{"id":1840,"date":"2018-01-08T15:52:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T15:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.halcyon-sf.com\/main\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2018-12-10T04:10:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T04:10:08","slug":"feb-17-tony-humphries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halcyon-sf.com\/main\/feb-17-tony-humphries\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb 17 – Tony Humphries"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TONY HUMPHRIES<\/h5>\n

\"TonyWhen thinking about Tony Humphries, you might be minded of his epic stint at KISS FM-NY as one of its greatest Mastermixers; or of his residency at one of the greatest US clubs, The Zanzibar; or, even, the walls that are lined with gold discs, from Indeep to Janet Jackson; or his legendary eclecticism for throwing whatever works into the mix, from The B-52\u2019s or Rhythim Is Rhythim to Blaze. Heck, Tony Humphries is, of course, all of those things and more. But then, there\u2019s the Tony of today, restless, questing, searching for new challenges. Which, when you think about it, is pretty much how Tony has always been.<\/p>\n

Few people realize just how deeply steeped in performing Tony Humphries\u2019 family is. His father, Rene \u201cEl Grande Combo\u201d Humphries, an \u00e9migr\u00e9 from Colombia in the 1950s, was a prominent bandleader in New York, heading his New York Combo for many years alongside peers like Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri. His uncle was the radical dance choreographer Eleo Pomare, while among his cousins are Keiann Collins, a Hollywood producer. The gifted guitarist (and Tony collaborator) Andr\u00e9 Lasalle, the actor\/producer Kenneth Dixon and the dancer\/choreographer Jian Piere-Louis who, says Tony, \u201cwants to learn Djing from me, friggin\u2019 crazy!\u201d Tony and family are pretty much the Jackson 5 of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Tony Humphries has now been DJing nearly 35 years, an incredible achievement that in any other industry would have been rewarded with a carriage clock, service medal and a free bus pass. His big break came through a chance meeting with Mastermixer Shep Pettibone at the offices of Prelude Records. A shy Humphries handed over his 120-minute mixtape to Shep and then forgot all about it. A few days later, he received the following message from Shep. \u201cHey Tony! This is Shep Pettibone. I was the chillin\u2019 on the beach listening to your cassette tape, and it was fierce! I work for a radio station in NYC called WBLS and there\u2019s this new radio station starting called Kiss FM and I got a new job there where I\u2019m responsible for 16 hours of music programming. Do you think you could put together four hours of music and have it delivered by tomorrow afternoon?\u201d Kiss FM became the hottest station in the five boroughs and Humphries\u2019 star rose and his show went on to last for many years both at KISS and, later, HOT 97.<\/p>\n

His lengthy stints at both stations were not simply an exercise in career furtherment, but a way of introducing new music and acts to the city of New York \u2013 and further afield. \u201cThe whole purpose of my two hours on KISS is to break new people,\u201d Tony told Muzik. \u201cIf you can\u2019t break them they you shouldn\u2019t have the job. Anybody can play to a crowd and play last week\u2019s hits and have people screaming. What does that accomplish? They pay you a couple of hundred dollars and you go home. People won\u2019t remember you; they\u2019ll remember the records. You have to make them think, \u2018that\u2019s the record I heard Tony play at Zanzibar\u2019. If they don\u2019t do that, who are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s shows were widely followed by industry and fans alike \u2013 with the same sort of impact and reach to Pete Tong in the UK. Techno don Kevin Saunderson recalled a pivotal moment in his early career. \u201cI told my brother that I was making music now. He\u2019s like, \u2018Sure you are!\u2019 So I go back to visit my family in New York. Tony Humphries is on and \u2018Triangle of Love\u2019 comes on in the mix. \u2018That\u2019s my record! That\u2019s my record!\u2019 That was so inspirational. It\u2019s one thing to make a record but it\u2019s a different level of excitement to hear it played on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Humphries was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, he has long been associated with New Jersey and the reason for that is his long-held residency at Club Zanzibar in Newark, where he began spinning in 1982. Zanzibar became synonymous with a new soulful electronic sound, labelled the Jersey sound, but with Tony\u2019s hands at the tiller it was a vastly more varied menu than that suggests, since he was there at the birth of house music and helped nurture its development in both Jersey and New York. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like going to a house club or a techno club or a classics club, everything was intertwined,\u201d explains Tony. \u201cThe hours were long, so obviously you didn\u2019t want to hear ten hours of straight house music. If you\u2019re going to pay $15-20 to hear this guy, you want to hear the whole damn spectrum and whatever it is, it better be quality. And, believe me, you had to come with everything possible. Talking Heads and The B-52s don\u2019t sound like Zanzibar\/Garage records, but they were. They were just funky records. I think that\u2019s what the Zanzibar\u2019s appeal was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as the Paradise Garage created a whole eco-culture surrounding the club, so New Jersey\u2019s music scene was boosted by the fervour for Tony\u2019s sets at Zanzibar. Countless enthusiasts were inspired to become DJs or producers because of Tony. 95 North\u2019s Doug Smith is one of them. \u201cHe heavily supported [the Jersey records], but he didn\u2019t just play that,\u201d says Smith. \u201cFor me, he, more than any other DJ, played such a wide variety of things. It wasn\u2019t all vocals. It wasn\u2019t all pumpin\u2019 stuff; it was across the board. He was the first person I heard play \u2018It Is What It Is\u2019 by Rhythim Is Rhythim. But he played commercial things, too. I remember him playing \u2018Just Got Paid\u2019 by Johnny Kemp and \u2018Break 4 Love\u2019 and he was mixing it all flawlessly. There were no artificial boundaries. There was none of this, \u2018OK, I\u2019m only going to play the Body & Soul vibe\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m only going to play the Shelter sound\u2019. I didn\u2019t detect any snobbishness in terms of his selection. As long as it sounded good, he played it. I don\u2019t think he really cared if there were any people who disagreed with his selection. It worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Tony is often seen more as a DJ than a remixer, his forays into the studio have always been productive and, at times, transcendental. Even before house\u2019s incendiary arrival, Tony\u2019s remixes caused a stir and several are now rightly regarded as classics. His remix of Mtume\u2019s \u2018Juicy Fruit\u2019 has been sampled on several big hip hop and R&B hits and Fresh Band\u2019s \u2018Come Back Lover\u2019 is rightly regarded as one of the best disco songs of the 1980s. He has gone on to remix scores of artists from Soul II Soul and Janet Jackson (which earned him a gold disc) to Chaka Khan and Deee-Lite, as well as playing an instrumental role in mixing and breaking house classics like Mass Order\u2019s \u2018Lift Every Voice\u2019 during his residency at the Zanz. Poignantly, Tony was enticed back into the studio in 2013 by Frankie Knuckles who asked Tony to do a swap mix for a track he\u2019d been working on. As Frankie told Tony, \u201cYou\u2019re a great remixer. I just thought folks needed to be reminded.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DJ\u2019s business card, the remix, travels the world better than any American Airways pilot. Tony\u2019s reputation in Europe as the guiding force behind the Jersey sound preceded him. Tapes of his KISS FM shows had circulated among aficionados like illegal samizdat all over the UK and Europe, as we delighted over Tony\u2019 obscurities and the mellifluous voice of the mythical Yvonne Mobley. Alex Paterson of the Orb was one of those grateful recipients of the tapes, courtesy of journalist Kris Needs. \u201cI wanted something different; cassettes were getting sent over from New York and I knew people up north were getting into house with influences from disco music \u2013 it was about hearing proper DJs like Tony Humphries, that\u2019s what really got me into house music.\u201d<\/p>\n

His reputation in Europe grew hugely after successful jaunts to influential parties like Danny Rampling\u2019s Shoom & Norman Jay\u2019s High On Hope in London. He was coaxed back to Europe in the early \u201990s for residencies at both Ministry of Sound in London and Echoes in Rimini on the Italian Riviera. Tony has continued to travel, supplemented by many DJ mix compilations, as well as the timeless Choice compilation he produced in 2003 for Azuli Records, that was dedicated to his time at the Zanzibar. His latest mix compilation, Quintessentials. \u2013 done in collaboration with DJ Spen \u2013 shows the expansive range of music that Tony plays in his current sets.<\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s first label venture, a joint enterprise with New York\u2019s Strictly Rhythm called Yellorange was launched in 1998 and ran for four years. The label ran the gamut of styles, from the soulful vocals of Mel\u2019isa Morgan, Miguel Plansencia\u2019s Afro-Cuban flavors, through to Soweto Funk\u2019s Italo-grooves. Case in point was the label best seller Sunkids ft. Chance\u2019s \u2018Rescue Me\u2019, which has a deft re-reub by Masters At Work. Bringing it all up to date, Tony Records is, according to the boss, \u201cshowcasing younger artists and producers doing soulful music in a modern form. Keeping the soulful underground vibe with fresher sounds.\u201d Check Rame & Bonora\u2019s \u2018Sick\u2019 from last year for the evidence or, even better, Tony\u2019s own recent release Housework EP, which fuses blues, gospel and worksongs into a brilliantly contemporary setting.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Body & Soul promoter John Davis brought Tony together with \u2018Little\u2019 Louie Vega and David Morales for a ten-hour session at New York\u2019s Webster Hall that was appropriately dubbed the Kings of House. Little did any of them anticipate the success that this would be, turning into a worldwide phenomenon that has straddled continents and cities. Tony\u2019s air miles continue unabated, his demand as a DJ undimmed, as summers are often spent travelling out to festivals like Kappa FuturFestival & Southport Weekender, for whom he is rightly a staple performer, along with regular guest spots at Ibiza\u2019s Pacha. By now he\u2019s probably clocked up enough airmiles to hitch a free ride on Virgin Galactic.<\/p>\n

What strikes anyone when meeting Tony Humphries is not what he\u2019s done or where he\u2019s been, but where he\u2019s going. \u201c\u201cGrowing up in Boston, our biggest influence was the New York house scene and no one embodies this spirit more than Tony Humphries,\u201d explains Soul Clap\u2019s Eli Goldstein. \u201cFor us, the gospel, deep, tribal sound he created at his Zanzibar residency reached us through the many remixes and tracks named after the legendary club. We finally had the honor of opening for Tony this year and we were blown away by his ability to represent the old, while pushing a unique, modern house sound. There is clearly only one Tony Humphries!\u201d Amen to that.<\/p>\n