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Herb Kent
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Chicago, Illinois-The Dusties Capitol of the World, where the crowned King of the Dusties holds court. For over four decades Herb Kent's cognac smooth voice has introduced and brought back the R and B, Soul, Doo Wop, Disco, Funk and even Punk favorites of Black Chicago and beyond. To compare "Oldies" to The Dusties is to compare a kitschy '90's Sock Hop where Baby Boomers where poodle skirts and do the twist to a Dusties "steppers set," a club event where the over 30 contingent dressed to the Nines proudly show off their elegant variations of The Bop. I spoke to Mr. Kent while he was Deejaying a Steppers set at The Other Place on 75th and King Drive and interviewed him a few days later.
Roctober(Jake Austen): I suppose you are asked this quite a bit being the authority on the subject...
Herb Kent: I'm not an authority, I've just been around the longest. I still have to look things up.
R: Well, could you define Dusties?
HK: Well, I'd say Dusties are the records that are not available in the store anymore, that bring you back to a certain time. So a Dusty doesn't have to be from the '50s or '60s, for someone like you it might be from the '80s. Incidentally, many people think the '60s were the greatest period for Black music, but they weren't, the '70s were. With the Stax and Philadelphia International labels and all the independents, that was definitely an exciting time for music.
R: And what is the Herb Kent story?
HK: Do you mean what are the dramatic events? There's been so many of them. I go back to '47, '48...
R: Well, how did you become "The Cool Gent"?
HK: Well that's something that keeps following me wherever I go.
R: What's wrong with being The Cool Gent?
HK: Nothings wrong with it. It's just not contemporary. Back in the Œ50s and Œ60s they gave us all rhyming names. But it's not something that's done now. It's not contemporary. Now about dramatic moments, I'd say one of the most exciting was when I first saw a compact disc machine playing. I remember working with 16" transcriptions on a big turntable. I worked with 12" LPs, 10" LPs, 7" EPs, wire recordings, tapes. I mostly work from disc now, you saw that the other night (at The Other Place).
R: Isn't it hard to find some of the stuff you play on disc?
HK: Yes it is. You have to collect it. It's like an elusive pot of gold. You just have to keep collecting and finding.
R: Can you tell me about your "Punk Out" show?
HK: That was one of the most dramatic periods for me. It was as hot as any show I ever had, partly because it was on FM (WXFM). I was at a club and they were playing Devo, "Whip It", and the Black teenagers there were jumping up and down. So I tried it on my two hour show and it turned out to be one of my hottest shows.
R: What else would you play?
HK: Devo, Depeech Mode, B-52's, what was that , "Turning Japanese", Pat Benatar, I was crazy about Pat Benatar. Basically White stuff. There was one Black group, the Waiters or..
R: The Busboys.
HK: Yes. They're still around, I saw a disc by them in the store recently. I remember one time I was invited to Hanover Park to do a show. When we got there there were hundreds of kids, Black and white and Latino...
R: What were the percentages?
HK: It was a little bigger Black. There were certain records they liked. Punk Funk. They were not really into the real Punk- Concrete Shoes- the rainbow hair and combat boots. Those people, the real Punks, are still around. It was wild. I was an awesome thing to be reckoned with for those two hours. The other stations were worried, that's why WGCI hired me away. That was the end of the Punk Out show.
R: I heard you saying something to the Ohio Players about the first heavy bass record, "Roller Skate" something...
HK: That wasn't the Ohio Players, it was "Bounce Roller Skate" by Van Mason. It had more bass in it than any record at the time. They had to de-emphasize the bass in the speakers at the clubs to play it, we're talking '79, and they couldn't take that kind of bass, it ruptured speakers. I don't know how they did it, but it was awesome, folks loved it. The Ohio Players, of course, had that kind of bass. They came here because Chicago was one of the headquarters for stuff like that, you know, "Fire," that bottom line. Paragon Studios on Lasalle, that's where they recorded that sound. You can look at the records. They may have mixed it somewhere else, but that's where they recorded it.
R: Speaking of Chicago, what makes it the musical town it is? What separates our aesthetic from like, LA or New York.
HK: That's a good question. Chicago has the Hand Me Down thing. Generation passes down the music to generation. You can find 15 year olds who know all about Marvin Gaye. Chicago also knows what they like when they hear it. They can make or break a record. In the '60s and '70s they would advance records to me to play in Chicago to see if they'd go over. I could name the records I single handedly broke out.
R: Name 'em.
HK: "The Girl's Alright With Me", the Temptations. Smokey Robinson, "Tracks of My Tears" Even "Watusi" by the Vibrations.
R: Why are you the crowned King of the Dusties?
HK: 'Cause I'm so damn old. I'm the only one alive, practically, who spun "Night Train" by Jimmy Forest or even "Chances Are" by Johnny Mathis. I've been going since '47, '48 to '93 with no sign of slowing down.
R:And you coined the term "Dusties" ?
HK: Oh quite definitely. 1953. I would play stuff from '49 and up and it would be the Dusties. You couldn't go back 25 years then. You'd have been playing "Blackbottom". Now you can go way back. Were now into the '90s. The '80s are Dusties.