Junior Vasquez, born Donald Mattern in 1949 (some sources say c. 1946) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is a famous New York City club DJ and remixer/producer.
Career
Mattern moved to New York as a young adult in order to pursue a career in music production. His early work, in the 1980s, was under the guidance of notable disco DJ and pop remixer/producer Shep Pettibone.
From 1989 to 1995, Vasquez gained national prominence — along with music industry influence — through his residency at the original Sound Factory, a club he cofounded at 530 West 27th Street in Manhattan's Chelsea District. Because of the heavy influence he had over his crowd, Vasquez was able to make or break new releases, and major record labels solicited Junior to craft club-friendly remixes of pop-oriented songs. Junior also created his own "private collection" of remixes of songs he was authorized to remix — and also for those he wasn't — that made his sets even more special to his audience.
After the closure of Sound Factory, Vasquez held residencies at the Tunnel, then his Arena party at the Palladium. In 1997, he returned to the Sound Factory's old space, remodeled to include a custom-designed DJ booth for Junior's exclusive use and reopened as Twilo, for a residency that lasted until that club's closure in 2001. Later that year, Vasquez began a new Sunday-morning afterhours residency -- Earth, at Exit Nightclub, that lasted until 2003.
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