Published
Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 16:35
- He was a resident at Storm Rave and NASA parties in the '90s and helped bring UK rave sounds to the East Coast scene.
Jason Jinx, one of the New York rave scene's pioneering artists, has died.
News of his death began circulating on social media, according to Big Shot magazine, and his family set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral services. The Long Island native, Jason Zambito, was among the first wave of DJs and producers in New York City's nascent electronic music scene. He was part of Frankie Bones' original Storm Rave crew going back to 1990, and he was also a resident at the much-mythologized NASA parties at Shelter.
Simon Reynolds mentions Zambito in his groundbreaking history of electronic music, Energy Flash. "DB and his fellow DJs like Soul Slinger and Jason Jinx were pushing the proto-jungle tunes from UK labels like Reinforced, Formation and Moving Shadow," he writes. "The first time I went to NASA, I was thrilled to hear tunes I recognized from the London pirate stations." Zambito began producing in 1995, landing on labels like Sm:)e, Subliminal and Strictly Rhythm with a range of house, drum & bass and trance records.
"We are at a loss for words finding out our dear friend Jason Jinx Zambito passed away," his family writes on the GoFundMe page. "We lost a titan of creativity whose kindness touched many here in NYC and whose music had a far reach the world over."
Listen to a Jason Jinx mix from 1996.
Photo credit: Ida Kreutzer