Dj Mr. Doc’s musical environment that has been influenced not only by people but location. Mr. Doc, or Aaron Spence was born into a musical household in the city of Boston. His father, a jazz record collector, and his mother, a vocalist, always made sure that there was music playing in the house. The musical styles ranged from gospel to jazz to R&B. One of Doc’s favorite artists is Quincy Jones, also his father’s favorite. The song Killer Joe was embedded into his soul from an early age. Doc also has plenty of people in his family that are very much in the music world. Doc has several recording artist cousins. One pretty famous cousin hip hop producer, several gospel vocalist recording artist, along with a few jazz players.
Early in his teenage years Doc and his family moved to Detroit. There the whole music environment changed the idea of music in Doc’s world. Musically Doc had taken classical piano lessons in the conservatory of one of the Universities in Boston. When in Detroit and going to middle school he caught interest in the Saxophone. Thus came the bulk of Doc’s musical training. Doc toured the US with a Woodwind quartet for two years and was able to grasp many different styles while playing both the alto and baritone saxophone. After high school Doc attended a university where he was exposed to the DJ culture. Just paying attention to the technique and practicing whenever possible, Doc was able to take over for the graduating main Fraternity DJ. Doc took hold and threw parties over the course of his college. Doc performed parties in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Ohio, New York and Massachusetts. This allowed Doc to test different styles of music as well as learn crowd control, for as we all know, college crowds are the most fickle. During one of the summer breaks Doc had a chance meeting. He was checking out this record store that was in the neighborhood that his parents lived in called Street Corner Records. While just looking around at the jazz records along with the hip hop, he had a question and out comes one of the guys that worked there. He was able to answer Doc’s question and showed him some underground hip hop that Doc never heard. From that day forward, every week Doc spent the afternoon of record shopping day talking to this DJ who’s name is DJ Houseshoes. Houseshoes and Doc became friends and took on several DJing gigs all over Detroit. Doc was introduced to the underground of Detroit. One of the people that vastly influenced his life along with Houseshoes was the producer named Jay Dee. There were several times that he was able to go to the basement studio of Jay Dee’s, that at the time resided in the lower level of his mother’s house and just witness this masters technique of beat making. This inspired Doc more than any other event in his life.
After college Doc decided to move to Chicago. While in Chicago Doc was able to acquire several club gigs where he was focused on the dance scene. Along with djing Doc had also started making his own music. He got his first Akai MPC and would spend nights formulating his sound. This sound would carry on into all genres and would be the catalyst into the musical world of Doc. “Music is in the head of every music artist, at any given time of their life. They can’t help what plays in their head, it just is.” One of the forefathers in the UK Garage scene in Chicago, along with DJ Mel Hammond. Mr-Doc has played in some of the biggest clubs in the country and abroad. Homebase has been the House Mecca of Chicago for 9 years. While in Chicago Doc has played at historic Chicago House clubs such as MadBar, Red Dog, Dragon Room, Red No. 5, Art Bar, Get Me High Lounge, Betty's, Drink, Martini Ranch, Harry's Velvet Room, and many others. Doc has also played along side some of the big names in House Music, just to name a few, Sir Mel Hammond, DJ Sneak, DJ Funk, DJ Frique, Stacy Kidd, Charles Feelgood, Mike Huckaby, Mazi, Karizma, Gabe Palomo, Mike Dearborn and more.
With over 15 years of working DJ experience, Doc knows very well how to move a crowd. No matter what size venue, Doc wants there to be no idle bodies, "Everyone must dance, that is my mission!" Thru these connections, Doc was able to create a name for himself in the Chicago and Detroit scene on both the Hip Hop and House level.
After learning firsthand knowledge of Club Crowd control and having built strong relationships with some of the biggest DJ's in the world, Doc moved to Orlando, for a break from the cold. With a collection of Chicago House and UK Garage, along with exclusives from all over the midwest, Doc got booked at some of Orlando's biggest Clubs. With UK Garage or 2Step, the breaks crowd of O-town were all for the sound of Doc. Spinning along side big DJ's like Icey, DJ Dan, Kit Kat, and his partner DJ St.Pete. After spending 4 great years in the sun, Doc decided to move closer to his family in Maryland where a chance meeting got Doc spinning in Charles Feelgood's club in Baltimore called Shortys. From that weekly residency that Doc maintained for 2 years, Doc played along side some of Baltimore's biggest House Music names, Karizma, Charles Feelgood, Adam Auburn, DJ Goodlove and others. In 2003 Doc was asked to take part in the Baltimore Music Festival. Rocking the outdoor crowd was one of the biggest moments of his career.
Doc also maintained his Hip Hop prowess by taking gigs at Baltimore's world renown Eden's Lounge and Platinum in Washington DC. Along with being one of the headliners for the Toy Soldier parties in and around Baltimore, Doc also rocked some after parties for some of the artists based out of the area like Raheem Devaughn, Lil Mo, Life and others. After forming these great relationships Doc decided it was time for round 2 of Chicago.
Basically picking up where he left off, Doc moved his pre-production studio into the Music Garage, one of Chicago biggest and well known studio space, sharing space with Sir Mel Hammond and AKSmith aka Frosty, M1D1 of the M.I.A. DJ crew. In this studio Doc cultivated the Chicago House Sound both in his DJ techniques as well as his production and composition skills. Doc and Frosty decided to get a smaller more inclusive room to cultivate our sound even more and build a music library. This is where Doc completed the EATER series and did collaborations with AKSmith, Monologic, Tone, KG Kapone, Gabriel Palomo and a host of others. Because of the popularity of Doc and Frosty in the building the Music Garage decided to build us a more suitable studio on the top floor. Now the top floor is where the famous Pro Room is which is where bands like The Black Crowes, Sting, The White Tees, Velvet Underground, R Kelly, Van Morrison, John Mayer, and a host of others rehearse. Doc has had the opportunity to break bread with alot of these talented artists. Along with this Doc has homed back into the jazz side of his life and is picking back up the saxophone. With working relationships with various jazz bands you never know where you'll end up hearing Doc. On the DJ side, Doc jumped into the Deep House scene working with DJs like Mel Rosario, Angel Alanis and others. He also took a few Techno gigs including a Techno night residency at the world famous Martini Ranch along side Gabriel Palomo and Niva.
Doc currently has been maintaining a very popular podcast www.mrdoc.podomatic.com that has the range of hiphop, house, techno and soon reggae along with UK Garage. You can also catch him at various guest slots through the city of Chicago and around the country. If you need a vibrant, showman with years of experience with any crowd, and can do it in any genre, then don't hesitate to book DJ Mr-Doc.
Booking Request:
booked@djmrdoc.com
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