“Henry Street Grooves” (By Various Artists) | Coming March 21st, 2011

Back at the tail end of the last millennium BBE released a comprehensive
over view of house music in the latter stages of the 20th century.
‘Henry Street Music: The Story So Far – 1993 To 1999’ was a slice of
superior contemporary club classics featuring all of the key players,
architects and music makers of the day. Todd Terry, Armand Van Helden,
Kenny Dope, DJ Sneak, 95 North, Robbie Rivera, Davidson Ospina, Ralphi
Rosario, Mike Delgado, King Britt, and a handful of others under various
alter egos and nom de plumes. It was a given that they were all great
records, what was all the more impressive was that they all originated
from the same recording home, Henry Street Music. A label conceived and
devised by Johnny DeMairo, an Italian-American from Brooklyn who talked
the talk, could easily have been an extra in The Soprano’s, and was
known affectionately as “The Shark”. To others he was just plain Johnny
“D”, and one half of the pro! duction duo JohNick with studio partner
Nicky “P” Palermo Jr.

By day DeMairo was Senior Director
A&R for Atlantic Records. He was the man that paired Todd Terry with
Everything But The Girl and transformed ‘Missing’ into a chart topping
hit; he helped convert an underground house producer named Armand Van
Helden into the hottest property via a remix for Tori Amos; and signed a
a sample track from Kenny Dope who took a non-hit from one the biggest
groups in pop history to create a record that was literally ‘The Bomb!’

Johnny D started Henry Street back in 1993, with fellow New York
producer Tommy Musto. “He and I left Sound Factory Bar on a Wednesday
night when Louie Vega used to play and we discussed it,” he reflects.
“The reason behind it was very simple: I felt the competing labels at
the time were hitting a wall as far as creativity, and there were no
classics being made. The music to me was ! becoming very disposable. My
thoughts were, if I take a record! that is 20years old and make it hot,
I’d get 20 more years out of it. I knew disco better than most and
thought I could use that knowledge to make old records and grooves new
again.”

Henry Street Music, taking its name from the street
that intersected President & Hicks in DeMairo’s Brooklyn
neighbourhood, debuted in the spring of 1994 with ‘Whew’ by Kenny Dope
Presents The Bucketheads… there’s that word again! “Kenny who is, and
was one of my closest friends at the time, agreed to give me my first
record to help launch the label and put it on the map. In essence it
made us an immediate player.”

It worked. By release number
four, ‘The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)’ also by the
Bucketheads, the label had become an international player with a single
built around one of the longest introductions since ‘Relight Light My
Fire’, and elements from Chicago’s ‘S! treet Player’.

Even though a
lot of people buying and listening to this compilation are going to be
very familiar with nearly all the artists, and many of the releases put
out on the label, but most of these tracks are going to be very new to
people who will be hearing these for the first time.