JM Soul Connoisseur focuses on the mid tempo side of Soul, showcasing all the hot independent soul talents, including Soulful Hip Hop, The big hot Soul and R&B – the true sound of underground Soul in London, UK.

This site is designed to promote new Soul Artists not signed to established record labels. Whilst there are some quality releases from those labels it is not yet possible to support them online especially in podcasts. These labels have signed up to be represented by MCPS/PRS and PPL. Unfortunately these bodies have as yet been unable to collectively agree on how to licence music to promotional activities like this and as such it is not possible to get permission to support Artists on the established labels.

JM – DJ Biography

Background: JM grew up in North London, which has been a heavy influence on his musical tastes.

1976: Aged 9 JM bought his first record, Earth, Wind and Fire – September/Can’t Hide Love, which sparked the beginning of what has become a passion or possibly obsession with all music with a soulful origin.

1978-1982: By this time JM was using all his pocket money (and lunch money!) to feed his desire for ‘Black Music’. He used to pester his local record shop for the latest releases and with requests for tracks he had heard at the local ice rink, where the DJ used to play the hottest tunes around. This was the beginning of his now extremely extensive record collection.

1982- 1985: Having been disillusioned with legal radio, JM discovered pirate radio in the form of Invicta, Horizon, JFM, LWR and of course Solar. By this time JM had become known locally as a music man, making tapes for friends and starting to DJ. His tastes were starting to get much deeper, seeking out the more obscure titles. It was during this time he started to go to clubs and parties, which opened up a whole new musical experience. It began with the likes of Royalty/Pink Elephant in Southgate, where Froggy was the resident DJ. This then led to illegal house parties organised by local Sound Systems in North London. Eventually leading JM to discover ‘dances’ or ‘raves’, which at this time where predominantly Reggae based, but were beginning to play more Soul.

Although developing an eclectic taste encompassing Jazz, Funk, Soul, Disco, Boogie and early ‘house’ or ‘Garage’ music, it was during this period JM developed a real love for Mid tempo Soul popular in the ‘Dances’ or ‘Raves’. Most records built cult status (rarely chart success) and were popular within the ‘underground’ movement in London. This music has in subsequent years been described as Rare Groove, 2 Step, Steppers and the infamous Connoisseurs tag, which JM helped introduce in 1990.

1985: With many of the main Pirate stations off air in the hope of getting licences, the dawn of a new radio era began with the Launch of Kiss FM after the likes of Solar went off air in the hope of gaining a legal radio licence. Here JM found a true friend, with a real musical affinity. Here he found many learned music scholars, from which there was much to learn. He quickly built relationships with key members of the team such as Dean Savonne, Gordon Mac, Trevor Nelson and Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson. JM was now DJing more often, at parties mainly, but was also now a regular clubber travelling all over London to discover more tunes.

1986-89: JM was now developing a tremendous musical knowledge and had now started a part time job at the infamous Music Power records, which also happened to be the mailing address for Kiss FM. It was at this time that due to his love of music, JM made the transition from radio listener to broadcaster. During this period JM did a weekly show on CRH the UK’s first student radio station based in Herfordshire. He also secured a weekly slot on the relaunched Solar radio, plus a number of special guest slots on Kiss.
At this time JM was also running record fairs.

1989-1990: JM became a full-time member the Kiss team working initially on the magazine 94 which became ‘Free’ magazine. This was designed to keep the dialogue with the die hard fans of the station going, whilst they were applying for a licence. Although joining in ad sales it was not long before JM was a key contributor to the magazine, and shortly after became the Publisher. Here for the first time in the press he gave a voice to the London Underground Soul scene when he introduced the Connoisseurs descriptor to give the movement a fresh image as the over used and somewhat tarnished ‘Rare Groove’ and ‘2 Step’ terms had become obsolete.

1990- 1997:
Touch Magazine

As Kiss had now launched successfully as a legal station it no longer had a need for ‘Free’ Magazine, so JM set up, with his team from ‘Free’, a new magazine primarily to service the Urban market, as the traditional press had become disengaged with it’s audience. The magazine was called ‘Touch’.

Initially the Connoisseurs Column simply ‘exposed’ the scene and revealed titles of the many highly sort after beats, in an attempt to attract a wider audience to this wonderful side of Soul music. This occurred at a time when DJs playing rare beats kept the titles closely guarded secrets. So initially this was met with some resistance from the core collectors who wanted to keep titles ‘covered up’. Through his column and alongside many ‘sounds’ and DJs on the circuit the scene did ‘crossover’ to a more mainstream audience and thus the column became the press focal point.

It was at this point JM discovered he could actually play a part in breaking beats through his column to help move the scene forward, rather than just reflect what was already breaking through. Traditionally this had been the mainstay of radio DJs. He played on the fact that up until that point the column simply reflected all the big tunes, and people would use it as a reference point. JM started to drop in ‘unknown’ titles, but treated them as if they were already big, so core readers would think they were behind on that title. Clearly this would not work in isolation so it was also extremely important that a number of key taste makers supported these initiatives. Having helped break many new titles JM began to feel the scene was becoming repetitive and tired. Up until then the scene had revolved primarily around obscure ‘rare’ beats.

It was during the early 90s that JM along with a number of other pioneering DJs (such as Desi G, Andy B, Jiggs, Dirty Den, Chris Sweeny, Mistri, Cass, Tony P…) championed the new ‘slow jam’ sound. Fundamentally, the beats were still mid tempo, targeting a similar crowd and maintaining the same ‘feel’ except now they were contemporary.

This was the beginning of the upfront ‘promo’ which became the new ‘rare’ commodity. Many of the promos were genuinely very rare as many were never given a full release. Much too many peoples disapproval JM featured more new and promo tracks than oldies. It was not long before the whole scene was chasing those same ‘promos’ and JM’s connoisseurs page had again become the voice of this very underground movement. As many of these tracks soon became readily available it was not long before they began to achieve chart success, i.e., R.Kelly’s debut album, Jodeci, Mary J Blige, and for this very reason soon the music hit the mainstream. Due to increasing work pressures JM finally gave up writing for Touch in the late nineties. He also took more of a back seat in the running of the magazine until finally selling his stake altogether.

DJing:
During the early nineties JM started Djing in the west end clubs with numerous residencies. JM was also a regular guest host of many shows on the now legal Kiss FM.

In the late nineties due work and family pressures DJing finally took a backseat. This however never affected his appetite for music and never has a week passed where JM could not be spotted hunting down a tune in a record shop in London’s west end!

Kiss Concerts:
For many years part of JM’s ‘day job’ included; running Kiss concerts which enabled him to work with numerous major artists over the years. Although the occasion that stood out most for him was helping to play a part in putting together a reunion for his all time favourite female group The Jones Girls at the Dominion theatre with Philo (Studio FM/Label owner) and Zak (LWR owner).

1997-2005: JM could still be seen from time to time DJing in the clubs, but his passion for music was primarily confined to his own enjoyment and adding to his already extensive record collection. His hunger for music never waned, continuing to seek out new and old beats. He never lost touch with the music!

2005: JM felt that much of the kind of music he had once championed was now being sidelined and ignored yet again. No longer was mainstream media supporting this sound. The major record labels in a troubled music industry were supporting fewer and fewer real soul/R&B artists, many being pushed down the independent route. The mid tempo soul movement was regrouping, having been pushed back underground. As legal radio had become main stream it was left to the pirates and the likes of Solar to keep the music alive. It was this that spurred JM to get back out there and carry the torch once more for the music he loved so much.

The Connoisseurs Soul Scene has never been more exciting, there is so much fantastic music out there. JM believes there are three key reasons for the major resurgence.

1. Numerous Rappers and R&B artists use classic connoisseurs samples as their basis of their beats.
2. Majors lack of investment in real soul artists has lead to more creativity from those brave enough to go it alone or down the independent route. Artists have more freedom to express themselves with out the commercial ‘crossover’ pressure of the majors and become what they deem suitable for the market. This has helped make the music more progressive.
3. The internet. The digital revolution is impacting on most areas of our lives and yes even ‘our soul’! The internet makes a global market place potentially available to all. There are a number of websites where Artists can showcase and sell their creations. This is one of the key reasons for the independent sector flourishing as it really is possible to DIY. Right now the independents is were it is at on the Connoisseurs Soul scene producing all the biggest tracks.

With the likes of Solar and now JMSOUL.COM providing an outlet for all this amazing music the future for Connoisseurs Soul is bright

You can catch JM on the every Friday 8-10pm (GMT) on Solar playing a mixture of old skool soul through to the hottest new releases and in demand contemporary beats on the underground. Check the musical excursions including contemporary Hip Hop and R&B using samples of classic connoisseurs soul back to back with the original tracks. These can be heard on the ‘Old Skool Specials’ shows.