Jesse Saunders

Saunders was born and grew up on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, in the 1960s and '70s.

He attended St. Columbanus for kindergarten and until fifth grade attended Reavis Elementary School, where his mother, Lois M. Saunders, was a teacher.

A Roosevelt University graduate in Early Childhood Education, she was her son's primary caregiver and supported his pursuits in sports and music.

Jesse Saunders then enrolled in Shoesmith Elementary School, where he was a straight-A student.

He was selected to participate in the gifted program at Ray Elementary School.

There, at the age of 10, Saunders learned to program and operate computers.

He was also selected to perform and tour in the Chicago Children's Choir.

Saunders eventually graduated from Charles S. Deneen Public School before going on to graduate from Hyde Park's Kenwood Academy.

During his high school years as an honor student there, he played intramural tennis, leading his team to three City of Chicago Championships and once to second place, which earned him the three white letters on his lettermen's jacket.

During this time, he was selected by the city of Chicago's "Youth Action" program, which trains exceptional student athletes with the goal of professional careers.

During this time, his older stepbrother, DJ Wayne Williams, mentored Saunders in the art of DJing.

Jesse Saunders (born March 10, 1962) is an American house music artist, DJ, record producer, film producer, and entrepreneur.

In 1977, Wiliams brought Saunders into the fold of his Chosen Few Disco Corp. Starting in 1991, the two went on to produce the Chosen Few House Music Reunion Picnic yearly in Chicago to a crowd of over 30,000.

Saunders went on to study communications and film at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Saunders's interest in music began with studying piano at age five, eventually making his way through every instrument available to him.

Amongst his early musical influences were Aretha Franklin, Fleetwood Mac, Smokey Robinson, and Earth Wind & Fire.

House takes its name from Chicago's Warehouse nightclub, where it began.

As the music moved to a wider community, the sound changed significantly and became what is today known as house music.

One of Saunders' biggest influences, Frankie Knuckles, another instrumental figure in the development of the scene, confined himself to gay nightclubs (primarily the Warehouse).

Meanwhile, Saunders took the unique sounds of the Windy City to the masses.

Instead of relying solely on disco and R&B, as Knuckles did, Saunders expanded his musical repertoire and developed his signature style.

As a DJ, he would use loops and repetition for accentuation, focusing on sections that were stripped down to just the drum or bass — a tradition he would carry on as a producer.

At the age of sixteen, Saunders was exposed to Chicago's night club scene through the music of Frankie Knuckles and others in the scene.

That megamix, a pastiche of loops from several disco records, particularly the bassline from Player One's "Space Invaders" (1979) and Lipps Inc's "Funkytown" (1980), had been Saunders's "signature" tune as a DJ; it was one that other DJs in the city didn't have or didn't play.

Saunders & Lawrence added hypnotic lyrics and electronic instruments, utilizing a Roland TR-808 drum machine as electronic percussion as well as a Korg Poly-61 synthesizer and Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer.

"Funk U Up" (the first house track to ever make it onto the Billboard charts), "Real Love", "Love Can't Turn Around", and "Dum Dum" soon followed.

His group, Jesse's Gang was eventually signed to Geffen Records, releasing the album Center of Attraction shortly after, with the single off the album, "I'm Back Again" becoming a top ten club hit.

Saunders composed the track with Lawrence in order to replace a record which had been stolen from Saunders's collection, the "On & On" bootleg disco megamix by Mach (1980).

By the late 1980s, Saunders decided to focus all his efforts on writing, producing, and remixing instead of DJing.

In 1982, he opened up his own nightclub, the Playground.

Attendance figures soon outnumbered the Warehouse's, and Saunders used the opportunity to incorporate his original material into his sets.

By 1983, he was producing his own music.

His 1984 single, "On & On", co-written with Vince Lawrence, was the first house record to be pressed and sold to the public.

Since his emergence as a DJ, Saunders has run several independent labels and worked extensively in music and film production, as well as artist promotion and management.

He is also a long-time member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

In early 1984, he released the first official house music record along with Vince Lawrence, "On & On", on the label they made together, Jes Say Records.

Throughout the 1990s, he made his way back to DJing, touring the world, as well as trying his hand at producing music for television.

His independent label, Broken Records, embraced the digital revolution by distributing music solely via the Internet.

Since 1991 he has been involved in House Music Reunion Picnic, celebrated every Fourth of July weekend.

The event brings together over 100 DJs and attracts upwards of 30,000 people.