Original UK latin Don since the early 80s alongside a heavy involvement in
the soul/jazz/funk scene, DJ Lubi aka Lubi Jovanovic, first started
spinning fusion, samba and latin jazz to jazz dancers in his native
Yorkshire (Northern England) in 1982! By 1986 he was running the first
salsa night in the city of Leeds (Club Afro Latino) and promoting
jazz/funk/soul with his legendary crew The DIG! Family.
From this period, his musical career ran in two directions simultaneously.
The latin/salsa side saw him forming the earliest bands outside London
(latin jazz combo Conjunto Fuego and salsa orchestra Pa'lante), and
touring across the whole UK for a decade (1986-96), before hanging up his
bass guitar to concentrate on club promotion and dj-ing.
His salsa DJ career blossomed and by the 1990s he was one of the UK's
major latin DJs. In 1995, his weekly club session Casa Latina (named in
honour of the legendary NYC record shop) opened and was a massive success,
running until 2002. In it's time it attracted such heavyweight artists as
Eddie Palmieri, Issac Delgado, Maracca Valle, Jimmy Bosch, Johnny Polanco,
Cubanismo, Manolito y su Trabuco, Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers,
Charanga Habanera to appear there and it set the template for all UK latin
clubs to follow.
In 2002, Casa Latina folded and Lubi started Salsoul, a back to DJ session
which featured 2 rooms - one 100% latino blending salsa with reggaeton and Cuban hiphop,
and a second r&b/hiphop/dancehall room. Featuring guest DJs, urban latino
dance shows (reggaeton, samba reggae, breakers) plus MCs, it ran every week for over 5 years and blazed the trail for reggaeton in the UK!
Lubi now DJs salsa/latin music across the globe, from Los
Angeles to Copenhagen, Canary Islands to Turkey, Latvia to Singapore! He was chief latin writer
at the much respected global beats magazine Straight No Chaser from 1997 to 2007 (when the magazine sadly folded) , and he is
musical adviser to the BBC Radio Scotland programme "Planet Latino". On
top of this, he is king of the worldwide latin/salsa compilation market,
notching up 32 releases in the last 5 years, for a variety of labels: Nascente, Fania, Freestyle, World Music Network, V2 Music, Protel
(see full biog for titles). In 2006, he was honoured at the massive West
Coast Salsa Congress with a lifetime International DJ award and at home is recognised as
the true Don of UK latin music.
On another tip, since the mid 1980's, his love of soul/funk/jazz/global
beats saw him promoting clubnights and gigs with his fellow soul jazz warriors The
DIG! Family and for 2 decades, their grip on this scene in Leeds and the North of England was
almost Soprano like! With clubnights like DIG!, Yardbird Suite and The
Cooker at venues like The Underground (r.i.p.), Wardrobe and Atrium, they
were the first to bring the top names to the city - Roy Ayers, Jimmy
Smith, Maceo Parker, Gilles Peterson, DJ Spinna, Herbaliser, Rainer Truby,
Keb Darge, Mark Murphy, Tania Maria, Reuben Wilson, Mark Rae, UFO, Mr
Scruff, People Under The Stairs, Carleen Anderson, Weldon Irvine - the
list is endless and reads like an enyclopedia of jazz/soul music!
With several clubs, 4 DJs, an agency, two record labels, it's true to say
the DIG! Family planted the seeds in Leeds which bore fruit years later in
such artists as Corinne Bailey Rae and the New Mastersounds! Although the
DIG! Family split in 2002, Lubi still plays freestyle soul/jazz/funk
sessions at venues like the Hifi Club Leeds and London's famous Jazz Cafe
as well as contributing on this music to Straight No Chaser magazine.
With over two and a half decades in the business, Lubi keeps it moving
along and looks forward to the future with as much passion as he had in
the past. Because in the end, as it was in the beginning, it really is just all about the music!
