TRUE HOUSE STORIES® W/ JOVONN # 121 INTERVIEWED BY LENNY FONTANA
A native of Brooklyn and current resident of Queens
(New York), Jovonn has been active in the music scene since the age of 10.
Supported by his mother, a keyboard player; and father, a guitar/bass player, who were aspiring R&B singers; he was nurtured with a solid musical foundation. Jovonn began his career as a Hip-Hop DJ at the age of 14 and started spinning records at those infamous New York block parties of the 80s where he was introduced to the growing New York House music scene, hanging out in seminal Brooklyn clubs such as Sapphires, Club Saturn and Club Serene. Years later clubs such as The Loft, The Choice, Snobbusters and Zanzibar, solidified his full commitment to House music. Exploding onto the house scene in 1991 with his second release, “Turn and Runaway” on Warner Bros. Records, (which reached number 10 on the Billboard chart and catapulted Jovonn on to the global scene) He then went on to set up his first record label, Goldtone Records, in the early 1990’s via Emotive Records (label compilation dropped on clone last year) and since then has produced more than 500 records in the House, R&B, Hip-Hop and Neo Soul genres, not to mention film scores and soundtracks although his true love has always been House music.
A pioneer of the NYC, New Jersey, 90’s house sound, he’s produced many classics with releases such as as “Back In the Dark”, “Garage Shelter”, “I Can’t Make Up My Mind”, “I Wanna Go To A Club” that all contain Jovonn’s distinctive vocal delivery and trade mark production, as the man says himself ‘gritty sounds, hard kicks, jazzy chords and a phat bassline’.
Other releases in Jovonn’s impressive discography include ‘Something About this Love’ (on WestEnd Records), “The Spirit” album (on Track Mode), and the “Blaque House” album on Code Red. More recently he’s delivered releases on prestigious labels such as Dogmatik, Objektivity, Deeply Rooted House and Apollonia, showcasing his talents to a new audience of house music lovers.
Jovonn launched his new label venture Body N’Deep in 2017 via clone distribution, dedicated to releasing the hottest deep and raw underground house tracks from Jovonn and his crew of producers and vocalists including tracks from legendary artists such as Karizma, Delano Smith and Louie Vega. His recent album ‘Timeless’ was released and received great reviews from DJ’s and Press, showcasing Jovonn’s trademark new jersey sound. Look out for a busy release schedule throughout 2020 on Body N’Deep and a new Jovonn album later in the year.
