Fall Into X'ess: Mark Grant - Kenny Carvajal - Chris Santiago

[xesschicago]

friday, october 8th, 2004

x'ess entertainment and zentra nightclub present:

Sweet & Lowdown

Mark Grant

Emerging from a solid tradition of celebrated Chicago house producers, Mark Grant continues to be highly sought after for his technical skills as a DJ and his creative innovations as a producer and remix artist.

Growing up in the city that introduced house music to the world, Grant found his aspiration in life to be a DJ at a young age. Influenced heavily by legends such as Frankie Knuckles, he was instinctively drawn to house.

Having DJed several years on the Chicago scene, Grant jump-started his production career in 1994, with the release of, "Gotta New Love Thang"

with Ralph Rosario. This single was released to widespread critical acclaim, even garnering kudos for Grant from industry heavyhitter Billboard, and was Grant's first opportunity to showcase his talents for writing, producing and remixing in one project.

The following year Mark joined forces with Chicago house imprint Cajual Records and over the next two years, Grant would craft prolific amounts of material for his new creative outlet. Among his productions, lasting impressions were made from his single "Touch Me" and The Braxton Holmes/Mark Grant EP as well as "The Spirit of the Black Ghost" for cross-town rivals, Guidance Recordings. His collaboration with fellow Cajual artist Cajmere under the moniker Chicago Connection produced one of his most popular releases, the track, "Dancin'". Grant's remixes of Glenn Underground's anthem, "House Music Will Never Die", and Green Velvet's "Answering Machine" were also very well received. Then Grant created his first nationally released mix CD, "A Taste Of Cajual", which found honors in the Chicago Tribune's Best Albums that year.

Kenny Carvajal

One of the fastest rising talents in the underground house music scene, Chicago based DJ/producer Kenny Carvajal has been DJing just over 5 years, obtaining a long running residency at Music 101's M2O held every Thursdays at Le Passage. He has also played at top venues such as Madbar, Transit, Redno5, Fifth Floor, Smartbar, Zentra and countless other loft parties. DJing along side top players such as Jerome Sydenham, The Rurals, Playin' 4 the City, 8fatfat8, Alton Miller, DJ Harvey, DJ Romaine and Neil Aline and the list doesn't stop there.

As a producer, Kenny Carvajal gets his inspiration from DJs and producers such as Masters at Work, Frankie Feliciano, Harley & Muscle, Blaze and Ron Trent, which fueled his first original project entitled 'Rise' featuring John Redmond and his glorious voice on Music 101 Recordings. It has also repeatedly been on DJ charts all over the globe and has caught the attention of legends like Tony Humphries, who featured 'Rise' on his internet mix show on two separate occasions and Dr. Bob Jones who gave the project an amazing review on Italy's DiscoID magazine on the March issue. It has also been licensed to OM Recordings way before its initial release for an up coming mixed CD by Mark Farina entitled 'Connect' due out in April 2002. Such an accomplishment for a first project says a lot for the novice. Future projects are in the works with an amazing list of collaborators beginning with France's very own Karl the Voice, Ernest Dawkins, Michael Anderson, and Janel Roland.

Chris Santiago

Chris has quickly established a devoted following in Chicago through his residencies at Zentra & Bigwig residencies in a few short years. He's played and rocked it with some of the biggest heavyweights in the industry including Mark Farina, Derrick Carter, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Kenny Dope, and Heather to name a few. His growing reputation in blending styles of smooth melodic deep house to hard hitting percussive techno is earning him a reputation of "knowing how to get the party started." Keep an eye out for this rising House DJ!

In the Chance VIP Room:

Nick Valoss

Billy O

Misteries

Agent Orange

L Train

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Residents:

Sativa & Jay-funk

s&ld resident dj

Boris Kapelnik

x’ess resident dj

X'ESS Hosted VIP Cocktail Reception from 9 - 10pm!

Drink Specials:

$4 Shots

$6 All Bacardi Flavored Mix Drinks

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Guest list rules:

Free before 10

$5 10 -11

$10 11 - midnight

$15 afterwards

GuestList Available at:

www.xessentertainment.com

Zentra Nightclub

923 Weed St.

Chicago, IL

21+ ID Required

[xesschicago]

actually, TOBIAS will be spinning in the first floor main room. Boris will be spinning next week.