MARK FARINA..... "I look at my job as a modern day traveling minstrel, to bring new music to as many places as I can, and expose obscure records that, otherwise, might go hidden."
While Mark Farina may be able to sum up his job description in a sentence, there is much more to be written. Mark developed his musical tastes in Chicago - listening to House music on the radio, living in one of the country's most primordial breeding grounds for house. Around 1988, while record shopping at Imports, Etc., he met Derrick Carter and a friendship began. Farina's "Mushroom Jazz" sound subsequently became popular through a long-running San Francisco club called Jazid Up, then through various Mushroom Jazz clubs thrown domestically and abroad. The Mushroom Jazz sound evolved when Mark found himself being assigned to the "B" room at a club in Chicago instead of the main room.
"As opposed to competing with the house music being played in the other room I decided to play more mellow stuff that you couldn't really play in the house room."
Around the same time, music like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Soul2Soul, and labels like Acid Jazz and Talking Loud were just starting to release their music, and Mark found more and more inspiration for this new sound he was DJing.
"After a while playing in this other room I began to make a tape series and I called it Mushroom Jazz. The Acid Jazz term seemed a little too abrasive and I wanted something a little more organic for the sound I was trying to develop."
The tapes were an instant hit and became known as the official "after party" tape. Eventually Mark moved from Chicago to San Francisco and along with then partner and manager, Patty Ryan-Smith, created a club devoted solely to the Mushroom Jazz sound, and called Jazid Up.
"There was a bigger Acid Jazz scene in San Francisco than in Chicago so the club was able to really take off, even though it was on a Monday night."
Every Monday night the crowd slowly germinated - from 100 for the first few months to 600-700 two years later. Simultaneously, the Mushroom Jazz tape series evolved - from the first Chicago run of 50 copies each on to the next stage, where 500 copies of several volumes were easily distributed. As time passed, Farina and Patty put their energies into another project, the first Mushroom Jazz interactive CD-ROM. After a three year run, where the club had established a fanatical, cult-like following for Farina and the Mushroom Jazz sound, the club closed its doors and transformed into a CD series and accompanying tours. Living together and working on tracks together along with Chris Nazuka, they utilized the tight connections between the Detroit and Chicago scenes. Fondly, Mark remembers hanging out listening to Detroit Techno classics - Model 500, Derrick May - eating bologna sandwiches on white bread and drinking Kool-Aid out of a paper cup, prepared by none other than Chef Saunderson himself.
"I started playing when I lived with my parents and didn't have any bills to pay so I could just buy records. My intentions were never to just make money, it's nice, but it's kind of turned into a job by accident - it was a hobby that turned into a job."
In 1989, they signed on Kevin Saunderson's KMS Records under the Symbols in Instruments moniker and produced a landmark track called "Mood". "Mood" sold 35,000+ copies in the US and the UK. This record was the first Ambient House track ever made and, accordingly, it has taken its position as a classic. The same year, The Face magazine published their year end Top 50 with "Mood" ranking above pop anthems by Dee-Lite and The Pet Shop Boys. Since 1989, Mark Farina has been traveling the globe performing at literally hundreds of shows a year, sometimes DJing both of his preferred styles in two different rooms at the same party. At other events, he's been known to play extended sets that lasted over eight hours. In his House sets, Mark is known for his uniquely effortless journeys on the Jazzy side of Chicago House, mixed up San Fran style...and flawlessly, as always. This wandering record minstrel has played to incredible crowds all over the globe. Consistently drawing new fans to his style of Chunky-Funky Rhythms and Deep Underground House, Mark plays upwards of 300 shows to over 300,000 club goers per year. Voted in the top 20 DJ's in the world by MUZIK and BPM Magazine, his taste making skills continue to turn the heads of seasoned veterans as well as youngsters just getting into the music. Over the last ten years, Mark Farina has built himself up to become one of the most sought-after DJs in dance music today. Though he is mostly recognized for his Deep-House DJ prowess, it is Farina's wide-ranging musical knowledge that helped shape the Mushroom Jazz series, a continuously mixed collection of Downtempo, Dance Floor Jazz for the turntablist generation. A mix-tape made over eight years ago was the project's original seed - a similarly-styled tape of jazz tunes that articulated a mellower counterpart to the up-tempo "Acid Jazz" movement of the day.