![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/image001-300x199.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As the club music throbs with electronic beats and the harmonic patterns shift and change according to the desired BPM and the pleasures of the moment, master mixologist Tony Smith has made it his mission and life work \u2014 to celebrate the sound and experience.<\/p>\n
In fact, the word to sum up Smith\u2019s approach to life would have to be \u201ceffervescent.\u201d Whether he is waxing enthusiastic about the vast array of music he has played from his collection or his extensive time working in New York\u2019s club world, the seasoned professional is always bubbling over with excitement. Anchoring his world to the rest of us for the past seven years has been his Sirius X-M Satellite Radio show. It is digitally broadcast weekly, during which he honors much of what defines him through music.<\/p>\n
Today, Tony\u2019s one-hour show\u00a0 \u2014 \u201cClassic Beats and Rhythms\u201d on Channel 54 \u2014 generates an ardent following on Facebook and elsewhere. His fans and followers tune in every Thursday night at 9 pm (Eastern time) to hear, share and re-live some of the music he played with such skill and finesse during Disco\u2019s golden years. [The show repeats each Monday, 2am Eastern.]<\/p>\n
His sets can include tracks ranging from the history of R&B, music from New York\u2019s hip hop community, Caribbean ethnic beats, blasts from the best of 1980s New Wave and on through the history of music. Each show represents the latest public culmination of the joie d\u2019vivre that runs through Tony\u2019s entire personal timeline, through all life\u2019s his ups and downs.<\/p>\n
Tony Smith has seen it all as far the club scene goes. He\u2019s known around the world for helping Disco music become a global force. He spun records virtually unheard before he played them in such Manhattan hotspots as Xenon and Funhouse, helping them become true hits. Tony even played the opening night of the Palladium with John \u201cJellybean\u201d Benitez. The late lamented mega-club is now the site of a massive NYU dorm. During the heyday of dance music (Disco was only one subset) and well before the Internet, social media and\u00a0digital socializing, Tony was on the scene … creating memorable and moving mixes that kept happy dancers out on the floor.<\/p>\n
This wouldn\u2019t have been so, however, if Tony hadn\u2019t listened to his heart instead of doing what was \u201cexpected\u201d by his parents and his community. Instead of graduating from college and getting a master\u2019s degree like his siblings, he Discovered his passion for music early on in life. By age 15, he had formed his own band. By 19, he was a professional Club DJ. In 1976, Tony was cited by Billboard as one of the Top 10 DJs in the country.<\/p>\n
Tony has also been a successful music producer, creating and remixing songs as \u201cTony\u2019s Soulbeats\u201d with many famous artists from their own musical worlds. He\u2019s also held DJ Guest Spots throughout the globe having played for diverse crowds in London, Paris and across the USA.<\/p>\n
During a fine dinner at Ruth\u2019s Chris Steakhouse, Smith smiled and said with a chuckle, \u201cI guess you could say\u00a0 I\u2019ve always been following my own beat\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he added, \u201cI remember from high school, that famous Robert Frost poem, \u2018The Road Not Taken.\u2019 I think of it now as I look back on decades of following the road my heart always seems to have desired instead of the path I was expected to take. Just as Frost wrote about two roads diverging in a wood, my taking the one less traveled by \u2013 following my own beat along the way \u2013 has made all the difference in my life and for my happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony grew up in Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side, a block away from Chinatown, and was widely \u201cexpected\u201d to graduate from college. \u201cMy father had left home the year I was born and I was the \u201cbaby\u201d in the family of Elaine Smith, a fiercely hard-working single mom, and three much older siblings \u2014 two sisters and a brother. Everyone helped to parent me while each of them \u2014 Carolyn, James and Antoinette \u2014\u00a0earned their master\u2019s degrees. It was understood that, of course, so would I.\u201d<\/p>\n
But early on, the signs were there that Tony\u2019s life would be different,\u00a0based around music, notwithstanding a couple of detours. Tony recalls a story his family often told about him. He was just an infant at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn this particular day everyone was dancing to music while I was lying on my sister\u2019s bed. It must have been clear that their movements were joyful and fun, since I felt compelled to find a way to join.\u2028\u2028\u201cEven though I couldn\u2019t yet stand on my own \u2014 let alone walk \u2014 my family still talks about my unfortunate interaction with a rickety wooden desk next to the bed. I was too young to remember it now, but evidently the desk was low enough that \u2013 despite my tiny stature — I could shakily \u2018stand\u2019 on the floor by reaching up my arms and hanging on to its top for support.
\n\u201cI was just a happy kid wanting to dance along with his family. A happy kid of about 10 months old, that is, until the table toppled over. The heavy manual typewriter resting on it clunked me right in the head. My mother fainted and my sister rushed me to the hospital immediately! Fortunately, all ended well \u2014 and here I am today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my first attempt at dancing, and I\u2019ve been dancing ever since. My brother James was the amateur videographer of the family. It seems that whenever he caught me on camera as a boy, there I was \u2013 dancing \u2014 even sometimes, at embarrassing moments: still dancing!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was six, I moved along with my brother\u2019s favorites \u2014Olatunji\u2019s \u2018Jin-Go-Lo-Ba (Drums of Passion)\u2019. With music always in the air, it now seems inevitable that I began using my allowance to amass a giant collection of 45 RPM records.\u201d<\/p>\n
Music perpetually wafted through the air of the household. Tony\u2019s mother listened to gospel, James played congas, Carolyn was a soprano and Antoinette was a tenor. \u2028\u2028\u201cMy sisters formed a group modeled after the Chiffons or The Ronettes, calling themselves \u2018The Debonaires\u2019. While Ma was out working at a factory hand-crafting jewelry, she insisted on knowing that her kids were safe at home. So instead of visiting friends, my sisters invited people come over to sing. I was eight when I sang along with\u00a0my sisters to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers\u2019 \u2018Why Do Fools Fall in Love\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy my first year of high school, I\u2019d learned to play guitar. I was 15 when I started my own band with some friends. At first, we were five; then we became \u2018The Soul Sound Explosion\u2019. Eventually, we won some talent contests and began accepting paying gigs. We never made much money nor did we become the next Kool and the Gang, but I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience proved to Tony he could, in fact, both earn money and have fun by making music. That was the defining notion that liberated him from some societal conventions. \u201cSomething life-shaping came from that experience. When our band would take breaks \u2014 and since I was the guy with all the records \u2014 I\u2019d play music to keep the crowd happy. I didn\u2019t fully realize it yet, but I was learning how to DJ.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time he was 16, Tony was playing records for free in the park. \u201cI\u2019d plug into a lamppost to get free electricity and loved watching people dance to my selections. Every day was different, with still more new music coming out. My passion \u2014 along with loving movies \u2014 had become playing music in the park for people to dance to.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating high school at age 17 in 1972 \u2013 and despite being as addicted to music as Tony had become \u2013 his attendance at college was automatically assumed. \u201cI succumbed to my family\u2019s expectations. But although I\u2019d imagined going to Brown in Rhode Island, I chose Fordham in the Bronx for one reason only: so I could remain close to the evolving music scene of New York City.\u2028\u2028\u201cThere I was with lots of music,\u201d Tony enthused as he remembered those early years of Disco. \u201cAs deeply drawn as I was to the new music scene, it wasn\u2019t easy to explain it to my mother when I gave her the bad news \u2014 that I\u2019d be dropping out of college to become a full-time DJ. Ma was worried about my security and future without a college degree, but I couldn\u2019t care less. I simply had faith: music would take me wherever I needed to be. Music was my rush!\u201d<\/p>\n
At about that time, Tony discovered Greenwich Village — filled with dance clubs of multiple persuasions … gay, straight, black, white. As Tony added, \u201cYou name it, I was checking them out! I\u2019d listen from the sidewalk without even having to enter \u2014 the music inside was that loud!\u201d<\/p>\n
As technology evolved, DJs went from simply playing one song after another to mixing the two together into a single, continuous stream — sometimes seamlessly and, at other times, altering course in order to surprise.
\nMany DJs today just show up for a gig with pre-recorded music on an iPod or thumb drive. They simply push a button and the music unrolls by itself.\u2028\u2028\u201cThat is definitely not my way,\u201d Tony emphasized. “I like to \u2018read\u2019 the crowd \u2013 adjusting my choices on the fly as I observe reactions to the different selections I put out there. My goal is to keep people happily dancing and getting thirsty, which bartenders and owners love! When you learn to DJ well, you are truly in charge of the night, directly affecting the mood of the crowd. You can make the entire evening of music feel like your own, single performance.\u201d
\nDisco was just taking root in the culture. This new musical genre emerged out of jazz, R&B and classical, stealing heat from rock which had enjoyed such an influence during the \u201860s and on. \u201cDisco\u201d \u2014 the Americanization of the French word Discoth\u00e8que, which meant record library \u2014 was also the term for the European dance clubs that served as havens for danceable rock.\u2028\u2028By 1972, the newest sounds of Disco were not being heard on the radio but in dance clubs, where DJs chose what the crowd would experience. No one could hear the complete version of Eddie Kendricks\u2019 \u201cGirl You Need a Change of Mind\u201d on radio stations. Those DJs were only allowed to broadcast the three-minute \u201cradio version.\u201d But the DJ in a Disco could play the full 7:33-length original and better yet, watch the crowd dancing to it. Discos were becoming launch pads for this new form of music, soon leading people to buy them at record stores. DJs were taste-makers. New York was their hub, but cities like Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. followed NYC\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
Rolling Stone magazine\u2019s Vince Aletti wrote the first report on Disco\u00a0in 1973. He also wrote a weekly column about this new form of music for Record World in which he often reported on Tony Smith\u2019s latest playlists. Many of those were later captured in Vince\u2019s book, THE DISCO FILES 1973-78. By 1974, the new form of music had become such a \u201cthing\u201d that WPIX-FM launched the first Disco radio show where, for example, you could hear the full length version of Barry White\u2019s \u2018Can\u2019t Get Enough\u2019.<\/p>\n
I recently joined Tony and Vince at a theatrical event for Broadway Cares \u2013 Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation’s leading industry-based HIV\/AIDS\u00a0fundraising and grant-making organizations. During the intermission they talked \u2013 of course \u2013 about music … a core connection among these longtime friends.<\/p>\n
Before achieving his status today in music history, however, and acclaim from movers and shakers like Vince, Tony had held boring low-level jobs. He was a clerk typist at a plumbing company and a library page at the Municipal Building library to support what is now vast accumulation of music.\u2028\u2028\u201cBack then, Warren Brown, my only gay friend at the time, told me about The Village Voice \u2014 a weekly newspaper with pages and pages of print ads. There was a want ad for a DJ at Barefoot Boy \u2014 a gay club that hadn\u2019t even opened yet. Warren felt I should audition \u2014 an idea I thought was ludicrous. I was just a black kid from The Projects. But he pressured and motivated me into giving it a shot.\u2028\u2028\u201cSo I packed up a crate of music — heavy crates of vinyl 33 and 45 rpm records — and jumped into a taxi to 39th St and Second Ave. Along the way I realized that the name I\u2019d been born with — Harvey — simply didn\u2019t seem cool. In 1950, there\u2019d been that Jimmy Stewart movie, \u2018Harvey\u2019, with a tall, invisible rabbit. The title character\u2019s name wasn’t exactly sexy in 1975. So during the cab ride to my first audition, I renamed myself, Tony — inspired by my sister\u2019s nickname, \u2018Toy\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can still picture the club manager who pointed to the DJ booth and the ladder I needed to climb to get there. Up I went, scared out of my mind — with a new turntable I\u2019d never worked with: no pre-set playing speeds. It was up to me to adjust the speed with each song and vibe I wanted. Even as I studied the mysterious equipment, I was faking a sense of confidence. \u2018It\u2019ll take me a few minutes,\u2019 I said. \u2018I’m just getting my records ready!\u2019\u2028\u2028\u201cI don\u2019t remember what I played. Surely, some Gloria Gaynor. One thing I\u2019d begun to realize was the way that different types of crowds have different musical tastes. Gays, as I already knew, had a weakness for female artists and songs with lots of melody \u2013 like \u2018Never Can Say Goodbye\u2019. James Brown\u2019s \u2018Give It Up, Turn It Loose\u2019 would not have cut it with that crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever Tony did, it worked. \u201cThe manager said, \u2018You\u2019ve got the job, \u2013 25 dollars a night, seven nights a week.\u2019 The first thing I thought was, \u2018YES! I can buy more records!\u2019\u201d (Disco DJ\u2019s didn\u2019t start getting free music from the Labels until 1975.)
\n\u201cThe club succeeded, to put it mildly. Next thing I knew, DJs who were my idols were coming to hear me \u2013 David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Richie Kaczor and Steve D\u2019Acquisto. Barefoot Boy was packed every night. By 1976, Billboard magazine had named me one of the Top 10 DJ\u2019s in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will always consider 1976 one of the best years for music in my lifetime and, certainly, for Disco. By now there were at least 400 Discos in the City! I was being courted by promoters like Ray Caviano Issy Sanchez, Billy Smith and Curtis Urbina. They gave me all the free music I could handle. The gold and silver record awards, hanging now on my walls, hale from that special era. I had become very well-known and was hired for guest spots at other clubs and private parties. Disco was a major force and DJ\u2019s like me were no longer paid cash off the books.\u201d<\/p>\n
Studio 54 had opened and a major new and well-funded competitor, Xenon, was looking for a DJ. Barefoot Boy had only 200 people on the dance floor, but Xenon was aiming for 700 or more. There was a lot at stake for its management to make the right choice. \u2028\u2028\u201cEach of us \u2014 there were seven DJ candidates \u2014 had one week to show our stuff. As was true for Studio 54, white DJs would get the chance to try out first, something I understood and accepted at the time. But I could tell from my visits that the DJs auditioning before me were playing gay music for a straight crowd. While those colleagues were good at their craft, I saw that they were clearing the dance floor \u2014 playing sounds that they personally enjoyed, instead of taking their cues from the crowd. We\u2019re talking about two different musical planets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it was my turn to play, I avoided new songs or personal preferences. I had one goal in mind: keep people on the floor and make the management give me the job. I concentrated on playing popular songs and was hired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Xenon and Studio 54 had become the 900-pound \u201cgorillas\u201d of the business \u2014 spacious former theaters with lots of room for dancers. Popularity came from word of mouth; there were no big advertising campaigns back then. After one year at Xenon, it seemed that everyone knew: Tony Smith was its resident DJ. \u2028\u2028\u201cAfter I got the crowd \u2018trained\u2019 \u2014 and they knew I was paying attention, keeping their pleasure in mind \u2013 I was able to introduce them to new songs that other clubs weren\u2019t playing. I could intersperse my personal \u2018finds\u2019 with tried and true hits I knew they would love.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an extrovert and a natural-born entertainer. My booth was often open and I\u2019d step out onto the floor with the crowd. Famous people stopped by — actors like Richard Dreyfus and Farrah Fawcett; singers like Neil Diamond and Stevie Wonder; athletes like Reggie Jackson and even NYC\u2019s Mayor Koch.
\n\u201cI got local press coverage as a \u2018celebrity DJ.\u2019 The New York Post, for example, did a story about me in 1978 (\u2018The Men and Their Music\u2019.) It paired me with Bill Lombardo, nephew of Guy Lombardo of New Year\u2019s Eve \u2018Auld Lang Syne\u2019 fame. We were paired as two separate musical planets, each with a deep commitment to the music projects we led.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1979, although Disco was still very big, the rock faction of music — bitter that a different style of music had replaced them — started the \u201cDisco Sucks\u201d campaign. It did have some impact, but New York City mostly remained strong.<\/p>\n
After Xenon came Magique \u2014 an East Side club that mostly appealed to what Manhattanites call the \u201cbridge and tunnel\u201d crowd from other boroughs. This crowd had a narrow taste range wanting to hear the same song, like Laura Brannigan\u2019s \u201cGloria\u201d, two or three times a night. \u201cFrankly, that got boring and after a long get-away vacation to Mexico, it was clear that Magique wanted more of a \u2018formula\u2019 DJ, so we parted ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 1982, music was moving toward the \u201cnew wave\u201d sound of such tunes as \u201cI Ran\u201d by Flock of Seagulls. \u201cMusic was evolving. I enjoyed playing songs like The Talking Heads\u2019 \u2018Once in a Lifetime\u2019 so I moved to The Palace \u2014 a new club with a new wave flavor. Rock was interspersed with Disco for its diverse crowd. I was there for a year, having a ball. I love learning and now I was gaining the experience of playing different sounds for yet another kind of crowd. Every once in a while, I would go to the Fun House where Jellybean Benitez was playing. Sometimes he\u2019d sneak out for his dates with Madonna and I\u2019d play in his stead. Neither management nor the audience knew the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crowd was mostly teenaged kids and when Jellybean left to focus on music production, he talked them into hiring me. I continued to observe the differences between one clientele or another including those in a lesbian bar, Network, and another one, Garbo\u2019s. For me, it\u2019s always fun to play for new audiences by studying people\u2019s responses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen House music became big, however \u2014 check \u2018Move Your Body\u2019 by Marshall Jefferson \u2014 audiences wanted (just as the lyrics say) \u2018house music all night long.\u2019 The same steady beats and not much melody. Sorry: I like variety but \u2018house heads\u2019 just wanted house.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, Tony turned to his other passion, movies. He went to technical school to learn how to repair VCRs, since video cassettes had become huge. \u201cEventually I became, I was told, the first black owner of a Manhattan video store. Friends in the music business (then and now) \u2013 Danny Krivit, Claudia Cuseta, Bobby Shaw \u2013 kept me in touch with the latest music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe store was successful for a decade (1989-1999) but by the time my lease was up, my beloved mother had suffered a stroke along with other serious health issues. I moved back into her apartment and became a full-time caretaker \u2014 the least I could do for the woman who had worked so hard and sacrificed so much. During some of those years, I kept myself in the game by DJ\u2019ing on weekends at the Union Square Lounge in Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elaine Smith passed away in 2007. Even though Tony had taken a decade-long hiatus in order to care for his mother, his passion for music still gnawed at him even though he had taken this decade-long hiatus. \u201cI\u2019m back to music full-time and loving it.\u201d He proclaimed, \u201cI\u2019ve trademarked my brand \u2014\u00a0\u201cTony\u2019s Soulbeats\u201d \u2014 producing and remixing songs for artists like Kimberly Davis, Jason Walker and Shara Strand. I\u2019m working with music icons in their fields like dance producer, Tony Moran; choral composer, Jim Papoulis and musician-composer, Paul Guzzone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd thanks to my old buddy, Jellybean, I have that Classic Disco show on Sirius XM radio — Channel 54, of course, like the famous Studio. Music remains at the center of my life. I’m still available for guest spots and private parties like those that have taken me to London and Paris, and back to New Jersey, Brooklyn and Manhattan.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s nothing that compares to when I was spinning Disco music during the hot summers of NYC in the 70\u2019s. New Disco music was released literally every day. You never knew what surprises were coming next.\u2028\u2028\u201cFrom 1974 to 1980, I was spinning 5-7 days a week so I had plenty of hours to fill with music. I even enjoyed the nights when attendance was light. That gave me the chance to experiment with new music, to see what worked so I\u2019d be ready when the club was packed. There were also certain songs that just sounded \u2018summer-y\u2019. I loved to DJ on those summer nights, getting screams from the crowd when I played just the right thing!\u201d<\/p>\n
Record label owner\/partner Curtis Urbina, who\u2019s known Tony for decades, considers him a rare talent. Urbina describes Tony\u2019s work today on Sirius XM Radio as that of a Master Music Curator since he does so much to help people re-discover Disco hits from the past and bring new value to them. Adds Urbina, \u201cIf SONY, RCA or whomever were to hire Tony as a music curator, he could take their catalogue and create new playlists and song compilations that are currently not generating revenue but\u00a0could. The guy has that much of an uncanny instinct for music.\u201d\u2028\u2028So Tony Smith is still going strong, whether in person or on the radio.\u2028His Facebook fans eagerly await the new show preview he posts every Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Tony Smith\u2019s top 10 deejayable tunes of all time, in no particular order:<\/p>\n
Girl You Need A Change Of Mind – Eddie Kendricks
\nLove Is the Message – MFSB
\nRelight My Fire – Dan Hartman
\nLove Hangover – Diana Ross
\nDreaming A Dream – Crown Heights Affair
\nDisco Party – The Trammps
\nNative New Yorker – Odyssey
\nLove In C Minor – Cerrone
\nI Feel Love – Donna Summer
\nCherchez La Femme – Dr. Buzzard’s Savannah Band<\/p>\n
Artists of all time:<\/p>\n
Michael Jackson
\nPrince
\nStevie Wonder
\nAretha Franklin
\nElvis
\nMadonna<\/p>\n
Music Producers of all time:
\nQuincy Jones – the best
\nGamble & Huff – Philly sound
\nHolland & Dozier – Motown Sound<\/p>\n