Green Velvet

During the early days before he became a house musician, he earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Up until this point music had been a hobby fueled by cobbling together tracks on his "sixty buck keyboard, a cheap four-track and a cheap drum machine" while still an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. This DIY method of production was never taken seriously and when childhood plans to become a doctor were shelved Jones was firmly committed to a career as a chemical engineer, His dad was an occasional DJ and eventually became budding musician. As time went on Jones discovered what was his innate love and understanding for house music, a sound that had grown throughout the mid-80s out of Chicago's deep-rooted disco scene. As a child he was into sci-fi movies and time travel TV shows like Doctor Who and would spend hours pondering over the possibilities this would open up. He played the saxophone at school and had a talent for trying to play with a keyboard but remained largely un-interested in what he saw as his father's passion. It was this cut-up, tacky, production style of the early house sound that Jones absorbed and translated into the 'Underground Goodies EP', his first release as Cajmere (that's CAJ as in Curtis A. Jones) put out in 1991 on his own recently started Cajual label. A year later he had his first massive hit as Cajmere with the brilliant house tune 'Coffeepot (It's Time For The Percolator)' also out on Cajual. He then teamed up with Chicago-based vocalist Dajae for 'Brighter Days' (he entered #2 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play), a high impact, more mellow house tune that came out on Emotive.