Green Velvet


Curtis Alan Jones, better known by his stage name Green Velvet, is an American singer, record producer, and DJ. DJ Mag described him as "a stalwart figure in both house and techno". He is also known as Cajmere, Geo Vogt, Half Pint, Curan Stone, and Gino Vittori.

Early life

Green Velvet was born Curtis Alan Jones on April 26, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up listening to blues, jazz, funk, and rock. In the mid 1980s, he was introduced to house music via the radio. He started making music with a "sixty-buck keyboard, a cheap four-track and a cheap drum machine". He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with a degree in chemical engineering. After attending the University of California, Berkeley, he moved back to Chicago in 1991.

Career

In 1991, Jones started releasing his music under the Cajmere moniker. In 1992, he founded a record label, Cajual Records. In that year, he released a collaborative single with Dajae, titled "Brighter Days". It peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. In that year, he also released a single, "Coffee Pot " also known as "Percolator". Rolling Stone included it on the "20 Best Chicago House Records" list in 2014. Mixmag included it on the "20 Best US Rave Anthems of the '90s" list in 2019. In 1993, he founded another record label, Relief Records.
In 1995, he released a single, "Flash", under the Green Velvet moniker. It peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Billboard included it on the "10 Essential '90s Rave Jams" list in 2019. Mixmag included it on the "20 Best US Rave Anthems of the '90s" list in 2019.
Green Velvet's debut studio album, Constant Chaos, was released in 1999. In 2000, he released a compilation album, Green Velvet. He released Whatever in 2001, Walk in Love in 2005, and Unshakable in 2013.
In 2014, he teamed up with Claude VonStroke to form the side project Get Real. The duo's debut single, "Mind Yo Bizness" / "Snuffaluffagus", was released in 2016. The duo's second single, "Jolean", was released in 2019.
In 2015, he released a collaborative album with Carl Craig, titled Unity.

Personal life

In the mid 2000s, Green Velvet revealed on Myspace that he had become a born-again Christian, after a serious overdose of a mixture of magic mushrooms, marijuana, and GHB.

Discography

Studio albums