Joe Velasquez Tries His Hand At The 'Morning Edition' Theme

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. As some of you know, we did a call out to you, our listeners, recently asking you to send in your own versions of the MORNING EDITION theme song. And many of you delivered. We're going to hear another one this morning. Ailsa, I hope you're ready to get a little funky.

AILSA CHANG: David, I am always ready to get funky.

GREENE: Oh, very nice.

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GREENE: All right, this version of the theme was produced by Joe Velasquez of Monterey, Calif. He's a jazz saxophone player by training, but he also likes to chop up beats and make electronic music like this that we're hearing, especially, he says, when it has a bit of a disco groove, like the music of the British band Jamiroquai.

JOE VELASQUEZ: I'm really inspired by that kind of, you know, writing kind of dance music so people can get up and kind of shake their - (laughter) shake their booty.

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CHANG: Joe also comes from a very musical background. His father, Joe Sr., was a radio DJ and also used to spin records at local clubs.

VELASQUEZ: He used to actually take me to the clubs when I was little. And I would sit it in the DJ booth with him and he would mix turntables - you know? - and keep people dancing on that floor.

CHANG: And Joe II is a music teacher at his mother's Montessori school. In the past, he taught middle school students how to work with music production tools.

VELASQUEZ: Nowadays, you know, music teachers should be doing that. They should be bringing in production equipment. Because of technology and how it's advanced, kids nowadays, they really like that kind of stuff.

GREENE: Oh, it sounds like this classroom is where the party is at. And we want you to keep the party going here on MORNING EDITION. Upload your version of the MORNING EDITION theme song to SoundCloud. Use the hashtag #morningeditiontheme and then go to morningeditiontheme.npr.org and send it in. You might hear your version of the theme right here on the air very soon.

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