Why ask Chris Bangs to do a compilation for Ace?

Maybe because of my long, varied and unusual musical career. I started off as a failed guitarist with space rockers the Mighty Om, then went on to become a club DJ playing jazz, funk and soul across London and the south of England six nights a week. I then diversified to play more varied DJ sets that featured modern soul, rare groove, Baptist beat, Brazilian samba, bossa and beyond.

As I got established, I was offered DJ residencies. My first was playing five nights a week at Bogarts in West London which had the first Technics SL1200 record decks in the UK, previously only found in swish American venues like Studio 54. Then there was two years playing every Saturday at the Exeter Bowl, Bournemouth, where I also teamed up with DJ/promoter, Bob Masters to run the legendary Bournemouth soul weekenders through most of the 80s.

In 1982 I met 16-year old Gilles Peterson, playing his first DJ gigs in a local wine bar. This led to a partnership that spanned the best part of a decade. Our first sets were in a tiny function room above the Derby Arms near the Belvedere Arms in Sheen, West London where, in the late 80s, Gilles played his celebrated DJ sets. There were one-off nights culminating in our Mambo Madness parties and the Original Jazz Bops, promoted in tandem with Gilles’ Mad On Jazz show on Radio London. Just imagine 1,600 hardcore jazz clubbers dancing to class tunes and live acts at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town.

My musical journey as a DJ peaked in the mid- to late 80s with the legendary Cock Happy and Special Branch nights and Doos At The Zoo, spread across various venues in London. There were other joint one-offs, including a memorable night dropping tuff jazz tunes from the likes of Art Blakey and Charles Earland surrounded by giant Victorian machine generators at Kew’s Museum of Steam where instead of our usual banners and posters, we decorated the room with toilet paper. I also guested fortnightly on Gilles’ Monday jazz night at the Wag Club getting home at 5am and at work, in body if not in mind, at 8am.

There were also Special Branch holidays in Ibiza and Corfu, Rockley Sands, Prestatyn and Caister weekenders, dropping jazz dance, funk, rare groove and even a bit of Cliff Richard on the holidays and playing classic Blue Note jazz and Santana at Cafe Del Mar.

I was credited with inventing acid jazz after a particularly wild night in early 1988 DJ-ing at a Nicky Holloway Special Branch Doo in Brentford, London. We were playing hard Latin jazz tunes while the words “Acid... Acid... Acid...” were projected onto the giant screens behind where Gilles and I were DJing. We stopped the music , I said “acid jazz” on the microphone and we both collapsed laughing. Acid jazz was never meant to be more than a mild piss-take and really was just a reaction to the hype that acid house was getting in clubland. We never intended it to be that specific, but acid jazz went on to become a genre that conquered the world. It gave me the freedom to play Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic poetry and early hip-hop tracks alongside hard bop and tough Latin tunes.

As time marched on, many of the DJs I had been working with such as Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold, Trevor Fung, Simon Dunmore and Johnny Walker got involved in the world-leading UK dance scene, raking in cash by making records. I thought ‘I’ll Have some of that!’ This led to my first foray into the studio creating the proto-acid jazz classic 12”, ‘Psychedelic Jack (That’s Where It’s At)’, which cheekily sampled Frank Zappa, Soft Machine and Gong. With me and Gilles on vocals, it got us signed to Acid Jazz Records, who released in 1988 under the name of Extasis.

That was just the start and nearly 35 years later (gulp!) I’ve had a ball, producing Galliano and Paul Weller, working with Mick Talbot, Roy Ayers, Linda Clifford and Sharon Redd, remixing Will Downing, Ce Ce Rogers and Blaze. I’ve made house tunes with Faith’s Terry Farley, run the legendary Dadhouse Records label with Dave Jarvis. I also set up my own studio and released music under a variety of names, both for my own labels and Acid Jazz Records. Recent releases include my solo albums “Firebird” (2023) and “Dream World” (2024). There was also “Back To Business” with Mick Talbot, released in 2023.

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