DJ Pari

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DJ Pari (b. February 27th, 1975) is a DJ of the genres Funk, Soul, Jazz and Latin. He is mostly known as the founder of the Soulpower organisation and as manager and producer for Soul legends like Marva Whitney, Gwen McCrae, Lyn Collins amongst others.

Born in Braunschweig, Germany, in 1975, DJ Pari started DJing at age 15 and soon played clubs in Hannover and Hamburg. In 1994, at only 19 years old, he moved to the United States in order to study Soul and Funk culture and dig up records. His first stop was Phoenix, Arizona, where he spent two years running a club night called "Hip Joint". In 1995 he re-located in Los Angeles, California, where he teamed up with his partner DJ Orb to launch their club "Groove Lounge". Every week, DJ Pari worked with acts like the Solsonics, Mandrill, the Black Eyed Peas, Big Black, Roy Porter and many others. Around the same time he started spinning at gigs of the Godfather of Soul James Brown and even toured with him for quite some time.

In 1998, DJ Pari moved back to Germany to work as a journalist, his career peaking when he was contracted by Europe's largest newspaper BILD in Berlin. But in early 2004, he started his Soulpower organisation at the "Palo Palo" club in Hannover, Germany. Originally just a monthly Soul party, Soulpower quickly evolved to a global project, booking shows and parties in more than 20 countries and 50 cities on four continents. Some of the artists DJ Pari has worked with are Marva Whitney, Gwen McCrae, Lyn Collins, Bobby Byrd, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Vicki Anderson, Pee Wee Ellis, Roy Ayers, Bootsy Collins, Clyde Stubblefield, John "Jabo" Starks, Sharon Jones, Sweet Charles Sherrell, Karl Denson, RAMP and many more.

His recent musical productions include "I am what I am", the new album by Marva Whitney and her recent singles "I am what I am" and "Soulsisters (of the world unite)" as well as "Mama Feelgood" by Lyn Collins and "Live in Paris" by Gwen McCrae. In cooperation with the Japanese Funk unit Osaka Monaurail, DJ Pari has just recently fused his Soulpower brand with the Tokyo based label Shout!.