djkervyn, Author at SSRadio

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djkervyn

Registered: 24th Nov 2009

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Profile: DJ Kervyn Mark is one of the busiest DJ on the global dance music scene in New York. One who hates to be pigeonholed in terms of musical selection, Mark is always exploring new music to be played in his diverse, eclectic DJ sets. During his 3 decades of spinning Kervyn has played exclusive sets, of soulful house, hip-hop, r&b, reggae, jazz, Latin freestyle and other forms of dance music. Growing up in East New York, Brooklyn, U.S.A. Kervyn was surrounded by music. The Mark family held party fundraisers for a political party in the West Indian isle of Grenada to oust the dictator Prime Minister Eric Matthew Gairy at the basement of their home. A usual number of 300-350 patrons attended the fund-raisers and Kervyn was asked to be the DJ of these events at the young age of ten. He would spin a variety of top 40 pop, funk, soul, calypso, rock-steady, jazz, slow jams into the wee hours of the morning. While in Brooklyn Technical High School (1978-1982), Kervyn was introduced to a fledgling music genre called hip-hop. He joined with the other kids in his neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn (Tony Moran being one of them) to form the crew Magnificent Sounds of Disco. He gained fame as the rapper "Money Mike" and the crew gained recognition through their DJ technician "Mikey Dee" who would win most of the DJ battles in which the crew would compete. Although Kervyn was relegated to being a rapper, he was burning to spin vinyl. In college he started doing just that! He started at Brooklyn College c.1983 at their midday parties spinning hits like D-Train's You're the One for Me and Eddy Grant's Time Warp, much to the crowd's delight! While at Brooklyn College he went with a friend to the club Ozone Layer in Brooklyn where an up-and-coming David Morales was a resident DJ. Kervyn's interest in club music was newly found! He quickly started to lean towards the club music scene and began frequenting the clubs like the Paradise Garage, the Underground, Studio 54, etc. During this time he transferred to Pace University to study chemistry and computer science and ended up meeting even more "clubheads”. He also listened religiously to the radio dance mix shows, primarily Merlin Bobb's megamix on WBLS-FM. There, Kervyn learned about the new music scene (House) that was coming to New York from Chicago. He like the way Merlin Bobb did his long mix after long mix perfectly. Kervyn work on doing the same thing live and soon became renowned throughout the New York college scene as The Mixologist with the smooth mixes. Kervyn big club break came around 1988 when he got introduced to fashion maven Suzanne Barstch. She liked a demo tape he had submitted and Kervyn became her first resident DJ for the famed parties at Club Savage which were regularly attended by the likes of Madonna, David Brenner and other who's who. That marriage lasted for a year and Kervyn moved on to produce his own club-based parties under the moniker Caveman Productions. The parties were wildly successful to a tune of the regular 500 attendees. Around that time Kervyn got a resident DJ spot at the Club Ozone Layer. Mr. Mark also cornered the local college scene and became the most sought after DJ to do college parties which wanted the best underground house music at a reasonable price. Kervyn had access to a killer mobile set and she did not compromise in the music that was played! He would play A State 808", Voodoo Ray, and other underground house records. In fact at a party at Hunter College in New York is set was Also, deep that it moved attendee DJ Disciple to approach Kervyn in the DJ booth and say “I'm impressed by the fact that you take chances in playing jams a lot of other guys are afraid to play!” In the early 1990's, Kervyn's quit playing and went on a hiatus so that he could dedicate time to as a research assistant to an AIDS research project at Beth Israel Medical Center. However, in 1996 while attending a birthday for the deceased DJ/producer legend, Larry Levan at Club Vinyl, Kervyn got introduced to the playing styles of Francois Kevorkian, Danny Krivit and Joaquin Joe Claussell. He was in awe of this display of three talents meshing into one. Claussell moved him especially for his ability to make each song played an unforgettable experience. To him this party was the beginning of a much needed resurgence to the dying scene and Kervyn became Body and Soul head. In October 18, 1997, after much politicking, Kervyn Mark was invited to be a guest DJ at Body and Soul-NYC to play with Francois K and Danny Krivit and had played there as a guest four times thereafter. He also became a co-resident with Joey Llanos and Juan Valentin at the Dance Promise parties. He has played at E-Man's "Bang the Party", The Underground Collective, "Soul-sa", “The Tea Party”, Lil-Ray's "Clubhouse Jamboree", and the list goes on! Of recent Kervyn has played at the wildly successful at "Roots" in Club Cielo with DJ producer Kevin Hedge and at the PS1 Warm-up in front of a crowd of 5000+. In 1998, Kervyn was approached by his longtime friend Manuel Josell Ramos about doing a film project documenting the underground house music scene in New York. Seven years, dozens of interviews later, “Maestro” has come to fruition. The film has been shown in theaters all over the world and was released as a DVD in July, 2005. Kervyn's contribution is that Associate Director and in the historical research and writing aspect. He truly is proud of “Maestro” and believes the film’s importance in presenting the underground dance music scene to the world is immeasurable. He also is the featured DJ and producer of the mixed CD, “Maestro-The Soundtrack CD” that was released by Santuary Records this July, 2005 to great reviews. He also has produced music in the form of “World within A World” featuring Mikeal, which will be released in the fall 2005. Starting in July, 2002 Kervyn and some his friends started a multi-media arts collective called The Melting Pot Global. He is its monthly resident and this event has become one of the best underground dance music events in New York City. This event takes place every month and Kervyn and his guests play a diverse range of danceable deep, soulful rhythms in collaboration with poets, live musicians, singers and painters. “MPot” as it is called by its followers has produced events such as "House The Vote" that featured Louie Vega, Kevin Hedge, singers Kenny Bobien, Joi Cardwell and Anane', and Aaron Ross at Battery Park, NY where he absolutely rocked a crowd of 2000+ and of recent as July 2005 “Keep On MOVIN” that was held to a backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge to a crowd of 1000+. Then there was his performance at the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in August 2005. In the summer of 2006 he produced, with Preston Brown, the “Sandcastles” Summer Music series on the Coney Island Board which again drew huge crowds. Kervyn was also one of the “Resident Guest” DJ’s of Jellybean’s Benitez “Ain’t Nuthin’ But a House Party” from 2005-2007. He also has produced music in the form of “World within A World” featuring Mikeal, which is out now on Traxsource.com in. This past summer based on its growth Melting Pot NYC changed over Melting Pot Global and produced the Summer Music Series at Coney Island that featured such guests as The Martinez Brothers, Ian Friday, DJ Spinna, Frankie Feliciano, Louie Vega, etc.