DJ Eshu

About

If you dig house music with ambient grooves, soulful vocals and world rhythms, then your house has found a home! djESHU has entertained thousands of San Franciscans with mesmerizing mixes that enchant mind, body and soul. Whether you are in the mood for silky smooth melodies, funky frisky basslines, or potent polyrythmic percussion, djESHU has you covered with a fine-tuned ear for the freshest underground tracks that deliver you to delightful destinations unknown.


djESHU’s love affair with music began long ago in an African-American household where soul music was revered: family dinners meant BBQ ribs, mac & cheese, collard greens – and Lou Rawls and Gladys Knight on eight-tracks and reel-to-reel! Adolescence soon revolutionized this state of affairs: you’d find djESHU in his bedroom spinning A Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins, Men Without Hats and other MTV synthbots on his plastic record player, while his family – glued to “Dynasty” and “Dallas” on the TV in the living room below – would yell at him to turn the music down and stop dancing so hard on the ceiling. “Not a lot has changed since then,” says djESHU, “I still don’t watch cheesy TV shows, and that 12-inch remix of Shriekback’s ‘Hand on my Heart’ still makes me want to spin right round like a record baby!”


Mix 70s soul with 80s synthpop, and you get the renaissance of house music that bloomed in New York City in the early 90s. djESHU will always have a special fondness for his club kid days in the City. “Fridays were all about Frankie Knuckles at Sound Factory Bar,” says djESHU, remembering the times he danced the night away like a gypsy woman, “while Sunday afternoons belonged to Francois K, Danny Krivit, and Joe Clausell at Body & Soul. And of course, noone could touch the man who ruled Saturday nights: Junior Vasquez at Twilo.”


Now the beat goes on with djESHU, who traded in that plastic record player for a pair of Technics 1200s a long time ago. He learned the fine art of programming and beatmatching under the watchful eyes of DJ Lamont of the Fingersnaps DJ & Art Collective in San Francisco. But pity the fool who thinks DJing is simply a matter of putting the needle to the record. Philosophizes djESHU, “A DJ is an artist, shaman, friend and entrepreneur all rolled into one."


djESHU mixes music for bars, restaurants, lounges and clubs from the aesthetic perspective that music selection and sequencing are an art form that can communicate truth, beauty, freedom and love. The best mixmasters get the joint jumping on an underground journey that relaxes the mind, energizes the body and opens the heart. When a night of house music is through, it's like you've had a late-night conversation with your best friend, someone who shares your joys and troubles, knows all your secrets, and isn't afraid to check you when you've gone just one step too far! And djESHU keeps it real by paying attention to the golden formula: talent + hard work + integrity = value.


House music fans, you can rest assured that djESHU has his priorities straight: “In the end,” he says, “it’s all about having a good time. Life’s much too short not to enjoy the journey!”


One last note: what’s with the name? djESHU (dee-jay eh-shoo) has been getting in touch with his roots by studying African spirituality. In the pantheon of gods worshipped by the Yoruba peoples of West Africa, Eshu is the childlike trickster god who rules the crossroads of life, teaches humanity the lessons they need to learn, and determines who enters the gateways to the gods. It is a tradition of the Yoruba to honor Eshu at the beginning of any ceremony, otherwise it is believed the ritual will fail its purpose.


djESHU believes that a DJ is the master of ceremonies, that the lounge and dancefloor are a crossroads, that house music is an offering of pleasure and inspiration, and that all of us gathered in the name of house music can help each other open the gateways to the gods together. Ashe!