When thinking about Tony Humphries, you might be minded of his epic stint at KISS FMNY
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’s or Rhythim Is Rhythim to Blaze. Heck, Tony Humphries is, of course, all of those
things and more. But then, there’s the Tony of today, restless, questing, searching for new
challenges. Which, when you think about it, is pretty much how Tony has always been.
Few people realize just how deeply steeped in performing Tony Humphries’ family is. His
father, Rene “El Grande Combo” Humphries, an émigré 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) André Lasalle, the actor/producer
Kenneth Dixon and the dancer/choreographer Jian Piere-Louis who, says Tony, “wants to
learn Djing from me, friggin’ crazy!” Tony and family are pretty much the Jackson 5 of
Brooklyn.
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. “Hey Tony! This is Shep Pettibone. I was the chillin’ on the beach
listening to your cassette tape, and it was fierce! I work for a radio station in NYC called
WBLS and there’s this new radio station starting called Kiss FM and I got a new job there
where I’m 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?” Kiss FM
became the hottest station in the five boroughs and Humphries’ star rose and his show
went on to last for many years both at KISS and, later, HOT 97.
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 – and further afield. “The
whole purpose of my two hours on KISS is to break new people,” Tony told Muzik. “If you
can’t break them they you shouldn’t have the job. Anybody can play to a crowd and play
last week’s hits and have people screaming. What does that accomplish? They pay you a
couple of hundred dollars and you go home. People won’t remember you; they’ll remember
the records. You have to make them think, ‘that’s the record I heard Tony play at Zanzibar’.
If they don’t do that, who are you?”
Tony’s shows were widely followed by industry and fans alike – 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. “I told my brother that I was making music now. He’s like, ‘Sure
you are!’ So I go back to visit my family in New York. Tony Humphries is on and ‘Triangle of
Love’ comes on in the mix. ‘That’s my record! That’s my record!’ That was so inspirational.
It’s one thing to make a record but it’s a different level of excitement to hear it played on the
radio.”
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’s 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. “It wasn’t like
going to a house club or a techno club or a classics club, everything was intertwined,”
explains Tony. “The hours were long, so obviously you didn’t want to hear ten hours of
straight house music. If you’re 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’t sound like
Zanzibar/Garage records, but they were. They were just funky records. I think that’s what
the Zanzibar’s appeal was.”
Just as the Paradise Garage created a whole eco-culture surrounding the club, so New
Jersey’s music scene was boosted by the fervour for Tony’s sets at Zanzibar. Countless
enthusiasts were inspired to become DJs or producers because of Tony. 95 North’s Doug
Smith is one of them. “He heavily supported [the Jersey records], but he didn’t just play
that,” says Smith. “For me, he, more than any other DJ, played such a wide variety of
things. It wasn’t all vocals. It wasn’t all pumpin’ stuff; it was across the board. He was the
first person I heard play ‘It Is What It Is’ by Rhythim Is Rhythim. But he played commercial
things, too. I remember him playing ‘Just Got Paid’ by Johnny Kemp and ‘Break 4 Love’
and he was mixing it all flawlessly. There were no artificial boundaries. There was none of
this, ‘OK, I’m only going to play the Body & Soul vibe’ or ‘I’m only going to play the Shelter
sound’. I didn’t detect any snobbishness in terms of his selection. As long as it sounded
good, he played it. I don’t think he really cared if there were any people who disagreed with
his selection. It worked.”
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’s incendiary
arrival, Tony’s remixes caused a stir and several are now rightly regarded as classics. His
remix of Mtume’s ‘Juicy Fruit’ has been sampled on several big hip hop and R&B hits and
Fresh Band’s ‘Come Back Lover’ 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’s ‘Lift Every Voice’
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’d been working on.
As Frankie told Tony, “You’re a great remixer. I just thought folks needed to be reminded.”
The DJ’s business card, the remix, travels the world better than any American Airways
pilot. Tony’s 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’ 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. “I 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 – it was about hearing proper DJs like Tony
Humphries, that’s what really got me into house music.”
His reputation in Europe grew hugely after successful jaunts to influential parties like Danny
Rampling’s Shoom & Norman Jay’s High On Hope in London. He was coaxed back to
Europe in the early ’90s 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. – done in collaboration with DJ Spen – shows the expansive range of
music that Tony plays in his current sets.
Tony’s first label venture, a joint enterprise with New York’s 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’isa Morgan, Miguel Plansencia’s Afro-Cuban flavors, through
to Soweto Funk’s Italo-grooves. Case in point was the label best seller Sunkids ft. Chance’s
‘Rescue Me’, which has a deft re-reub by Masters At Work. Bringing it all up to date, Tony
Records is, according to the boss, “showcasing younger artists and producers doing soulful
music in a modern form. Keeping the soulful underground vibe with fresher sounds.” Check
Rame & Bonora’s ‘Sick’ from last year for the evidence or, even better, Tony’s own recent
release Housework EP, which fuses blues, gospel and worksongs into a brilliantly
contemporary setting.
In 2009, Body & Soul promoter John Davis brought Tony together with ‘Little’ Louie Vega
and David Morales for a ten-hour session at New York’s 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’s 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’s Pacha. By
now he’s probably clocked up enough airmiles to hitch a free ride on Virgin Galactic.
What strikes anyone when meeting Tony Humphries is not what he’s done or where he’s
been, but where he’s going. ““Growing up in Boston, our biggest influence was the New
York house scene and no one embodies this spirit more than Tony Humphries,” explains
Soul Clap’s Eli Goldstein. “For 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!” Amen to that.
When thinking about Tony Humphries, you might be minded of his epic stint at KISS FMNY
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’s or Rhythim Is Rhythim to Blaze. Heck, Tony Humphries is, of course, all of those
things and more. But then, there’s the Tony of today, restless, questing, searching for new
challenges. Which, when you think about it, is pretty much how Tony has always been.
Few people realize just how deeply steeped in performing Tony Humphries’ family is. His
father, Rene “El Grande Combo” Humphries, an émigré 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) André Lasalle, the actor/producer
Kenneth Dixon and the dancer/choreographer Jian Piere-Louis who, says Tony, “wants to
learn Djing from me, friggin’ crazy!” Tony and family are pretty much the Jackson 5 of
Brooklyn.
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. “Hey Tony! This is Shep Pettibone. I was the chillin’ on the beach
listening to your cassette tape, and it was fierce! I work for a radio station in NYC called
WBLS and there’s this new radio station starting called Kiss FM and I got a new job there
where I’m 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?” Kiss FM
became the hottest station in the five boroughs and Humphries’ star rose and his show
went on to last for many years both at KISS and, later, HOT 97.
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 – and further afield. “The
whole purpose of my two hours on KISS is to break new people,” Tony told Muzik. “If you
can’t break them they you shouldn’t have the job. Anybody can play to a crowd and play
last week’s hits and have people screaming. What does that accomplish? They pay you a
couple of hundred dollars and you go home. People won’t remember you; they’ll remember
the records. You have to make them think, ‘that’s the record I heard Tony play at Zanzibar’.
If they don’t do that, who are you?”
Tony’s shows were widely followed by industry and fans alike – 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. “I told my brother that I was making music now. He’s like, ‘Sure
you are!’ So I go back to visit my family in New York. Tony Humphries is on and ‘Triangle of
Love’ comes on in the mix. ‘That’s my record! That’s my record!’ That was so inspirational.
It’s one thing to make a record but it’s a different level of excitement to hear it played on the
radio.”
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’s 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. “It wasn’t like
going to a house club or a techno club or a classics club, everything was intertwined,”
explains Tony. “The hours were long, so obviously you didn’t want to hear ten hours of
straight house music. If you’re 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’t sound like
Zanzibar/Garage records, but they were. They were just funky records. I think that’s what
the Zanzibar’s appeal was.”
Just as the Paradise Garage created a whole eco-culture surrounding the club, so New
Jersey’s music scene was boosted by the fervour for Tony’s sets at Zanzibar. Countless
enthusiasts were inspired to become DJs or producers because of Tony. 95 North’s Doug
Smith is one of them. “He heavily supported [the Jersey records], but he didn’t just play
that,” says Smith. “For me, he, more than any other DJ, played such a wide variety of
things. It wasn’t all vocals. It wasn’t all pumpin’ stuff; it was across the board. He was the
first person I heard play ‘It Is What It Is’ by Rhythim Is Rhythim. But he played commercial
things, too. I remember him playing ‘Just Got Paid’ by Johnny Kemp and ‘Break 4 Love’
and he was mixing it all flawlessly. There were no artificial boundaries. There was none of
this, ‘OK, I’m only going to play the Body & Soul vibe’ or ‘I’m only going to play the Shelter
sound’. I didn’t detect any snobbishness in terms of his selection. As long as it sounded
good, he played it. I don’t think he really cared if there were any people who disagreed with
his selection. It worked.”
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’s incendiary
arrival, Tony’s remixes caused a stir and several are now rightly regarded as classics. His
remix of Mtume’s ‘Juicy Fruit’ has been sampled on several big hip hop and R&B hits and
Fresh Band’s ‘Come Back Lover’ 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’s ‘Lift Every Voice’
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’d been working on.
As Frankie told Tony, “You’re a great remixer. I just thought folks needed to be reminded.”
The DJ’s business card, the remix, travels the world better than any American Airways
pilot. Tony’s 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’ 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. “I 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 – it was about hearing proper DJs like Tony
Humphries, that’s what really got me into house music.”
His reputation in Europe grew hugely after successful jaunts to influential parties like Danny
Rampling’s Shoom & Norman Jay’s High On Hope in London. He was coaxed back to
Europe in the early ’90s 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. – done in collaboration with DJ Spen – shows the expansive range of
music that Tony plays in his current sets.
Tony’s first label venture, a joint enterprise with New York’s 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’isa Morgan, Miguel Plansencia’s Afro-Cuban flavors, through
to Soweto Funk’s Italo-grooves. Case in point was the label best seller Sunkids ft. Chance’s
‘Rescue Me’, which has a deft re-reub by Masters At Work. Bringing it all up to date, Tony
Records is, according to the boss, “showcasing younger artists and producers doing soulful
music in a modern form. Keeping the soulful underground vibe with fresher sounds.” Check
Rame & Bonora’s ‘Sick’ from last year for the evidence or, even better, Tony’s own recent
release Housework EP, which fuses blues, gospel and worksongs into a brilliantly
contemporary setting.
In 2009, Body & Soul promoter John Davis brought Tony together with ‘Little’ Louie Vega
and David Morales for a ten-hour session at New York’s 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’s 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’s Pacha. By
now he’s probably clocked up enough airmiles to hitch a free ride on Virgin Galactic.
What strikes anyone when meeting Tony Humphries is not what he’s done or where he’s
been, but where he’s going. ““Growing up in Boston, our biggest influence was the New
York house scene and no one embodies this spirit more than Tony Humphries,” explains
Soul Clap’s Eli Goldstein. “For 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!” Amen to that.