Chosen Few

Title

Chosen Few

Subject

Jackson Park

Description

"Beginning in the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, a group of popular teen DJs from Chicago’s south side — Wayne Williams, Jesse Saunders, Alan King, Tony Hatchett, and Andre Hatchett — played their unique brand of soulful dance music to huge crowds in packed basements, high school cafeterias and legendary nightspots, including Sauer’s, the Tree of Life, First Impressions, the Playground and the Loft, a club of historic importance in the birth and development of house music. Wayne Williams formalized a DJ collective, originally named “Chosen Few Disco Corp.” in 1977 to meet the high demand for the sound, eventually adding Saunders, King and the Hatchett brothers. In 2006, the group added its first new member in nearly 30 years, legendary DJ and producer Terry Hunter, and in 2012 welcomed DJ and producer Mike Dunn into the ranks.

Along with a handful of other legendary DJs including Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse, Ron Hardy at the Music Box and Lil’ Louis on the west side of Chicago, the Chosen Few were the DJs primarily responsible during this period for popularizing the underground dance music that came to be known as house music.

In 1990, the Chosen Few DJs and their longtime friend and Chosen Few member, Kim Parham, had the idea of inviting old friends from the early house music days to a “reunion picnic” in the park behind Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry. Beginning as a small gathering of family and friends and later dubbed the “old school picnic,” the reunion became an annual event, “The Chosen Few Picnic & House Music Festival”.

The Picnic has grown into one of the largest and most highly anticipated house music festival events in the world, drawing house music fans from nearly every continent. Each year, the Picnic and its Festival parties feature music and performances from world-renowned guest DJs and dance music artists and of course, the legendary Chosen Few DJs."

Source

https://chosenfewdjs.com/index

Contributor

Victoria Sockwell
Jenna Pollack

Relation

Alan King
Sheree Hicks
Wayne Williams
Celeste Alexander
Andre Hatchett
Danielle Sanders
Jesse Saunders
Dee Jay Alicia
Kirk Townsend
Marlene Hatchett

Type

House

Identifier

Chosen Few

Location

Public Spaces

Files

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11393075_10203298315773607_4952353760634271955_n.jpg

Citation

“Chosen Few,” Chicago Black Social Culture Map, accessed November 8, 2024, https://cbscmap.omeka.net/items/show/349.

Output Formats

Geolocation