by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Let’s call Toronto’s John Kong a slasher. After all, he has to be introduced with a batch of slashes—DJ/promoter/producer/selector/label head (after he gets home from his day job). He’s one of Canada’s prime proponents of broken beat, neo-bossa, future jazz, high-grade funk and downtempo, as evidenced by the two fine comps on his new label Do Right! Music, the great Keb Darge’s Funk for the 21st Century and his own On the Right Track. And did I mention that the tune “Yesterday’s Beginnings” he produced with T.O.’s celebrated Moonstarr has been snagging important ears across the pond? Let him snag yours when he hits the Goods this weekend—it’s the right thing to do.

Mirror: Let’s start with your ’95 trip to London, which exposed you to nights like Hi-Hat and Messin’ Around. Those seem to me very much the blueprint for what you’re doing with your nights and with the Do Right! label.

John Kong: That was an eye opener—it totally changed my style as a DJ! I remembered going to the Deep Funk opening night at Madame Jo Jo’s (and it’s still running over there), listening and meeting Keb Darge for the first time. I was speechless. He still leaves me speechless.

M: On to the Movement collective, of which you are a part. How did that start, who’s involved, and what’s the current status?

JK: You got five vinyl junkies that just wanna play jazz and funk records, with a bit of house and drum & bass, at clubs. We were tired of being stuck at lounges where people just wanna sip their martinis! So what do you do? You start a collective and start throwing your own parties. We are on our fifth year and still going strong. In the past three years we’ve been bringing monthly guest DJs from aboard—Rainer Truby, Egon and Jazzanova, to name a few. In the future, we still want to bring in all these quality acts, but we want to put the focus back to us again. We had so much fun fighting for our turn to play at the DJ booth. We’re still holding it down at Roxy Blu in Toronto, the last Friday of every month.

M: What was the idea behind the Do Right! nights?

JK: Do Right! focus on the live side of things. As much as you want to push the music you like by playing it out, you also need to bring in these musicians to do live shows and get your point across. When a band like Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings do their thing on the stage, they don’t just perform, they make sure you have a good time. No doubt, they have helped spreading that funk message immensely!

M: Why did you choose to expand Do Right! from a club night to a record label?

JK: I’ve been wanting to start a record label for a while now. There’s all this good music out there you don’t get to hear unless you are a DJ or visit record shops daily. So I teamed up with my business partner Kevin Gonsalves to start up Do Right! Music, providing an outlet for a growing audience of good music lovers, to make this so-called underground music more accessible. :

With Andy Williams and Scott C at the
Goods at la Sala Rossa on Saturday,
Jan. 18, 10pm, $10

>> Music Listings