Fundraiser Launched to Cover Jesse Saunders’ Medical Care

House music pioneer Jesse Saunders suffered a “severe stroke” in November 2022.

For well over a year, Jesse Saunders has faced a health crisis that has recently landed him in a rehab facility, according to those close to him. One of those same friends, Kirkland Townsend, has now organized a fundraiser as Saunders is apparently at risk of being released mid-treatment.

According to a GoFundMe page, the “severe stroke” Saunders suffered in November 2022 has greatly altered his quality of life. “Since then, he has been hospitalized, then in rehab, non-vocal, getting fed through a tube, his walk staggers, and he had been trying to get back to some semblance of normalcy,” reads the description.

It goes on to say: “Just recently, his health took a turn for the worse and he collapsed on the kitchen floor where he lives. His blood sugar and blood pressure were both dangerously off the charts.”

Most importantly, Townsend asserts that Saunders is at risk of getting his treatment cut off very soon without financial help. “This is an URGENT matter, as he will be evicted from the care facility by the end of this month, if we cannot get him the funds to maintain his care,” reads Townsend’s GoFundMe description.

Jesse Saunders is one of the artists most closely associated with the origins of the house music genre. The term first described an early to mid-’80s style of DJing classic funk, soul, and disco records championed by the late Frankie Knuckles at Chicago’s Warehouse. Saunders and Vincent Lawrence‘s track “On And On,” a cover of a Mach single by the same name, is widely considered the first house music record.

Several of Saunders’ early Chicago house colleagues cosigned on the GoFundMe. “Team Jesse” includes DJs like Wayne Williams, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Steve Silk Hurley, Joe Smooth, Mike Dunn, and Chip E.

The fundraiser to help cover Jesse Saunders’ medical costs currently sits just shy of $25,000, one-sixth of its stated target of $150,000.

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