David Russell Lee (born 18 June 1964) is an English DJ and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

producer, formerly known by the stage name Joey Negro, which he retired in July 2020 following the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

. He has released music under a variety of pseudonyms, including Jakatta, Doug Willis, Raven Maize, and Sessomatto. He was also a part of the Sunburst Band. Lee has had some top 40 hits, among them "

American Dream The "American Dream" is a phrase referring to a purported national ethos of the United States: that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life. The phrase was popularized by James Truslow Adams during the ...

", "

So Lonely "So Lonely" is a song by British rock band the Police, released as the third and final single on 24 November 1978 from their debut studio album ''Outlandos d'Amour'' (1978). The single was re-released in the UK in February 1980, and reached No ...

" and "

My Vision The is a home video game console developed by Nichibutsu and released in Japan in 1983. The system was dedicated solely to playing video versions of popular board games A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () t ...

", all under the name Jakatta.

Biography

Early life

Lee was born on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, but raised in

Thorpe-le-Soken Thorpe-le-Soken is a village and civil parish in the Tendring District, Tendring district of Essex, England. It is located east of Colchester, west of Walton-on-the-Naze and Frinton-on-Sea, and north of Clacton-on-Sea. History Since 2002, arch ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. His mother is the novelist Maureen Lee.

Career

Dave Lee's interest in dance music began with collecting

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

records in the late 1970s. In 1986, he got his first job in the industry, working at the short-lived store Smithers & Leigh. He moved over to

Rough Trade Rough Trade may refer to: *Rough Trade (shops), London record stores *Rough Trade Records, a record label from the stores *Rough Trade Books, a publishing house from the label *Rough Trade (band), a Canadian new wave rock band * "Rough Trade" (''Am ...

, who were then setting up a dance division, Demix, and were looking for someone to run it. Within a short period of time, Demix was handling hits for

Bomb the Bass Bomb the Bass is an electronic music alias of English musician and producer Timothy Simenon (born June 1967). As a name, Bomb the Bass came from Simenon's approach to collaging and mixing sounds whilst DJing in the mid- to late 1980s; he says ...

MARRS MARRS (stylised M, A, R, R, S) were a 1987 recording collective formed by the groups A.R. Kane and Colourbox, which only released one commercial disc. It became "a one-hit wonder of rare influence" because of their international hit "Pump Up th ...

and

Beatmasters The Beatmasters are an English electronic music group who gained success in the UK in the late 1980s with four top 20 hit singles. They then went on to produce and remix records for other artists, including Pet Shop Boys, Erasure and Marc A ...

. Less than a year later, Lee, in partnership with

, set up his own label,

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

, which became known both for the series of compilation albums, ''The Garage Sound of Deepest New York'', as well Lee's own early forays into studio production. By the end of 1987, Lee began working in a

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and seaside resort, resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, wi ...

studio with former schoolfriend Mike Cheal (real name Emmanuel Cheal) and another Smithers & Leigh employee, DJ

Mark Ryder Mark Ryder is an actor from Northern Ireland who was educated at Methodist College Belfast Methodist College Belfast (MCB), locally known as Methody, is a co-educational voluntary grammar school in Belfast, located at the foot of the Malone ...

. The trio were responsible for the first release on Republic, under the name

M-D-Emm M-D-Emm were an English electronic music trio which consisted of Dave Lee, Emmanuel Cheal (a.k.a. Mike Cheal) and Mark Ryder. The group's name is a combination of each member's first names; Mark, Dave and Emmanuel. Five of their singles charted ...

: "Get Busy (It's Partytime!)". Two further M-D-Emm singles were released on Republic. Mike and Dave recorded the

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...

songs "1666" and "Get Acidic" together without Mark, and continued the same partnership using other aliases, notably Masters of the Universe, Mystique, Kikkit and The Shy Boys. In 1989, Dave Lee, Mike Cheal and Mark Ryder broke through the underground with a club hit under the assumed name Raven Maize, which made use of

samples, something Lee has returned to repeatedly over the course of his career. In 1990, Lee's most enduring pseudonym made its debut, when he released Joey Negro's first single via

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

indie

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

label Nu Groove, with his new name a homage to

Pal Joey Pal Joey may refer to: * ''Pal Joey'' (novel), a 1940 epistolary novel by John O'Hara * ''Pal Joey'' (musical), a 1940 musical based on the novel * ''Pal Joey'' (film), a 1957 film, loosely adapted from the musical of the same name * ''Pal Joey' ...

and J. Walter Negro. After the single's success, Lee went totally solo allowing him the total freedom to explore his own musical direction. When the single "Do It, Believe It" was released in the UK, it was also the debut release on his own self-financed label Z Records, which remains his primary outlet. Around the same time, Lee met keyboard player Andrew 'Doc' Livingstone when he sent in a demo to Republic Records. Shortly after, the pair decamped to Unit 3 Studios in Chalk Farm. In 1991,

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

went into liquidation and with it, Lee's job. The slack was taken up by increasingly large numbers of studio commissions as his work as a remixer grew. In 1993, Lee was approached by

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

Take That Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead singer ...

's label with a view to working together. Although the

Dan Hartman Daniel Earl Hartman (December 8, 1950 – March 22, 1994) was an American pop rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, and songwriter and original frontman for several bands, including the Soploids, Mak and the Turnarounds, Our Wri ...

song "

Relight My Fire "Relight My Fire" is a disco song written and released by American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer Dan Hartman as the title track from his 1979 album of the same name. It was also performed by Costa Anadiotis' band Café Soci ...

" had never been a hit in the UK, it had become a popular club track in the house music scene, so at Lee's suggestion they covered it, with

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

taking the cameo role that

Loleatta Holloway Loleatta Holloway (, ; November 5, 1946 – March 21, 2011) was an American singer known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and " Love Sensation". In December 2016, ''Billboard'' named her the 95th-most successful dance artist of all time. Acc ...

had performed on the original. It became the boy band's second number one in the UK. The same year saw the release of the Joey Negro album ''Universe of Love'', featuring

Gwen Guthrie Gwendolyn Guthrie (July 9, 1950 – February 3, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter and pianist who also sang backing vocals for Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Peter Tosh, The Limit and Madonna, among others, and who wrote son ...

and

the Trammps The Trammps are an American disco and soul band, who were based in Philadelphia and were one of the first disco bands. The band's first major success was their 1972 cover version of " Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", while the first disc ...

. Its title track, with live instrumentation, prefigured much of the work he went on to do with the Sunburst Band. Lee's stock as a

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

er continued to rise throughout the '90s, providing remixes for

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

M People M People (stylised as ''M''People) are an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is derived from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who f ...

and

Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...

, as well as racking up further aliases (Z Factor, Doug Willis, Akabu, Sessomatto and Agora). In 1997, Lee met

Taka Boom Taka Boom (born Yvonne Stevens; October 8, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American R&B and dance music singer, and is the younger sister of singer Chaka Khan and Mark Stevens of Aurra. She sang background vocals for several Parliament albums in ...

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...

's sister, when she relocated to the UK, and the pair collaborated on "Surrender" and "Can't Get High Without U". The same year, the Sunburst Band released their debut EP, ''Sunburn'', which included "Garden of Love", one of the band's most successful songs. Lee opted to gather many of the session musicians he worked with over the years – among them Michele Chiavarini, Viv Hope-Scott, Jessica Lauren and Tony Remy – who recorded the first album, ''Here Comes the Sunburst Band''. It was a conscious departure from electronic music and, as Lee admitted in an interview, it was his commercial successes elsewhere that provided the finances to make such a move. The follow-up, 2005's ''Until the End of Time'', introduced two new vocal collaborators, disco stylist

Linda Clifford Linda Clifford (born June 14, 1948) is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B, disco and house music singer who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "Bridge over Troubled Water (song), Bridge over ...

and former Chic frontwoman

Norma Jean Wright Norma Jean Wright (born July 15, 1950) is an American singer and was the lead vocalist of the American group Chic, a soul, R&B and disco band, from 1977 to 1978. Early life Norma Jean Wright was born in Ripley, Tennessee. At young age, she relo ...

, as well as

, and received critical plaudits: a remix of "Every Day", "Everydub", was included on

Heston Blumenthal Heston Marc Blumenthal (; born 27 May 1966) is an English celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. His restaurants include the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, a three- Michelin-star restaurant that was named the world's best by the Worl ...

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

. On the third album, ''Moving with the Shakers'', Lee brought

Leroy Burgess Leroy O'Neil Jackson Jr. (born August 20, 1953), known by his stage name Leroy Burgess, is an American singer, songwriter, keyboard player, recording artist, arranger and record producer. Burgess is a member of Black Ivory and lead vocalist on ...

and

Diane Charlemagne Diane Charlemagne (22 February 1964 – 28 October 2015) was a British jazz, soul, funk and electronic dance music singer and songwriter. Biography Charlemagne was lead singer with 1980s funk band 52nd Street, having replaced previous lead voc ...

(vocalist on

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is an English music producer, DJ, and actor. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musi ...

's hit "

Inner City Life "Inner City Life" is a song by British electronic musician Goldie featuring vocals by British singer Diane Charlemagne, released in November 1994 by FFRR Records as the first single from his acclaimed debut album, '' Timeless'' (1995). The song ...

") into his ever-evolving band. The most recent album, ''The Secret Life of Us'', was released in 2012. All four albums were released on Lee's own Z Records imprint, which has been the outlet for the majority of his work since the collapse of Republic Records. By the end of the 1990s, Z had released around 40 singles, the overwhelming majority coming from Lee's own studio; but over the past decade, the label has featured more outside producers and remixers, including

Dennis Ferrer Dennis Ferrer (born December 26 1970) is a New York–based DJ, producer and remixer. He currently resides in Union City, New Jersey. A veteran of soulful house music production, he has worked with the likes of Masters at Work (MAW), Little Loui ...

, Henrik Schwarz, Ame and Motor City Drum Ensemble, as well as providing an outlet for Lee's esoteric compilation series. Z Records has now passed 200 releases. Lee's

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ...

project Akabu, which has been remixed by Deetron, Spiritcatcher and Lovebirds, also won plaudits from industry veterans such as

Carl Craig Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980 ...

when the album was released in 2010. Lee's first brush with the higher echelons of the top 40 came in 1999 when TV series ''

Ibiza Uncovered ''Uncovered'' was a British documentary show that was broadcast on Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, i ...

'' used a portion of Z Factor's "Gotta Keep Pushin'" as its theme. Lee reworked the song, with

on vocals, and re-released it as "Must Be the Music" (as Joey Negro). The song eventually peaked at number 8. The following year in 2000, Lee scored an unlikely hit with an underground smash called "American Booty", sampling two

Thomas Newman Thomas Montgomery Newman (born October 20, 1955) is an American composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is best known for his film scores, earning accolades of six Grammy Award, Grammy Awards, an Emmy Awards, Emmy Award, two British Academy F ...

pieces ("Dead Already" and "American Beauty/Paper Bag") from the soundtrack for the film '' American Beauty''. It was eventually reworked with added vocals from Swati Nektar using the Jakatta alias, and released as "

", delivering the biggest hit of Lee's career (UK #3). It was swiftly followed by two further top ten hits for Jakatta with "

" (featuring

Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

) (UK #8) and the

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

collaboration "

" (UK #6). The resulting Jakatta album also climbed to number 12 in the charts. The same year he delivered a stunning remix of Inner City's 'Good Love'. In 2001, Lee resurrected his Raven Maize alias for one of the Ibiza summer hits: "The Real Life". Inspired by the Corporation of One original, Lee used both "

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''A Night at the Opera (Queen album), A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by Queen's lead si ...

" and

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977, becoming best known internationally for their song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Billboard Hot 100, Hot 100 ...

' "Theme from Great Cities", and the record reached number 12 (UK). It was in 2005 still under the alias Joey Negro, when he teamed up with Taka Boom again, he delivered one of his biggest mainstream hits to date "Make A Move On Me" (Vocal Club Mix) which reached #11 in UK and was a massive Summer dancefloor hit across the Greek and Balearic party islands. This really put him on the map with new fans in the funky house scene made popular by brands such as Hed Kandi. Due to popularity, it was signed to numerous record labels including Data, Z Records, Ministry of Sound, Oxyd and Vendetta. The track was previously unreleased under his alias Z-Factor in 2000. Lee's other project is as a music compiler. Beginning with the Republic compilations ''The Garage Sound of Deepest New York'', he has since compiled over 20 albums, usually featuring rare disco, and club music. During the 1990s, he was behind the ''Jumpin series of compilations released by Harmless Records, which collected together influential and sampled disco tracks, while Disco Spectrum, which ran to three volumes on

Barely Breaking Even Barely Breaking Even (BBE) is a British record label started by two DJs, Peter Adarkwah and Ben Jolly. The name BBE comes from The Universal Robot Band's 1982 track "Barely Breaking Even". It has two sublabels: Deep Funk, and Urban Theory. ...

, assembled disco songs that had never been reissued before. Lee, with longtime associate Sean P, was also responsible for the Disco Not Disco series on

Strut Records Strut Records is a British record label that started in 1999. The label focuses on releasing dance music, jazz and afrobeat including artists Patrice Rushen, Sun Ra Arkestra and Mulatu Astatke. History The label was "acquired and re-launched ...

that gathered together a collection of songs by artists such as

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

, Can and jazz trumpeter

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. He played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins. After concluding a playing career in the A ...

. Subsequent to these, he has continued to run various series on his own label Z Records, including ''Soul of Disco'', ''Back Street Brit Funk'', ''Italo House'' and '' Go Go Get Down'', all focusing on forgotten areas of dance music history. Lee continues to release

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

and other

-influenced styles on his own label Z Records, as well as DJing regularly in the UK and around the world. Lee dropped the name Joey Negro on 21 July 2020 in light of the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

movement, one day after

the Blessed Madonna Marea Renee Stamper (born October 22, 1977), better known by her stage name the Blessed Madonna (formerly the Black Madonna), is an American DJ, producer and musician. ''Mixmag'' named her the DJ of the year in 2016. She founded her own record l ...

changed her moniker from the Black Madonna. Lee stated that he had "not felt comfortable with the name Joey Negro for a while, especially as I've got older".

Discography

*''Universe of Love'' (1993) *''Get Down Tonight'' (1997) *''Here Comes the Sunburst Band'' (1998) *''Can't Get High Without U'' (1999) *''Back to the Scene of the Crime'' (2001) *''Visions'' (2002) *''2002 Visions: The Remixes'' (2002) *''Until the End of Time'' (2004) *''Moving with the Shakers'' (2008) *''Doug's Disco Brain'' (2008) *''The Sunburst Band - The Remixes'' (2009) *''The Phuture Ain't What It Used to Be'' (2010) *''The Phuture: Remixed'' (2010) *''The Secret Life of Us'' (2012) *''Remixed with Love Volume 1'' (2013) *''The Mystery of Mistura'' (2013) *''Italo House'' (2014) *''Remixed with Love Volume 2'' (2016) *''Produced with Love'' (2017) *''Remixed with Love Volume 3'' (2018) *''Produced with Love II'' (2022) *''Metamorphosis'' (2023) *''London / Detroit'' (2025)

References

External links

Z Records: Joey Negro

Joey Negro

Dave Lee
discographies at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Joey Negro
profile at

The End The End may refer to: Film * The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...