked myself in the room and tried out some song Ideas I had running around my head. That weekend I created the foundation “Ten City’s” biggest commercial hit called “That’s The Way Love Is” and “Whatever Makes You Happy” that was later released in 1990 on Atlantic Records.

Click here to watch a video featuring Marshall Jefferson

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HMC Rewind: Abigail Adams / Moving Records

Abigail Adams Written by Kris Flowers As one of the prominent, iconic women in the Dance Music business, Abigail Adams’ critical role in the development of New Jersey’s Essex County-centered dance music industry continues to impress upon its new crop of DJ’s, remixers, producers, record labels and recording artists. This former model, Bernardsville NJ born, raised in Summit NJ , earned a BA in Early Childhood Education from Boston College . Abigail began her career in the Dance music arena via her DJ boyfriend, KB. In the early 1980’s, they owned a custom roller skating store in East Orange, NJ, subsequently opening up a store in the famous, “B-Boy friendly” Roxy roller disco in NYC. KB purchased a pair of Technics 1200 turntables and set them up in the East Orange store so he could practice DJing. Customers would inquire about the music KB was spinning, and the ever inventive, “forward-thinking” Abigail made note of the customer’s inquiries and trekked to variou

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HMC Rewind: Shep Pettibone

Robert E. Pettibone, Jr. (born 15 July 1959, better known as Shep Pettibone ) is a record producer , remixer, songwriter and club DJ , one of the most prolific of the 1980s. His earliest work known to the public was for one of New York City's top disco/dance radio stations, WRKS 98.7 "Kiss" FM , and later as remixer/producer for the disco label Salsoul Records . His prowess at production and mixing led him to work with such artists as Madonna and George Michael in the late '80s during the height of these artists' popularity. Shep's contribution to 1980s club music is too extensive to list completely. He was instrumental in bringing the early underground sound of house music into the pop mainstream by way of a hybrid sound (much to the dismay of some purists who preferred standard disco/dance and R&B). Though he was contemporaneous to others (such as François Kevorkian and Arthur Baker ), he is certainly the most prominent DJ/Remixer

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