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At age 12 DJ Jewels started to attend his neighborhood’s club (Playboy Music Hall) “Teen Session” on Sunday afternoons where he would go to meet and dance along with his school friends. However, instead of getting on the dance floor he would spend most of the afternoon watching the DJ booth where DJs like CUCA (DMC’s 3rd Place in the World Championship) would be spinning. After the end of the Teen Session he would head out for his best friend’s house who owned a pair of turntables. There, they would spend very long evenings trying to reenact the skills that they had just seen at the Teen Club. After a few months of a lot of practice Jewels and his best friend finally learned the skills without any kind of professional help or course taken. At the time the fun thing to do was battle on the turntables by scratching over tracks from great names of Rap music such as Public Enemy, N.W.A., Ice-T, etc. However, Freestyle and House music suddenly became Jewels’ true passion at the time (early 90’s). He would spin at school parties bringing out of his case records from great artists such New Order, Depeche Mode, Stevie B, etc. Consequently, he became a very popular kid in his school as he was always the resident DJ of a school dance or another student’s birthday party.
At age 15, Jewels participated in a DJ contest in another neighborhood’s club (Trump Town, 1,500 people capacity) Teen Session. Although, he ended in 3rd place he was the one invited by the Club’s owners to work alongside the resident Headline DJ as Jewels had great charisma and an outstanding ability of reading the crowd. At age 15, Jewels wasn’t even legally allowed inside that club at their night events. He would have to hide under the lighting table every time the police showed up for a routine check for minors at the club. Three Months later the resident Headline DJ received an offer to go work for another larger club. Jewels thought that the owners would look for another experienced resident DJ to replace the Headline DJ who had just left but they simply told Jewels that this was his time and his chance to prove them that he could handle the job as a Headline resident DJ. Although, he was only 15 years old Jewels showed great attitude and positive energy handling his first night as the main DJ. He did a great job music wise and even though he had never practiced his DJ voice he picked up the microphone and cheered the crowd receiving a great response. Finally, DJ Jewels did keep the job as the Headline DJ and eventually became a teen celebrity as he was a breakout teen DJ at the time. He was interviewed by VEJA, one of Sao Paulo’s most popular magazines (equivalent to TIME Magazine) and was invited by many radio stations to mix his live sets.
At age 17, Jewels received an offer to go work for one of Sao Paulo’s largest and most popular clubs, Broadway, today known as Eazy Night Club. Broadway is considered one of South America’s oldest night clubs as it lasted 30 years under the same name “Broadway”. There he was able to spin alongside international guests such as DJ George Acosta, Trajic, Mark V. & Poogie Bear, Marky, etc. Suddenly, Jewels became one of the owner’s most reliable DJs where he would be sent to start a project every time the owner would acquire a new club.
At age 19, Jewels was sent to be the resident at a Sunday Night Club (Apple, 2,000 people capacity) which belonged to the same Broadway Club Group. There he was the resident for about 2 years. On Saturday nights he would spin at the Club where his dream first started, Playboy Music Hall (1,000 people capacity).
At age 20, Broadway’s Group acquired another club (Atlanta) that had gone out-of-business in a vacation like city (Atibaia) about 40 miles away from Sao Paulo. DJ Jewels was faced with the big challenge of helping bring that club back to life. At his first night there only 50 people were on the dance floor. After a few weeks of introducing his great skills and experience plus the help of good promotion and some changes to the look of the club 300 people started showing up every Saturday night. Ten months after he first started, with consistent work, and without any name change or Grand Opening Party Jewels finally felt accomplished at the job as Atlanta Club was at capacity every weekend bringing over 1,500 people every Saturday and Sunday nights.
Around 1999, at age 21, Brazil had a major change in music style. The national Samba bands became very popular on television shows as well as in the clubs. DJ Jewels would have to do a set of Brazilian music every night for at least an hour just to keep the party going. DJ Jewels then felt that it was a waste of his skills and knowledge to stay in Brazil playing national music who sounded a lot better played live by the musicians. Jewels then decided to move to the United States to pursue a College Degree and to learn English, language that he has always been passionate about. Jewels lived in New York for about 6 years where he earned a Business administration degree from the City University of New York. Although, school was his number one priority he never let go of his DJ career. During his college years, Jewels spun in several college parties in Long Island getting even a better taste of playing for a crowd who appreciated electronic House music. He made people go crazy during his sets with great Electro, Progressive and Tribal House.
In the year 2006, Jewels then living in Miami was invited to be the host a Brazilian Network Radio Show, Energy Hits on 97.7FM (Sao Paulo), which broadcasted to over 40 other major cities around the country. He would play his mixed sets as well as talk about what was going on in the entertainment world around the United States. By playing Electro and other types of electronic music in his show he played a big role in bringing House music back to the top of the charts in Brazil. Today, Sao Paulo’s clubs are 90% electronic music where only a minority of small Bars and Restaurants will play Brazilian music. There are open-air parties (Raves, 10,000-30,000 people capacity) almost every weekend around Brazil where only electronic music is played for sometimes 24 hours straight. DJ Jewels is invited to spin in major clubs in Brazil a few times every year. DJ Jewels is a quarterly resident DJ in one of Sao Paulo’s hottest clubs at the moment, Eazy Night Club.
Currently in Miami DJ Jewels often spins at various local night clubs. Between his recent performances are clubs like Aerobar (South Beach), Exit66 (Fort Lauderdale), Spirits (Hard Rock), etc. In addition, he has been dedicating his time to music production. DJ Jewels has released tracks in one of the world’s largest DJ store, Beatport. He continues to be very passionate about being a DJ and intends to become one of the most popular DJs in South Florida as he has the experience and the skills to make that happen.
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