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Picture this: a Midwestern kid getting shuttled around to soccer practice in the back seat of his parent’s
car listening to The Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen and Phil Collins - doesn't bring to mind a future jazz, soul, hip-hop
head, now does it? But somehow, in the case of DJ Spinnerty, one musical vision led to the next.
Spinnerty
found his start playing regularly in jazz bands from middle school through to college. “I loved the music,” Spinnerty
says, “but sitting under fluorescent lights and playing tunes from sixty years ago seemed to be missing the point of
the jazz movement historically. It didn’t have that element of revolution and the smoky club.”
The natural next steps for Spinnerty were to get into the varieties of current music that were derived from jazz and connect
the dots to the originators of this inspired genre. Spinnerty began as a DJ in 1998 and quickly progressed to the art of turntablism,
seeing it as a modern day extension of the improvisational techniques of jazz.
From 2001 to 2004, Spinnerty
attended the University of Illinois. During these years this humble cat found himself around town five nights a week, workin’
it out between club gigs, house parties and a weekly radio show keeping Spin on the hustle and allowing him to continually
progress in a live setting.
Upon graduating, Spinnerty left the comfort of the Midwest behind and made the
move out to San Francisco, California to pursue music further and to align himself with the overall optimistic and chill vibe
the city had to offer. Soon after arriving in the bay area he quickly became not just another face in the crowd, but a noteworthy
part of the Bay Area sound, connecting with left coast music lovers.
As one of the last few of the “strictly
vinyl” breed, Spinnerty continues to throw down the rarest grooves, along with his signature sets of true-school hip-hop
and vibey beats. Over the years Spinnerty has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with KRS-ONE, Diplo, Beni B, J Boogie,
RJD2, Blueprint, Wildchild, Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Lego, Psalm One, All Natural, The Opus, Heiruspecs, DJ Neil Armstrong, DJ
Bles One, Galapagos 4, Mark Almaria, and Crown City Rockers to name a few, blessing stages from coast to coast.
In 2003, Spinnerty was recognized for his studio skills by URB Magazine when his mix CD, “Play It On the Porch”,
was selected in URB's Top Ten of 2003. After producing tracks with several emcees and vocalists on a local level, 2006
saw the Spinnerty-produced track "City Life" appear on the OM Hip Hop imprint. Last year marked Spinnerty’s
world-wide vinyl debut with a 45 released on Trazmick Recordings out of San Francisco. Several new projects are in the works
including a handful of new 45s and collaborations with some of the current movers and shakers in the broken beat, future soul
and hip hop circles.
Dissecting and drawing from the more jazzy side of hip-hop productions like Tribe Called
Quest, Pete Rock, Sound Providers, and all the late 90’s hip-hop jazz, Spinnerty has been able to cultivate his style
on the tables, ultimately translating into his very own niche productions. To pigeonhole Spinnerty’s production would
be impossible. While he delves in and out of rare funk samples, wrapping his creative forces around hip-hop, UK-influenced
broken beat/nu jazz, soul and down tempo he crosses into another world few dare to venture. With reviews widely circulated
amid underground musical discourse, Spinnerty continues to position himself just under the radar always searching for new
sounds and collaborators.
- Written by Jacqueline Schneider
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