Farley Jackmaster Funk

Farley Jackmaster Funk

Farley Jackmaster Funk is a Chicago-born DJ and producer associated with house, acid house and techno. He starts out in the Chicago club and radio scene in 1981 as one of the original members of the Hot Mix 5, a DJ team on WBMX-FM 102.7 in Oak Park, Chicago. The original line-up includes Kenny “Jammin” Jason, Mickey “Mixin” Oliver, Scott “Smokin” Silz, Farley “Funkin” Keith and Ralphi “Rockin” Rosario.

Early DJ work

He appears as a guest DJ at The Warehouse nightclub and later holds a residency at The Playground, which becomes The Candy Store and then La Mirage. In this period he also DJs and performs at many parties in the Chicago suburbs, helping to spread house music through Chicagoland. He also does remixing and editing work for DJ International Records in Chicago.

Recording career

Farley begins recording in 1983 with his debut single “Aw Shucks”, followed by “I Like Percussion”, which uses samples from Kraftwerk, Scat Brothers and First Choice. He makes his first house productions in 1984.

Also in 1984 he records “Funkin with the Drums” on House Records, an influential Chicago house track built around drums alone and later treated as a standard “beat” or “rhythm” track in the genre. Other examples of this type mentioned alongside it include “Faces Drums”, “Virgo Tracks Again” by Virgo and “Mix your own stars”.

Breakthrough and later singles

His best-known international hit is “Love Can’t Turn Around”, a slightly altered version of Steve “Jack Master Silk” Hurley’s recording of “I Can’t Turn Around” by Isaac Hayes. It is issued under Farley Jackmaster Funk with vocals by Darryl Pandy and reaches number 10 in Britain in 1986.

He follows this with 1985’s “Jack the Bass”, which helps popularise the “jacking” dance craze in Chicago house, and with “Funkin’ with the Drums Again” in 1985 and “Give Yourself to Me” in 1986, the latter featuring Kevin “Jack N House” Irving and Darryl Pandy. These releases come out on Trax Records.

Other late-1980s releases include “Jack My Body”, “Hey Norton”, “The Trax U Lost”, “It’s You” with Ricky Dillard, and the Chicago house theme “Housenation”.

Later direction

In 1990, after becoming a born-again Christian, he turns away from house music and begins producing hip hop and hip house. He returns to house by the mid-1990s and, by the late 1990s, is active as a global touring DJ. Farley Music is also listed as a label associated with him.