Interviews

This month’s guest is a Chicago legend, the great Mark Grusane. Mark starting digging and searching out great music from an early age, he was playing on the radio when he was in high school, and soon after was DJ'ing in clubs and beginning to make edits. He co-founded and ran Mr. Peabody records with Mike Cole from 2004-2012, has done some amazing compilations for BBE. He also has released numerous 12” of edits and original music. Mark tours and plays worldwide, catch him when he comes to your town, he brings the real and makes it bounce. Check his YouTube channel.
- Dennis Kane

My family was from the south, (Alabama & Arkansas) and ours was a social household, my Dad loved music, we would have weekend family parties, the kids had our own section, but we were soaking it all up. My father was really a blues and jazz guy, he loved Jimmy McGriff, Buddy Guy, Booker T. but he also liked disco, and he would record this radio show that Herb Kent (The Kool Gent) had, and he would play the tapes at the parties. I saw very early how music created a mood and feeling. My older brother was already into music and he started showing me how to mix and play records at a very early age, 7-8. The skills then were knowing how to cue, knowing the BPM, and listening for when to drop a record in and also get out of the one playing, for a time there was no pitch bar. It was so exciting to get songs to work together, and have the technique to pull it off smoothly.

Initially because I was so young I would go with my brother to shop for records. We went to this place Importes, Etc, it was in a garage on this block with a lot of printing companies, there wasn’t a storefront for a time and when you rung the bell there was this small red light that would flash so you could enter. It was a big deal to go there, Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles were regulars, they had an amazing selection of music, disco and house and of course a strong grip of imported 12’s. I was a young man of 9-10 and I wanted a copy of David Joseph’s “You can’t hide” My brother was hunting for Freeze’s A.E.I.O.U. The extended 12” mix was different from the LP version. Those trips, my time with my brother and the family parties really helped shape my love for the music and desire to share it.

Importes Etc. was like this great vault to explore and learn from. In retrospect it was an ideal environment for a DJ to emerge from.

Some other records I got early:

• ESG – Moody
• Ramsey Lewis – Sun Goddess
• Jimmy Smith – The Sermon
• Nu Shooz – I Can’t Wait
• Bobby Bland & BB King – Everybody knows why I sing the blues