House Music Chicago Testimony

“A Job in the Business” Vick Lavender has never taken the easy road. Born in Louisiana, and raised on Chicago's west side, he came up on dub tapes, Italo, and New Wave records before deep house had a name. DJ, producer, label owner & co-owner of Bridgeport Records, every step has been deliberate and every move a natural progression. He has never been in a rush. He has never been satisfied either. Deep house is not easily understood. Neither is an artist who has spent thirty years crafting music that draws from jazz fusion, world music and R&B, music that calls to ancestral spirit and permeates the soul. A prolific producer with releases on West End Records, Sacred Rhythm Music, Local Talk, Ocha and his own Sophisticado Recordings, championed by the likes of Glenn Underground, Anthony Nicholson, Boo Williams and Ron Trent, while remaining largely unbothered by the spotlight. Today he’s still putting out some of the most beautiful, unhurried music in the game. All of it on vinyl. In this conversation with host Lori Branch, recorded inside Bridgeport Records, Vick talks about the city, people and records that shaped him, the culture of Chicago's segregated club scene, what it means to always have a job inside the business and where he's going next.

Toni Shelton, known throughout Chicago as Disco Tony, has been throwing parties since 1979. As the city's first solo female house music promoter, she's built a legacy that spans over four decades: the flyers with her face on them, the DJ battles, the iconic all-white parties that have brought Chicago's South Side community together for twenty years running. But behind the magnetic presence and the bright red lipstick is a story that starts much harder. Toni lost her mother at seven years old. By seventeen, her grandmother was gone too, leaving her to navigate the world on her own terms. She finished high school. She went to college. She picked up a camera at nine and never put it down. And somehow, in the midst of finding her footing, she created a place where everybody else could feel at home. In this conversation around host Lori Branch's kitchen table, Toni opens up about grief, resilience, and what it really means to be a promoter. Not just booking venues and printing flyers, but mothering a community before she ever had children of her own. Because when you grow up with nowhere to go, you learn how to build the place yourself.

Without Robert Williams, there may be no house music, or at least not as we know it today. As the founder and owner of the legendary Warehouse club, the space where Frankie Knuckles first DJ'd and where a genre was born, Robert is one of the most important figures in the culture's history. And yet his full story, from foster care in Chicago to the backrooms of New York's gay nightlife scene, then back to Chicago becoming politically connected enough to keep his club untouched, is rarely told in its entirety. Host Lori Branch sits down with the man affectionately known as The Senior for a wide ranging, unfiltered conversation about the real history of the Warehouse, the Music Box, Ron Hardy, and why he believes the genre's gay roots have never been told correctly. Produced by Lori Branch and Hannah Viti. Funded by a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Events. Music provided by Craig Loftis, Boo Williams, Vick Lavender, and Steve Ty Maestro.

Before we even called it house music, these people were living it. In Season 1 of House Music Chicago Testimony, host Lori Branch sits down with five legends who were there at the very beginning. Robert Williams, the man who opened the Warehouse and set everything in motion. Craig Loftis, the producer and DJ who was in the booth with Frankie Knuckles and helped shape the sound from the ground up. Toni Shelton, known as Disco Tony, who was sneaking into the Warehouse at 16 and throwing her own parties not long after. Dajae, the voice behind Brighter Days, who almost gave up on singing right before everything changed. And Vick Lavender, deep house artist and co-owner of Bridgeport Records, who has never stopped building something new inside the culture he loves. This is just the tip of the iceberg. House Music Chicago Testimony launches Monday March 30th. Subscribe now so you don't miss episode one. Produced by Lori Branch and Hannah Viti. Funded by a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Events.