JohnPlayerSpecial
Lisboa
JohnPlayerSpecial:
Production Work -
John Player Special has been involved in music production for almost ten years, either in his own solo projects or with live bands like The Tomorrow People. In the past year, he has been working with jazz musician Bernardo Savill in their new project Funkus Amongus. The first tracks of this exciting new project will be released later in 2016.
John Player Special's production style mixes jazz with breakbeats and hiphop influences to create a contemporary urban sound, inhabited by voice samples and scratch solos. His tracks are fresh and carefully produced reflecting his personal taste and creative mind. In more ways than one, his production output goes hand in hand with his eclectic musical inspiration and the elegant sophistication that characterises his work as one of the most original djs in the thriving Portuguese music scene.
DJ -
John Player Special (a.k.a. João Gomes da Costa) was born in Lisbon in 1979, but spent his youth in Braga in the north of Portugal. In 1996, he returned to Lisbon to study photography and video but soon realised that his true passion was music and to make people dance. In the last 15 years, John Player Special has built a dj career that spans practically all major clubs and music venues in Portugal from the period, and has cemented his position as one of the most hard working and original dj's in the country.
In a digital age, he remained faithful to the analog days and his vinyl record collection is an impressive homage to the best soul, funk, hiphop and jazz of the 20th century. His journey through the vaults of the most creative and respected labels of the past, is in part responsible for his sophisticated taste, that combined with his open mind and natural capacity of working a crowd, gives him the capacity to turn any event into a memorable dancing session, full of groovy surprises and contagious dance floor fever.
John Player Special's dj sets are carefully structured performances that can adapt to very different situations and ambiances, but always provide unexpected musical choices that can grab the moment and make it unforgettable. He his both at ease in more chilled happenings creating elegant atmospheres suited to lounge venues and listening pleasure, as he is in a full swing party at 3 a.m. satisfying hardcore dancers' lust for the ultimate beat.
While usually in his sets one can enjoy a predominance of contemporary urban music ranging from breakbeat, hiphop and soul, John Player Special crosses freely through genres and epochs adding rhythms from the early rock'n'roll period, latin and afrobeat tracks, jazz and blues classics, obscure soundtrack shakers, Brazilian gems or the latest liquid drum'n'bass beat, creating the right balance to please the attending crowd.
Technically, John Player Special masters the mixes with ease, his scratch skills are excellent and used to great effect with loops and beats to emphasise the pulsating energy of a funky crowd. Although he also plays cds and digital music files, his technical virtuosity shines through much more clearly during his pure vinyl sets.
Pensão Amor, Lux Frágil, Armazém do Chá, Café Suave, Maus Hábitos, Meo Outjazz Festival, Giv Lowe Art Gallery, Topo, among many others, are some of the venues where John Player Special has hold residencies or played regularly.
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