Back To Mine With Lenny Fontana

Lenny Fontana is a true New York house legend who learned his craft from Radio personality DJ Frankie Crocker, the program director of WBLS 107.5 In NYC. Inspired by DJ Larry Levan, Fontana went on to play at Studio 54 in the late 80’s and other NYC Clubs. Through the 1990’s he travelled the world and played at many famous nightclubs globally. NYC called The Hideaway Underground (black light parties). His new single is Stay With Me All Night, a gospel-influenced house track featuring a soaring female lead vocal and electrifying church-choir harmonies.DMCWorld goes Back To Mine with Lenny Fontana.

Roy Ayers – Everybody Loves The Sunshine

This tracks hits a very important part in my life. My first invitation to play on the island of Ibiza was at Pacha. The promoters took me to the famous Sa Trinxha beach and I heard the DJ Jon Sa Trinxha, who I later became friends with, play this, and I saw everyone start dancing. I felt at that moment that this island has the right vibes for what we all do with dance music, and that memory never left me.

Yazz – Situation (Francois K Dub Mix)

When I played at Studio 54 in the later part of 1980s. DJ Francois Kevorkian did an amazing remix of Yazz Situation 12-inch Dub. This laid the foundation of NuWave Music, meeting the electro sound. This became a staple in many sets, and people would lose their minds over it. The new change was here for electronic music.

Afrika Bambatta & Soul Sonic Force – Planet Rock

Talk about a game changer with this record. Here, Hip Hop meets the dancefloor. Big everywhere from NYC Funhouse, to The Paradise Garage and pop radio. Everyone was pop locking when this record came out.

Eddy Grant – Time Warp

One of the tracks that precedes the dance to house music. A banger from start to finish. A real underground track heard in many different DJ sets back then and even now. When you speak about DJ Larry Levan, this is one to his soundtracks at his club Garage.

Visual – The Music Got Me

I believe this is the first house track without any of us truly realizing it at the time. Boyd Jarvis was a genius on the keyboards, and he hooked up with DJ Timmy Regisford on 107.5 WBLS FM NYC. This duo every week did amazing things with playing the DJ set live on the radio and playing live keyboards creating new dubs. Essentially, creating new remixes live on the radio. Just amazing history, and it set the standards for the next decades.

DC Larue – Cathedrals

When disco took off in 1976. I heard this first played at my family’s house, and not realizing anything about club life, it was just really good. It has been sampled for many years and you can hear it in the Bobby Blanco &Mikki Moto 3 AM record which became a huge club banger.

Marshall Jefferson – The House Music Anthem

A classic piano track that became a staple. When I first played it at The Underground NYC to a packed crowd, the minute I dropped the needle, it was an instant hit with my crowd and never stopped playing Curtis Mclaine vocal over my set.

Bobby Konders – The Poem

Deep House Music produced in New York City, at its best. Just roll a joint and kick back and let the music do the talking… one of the hottest songs of the dance movement in the early part of the 1990s.

MFSB – Love Is The Message (Edited By – Danny Krivit)

If there is another song that has tested through time is Love Is The Message. As the drummer of MSFB, Earl Young said, “Love Is The Message Is The Black National Anthem” one of the most sampled and never duplicated. If Music is Art, then this is a true, timeless beauty.

Inner Life  – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

The greatest remake of all time. Originally recorded by Diana Ross on her Studio album 1970, but this version is elevated to a different level with Jocelyn Brown on the lead vocal. Back when this dropped, you would hear it out but only in one place it sounded like thunder, it was Paradise Garage and its mighty of sound systems. Patrick Adams the disco producer was a genius in his own right and this shows in the arrangement and production work.