Jajo

Jajo came to St. Louis from Spain to attend school — and the music changed his plans. As the city’s rave scene caught fire in the early 90s, with a party every weekend, he left school behind and became a full-time DJ, quickly rising into the scene’s brightest light. His residency at the legendary club Fallout made the room his own, and his sets became the standard young St. Louis DJs measured themselves against. Those who saw him still tell the stories: flipping the needle upside-down, raising a record on a roll of duct tape at the center of the turntable, and mixing off the underside of the wax — no headphones.

His deepest legacy is the artists he lifted. He mentored a young DJ Phoenix, bringing him up to play alongside him at Fallout and Hyperspace. In 1995 he gave dysphonix his first opportunity to perform live techno, on the Fallout floor. He headlined beyond the city too — as far as Detroit — and his mixtapes traveled hand to hand across the Midwest, blowing minds in towns he never played.

In 1997, at the height of the era he helped build, Jajo passed to the next plane of existence. His records were passed on to friends; his tapes were digitized, remastered, and treasured; and decades later, people still search his name hoping to find one more mix. The scene he lit kept burning — through the DJs he taught, the labels they founded, and every St. Louis dancefloor since.