Selector: King Tony Shares His Love of Jamaican Music at Simmer Down’s 5 Year Anniversary

Anthony “King Tony” Abbinanti rounds out Simmer Down Sound’s team of resident selectors.  While he is likely best known as the drummer and dub engineer extraordinaire for Chicago’s illustrious dub-outfit, The Drastics, King Tony wears many other hats.

As a dub engineer King Tony spent a couple of years working with Heavyweight Dub in addition to dubbing The Drastics. He is also a proficient producer, composer and studio engineer and runs Dirty North Studios. In addition to drums, King Tony also plays keys and baritone saxophone. He has lent his instrumental talents to Deals Gone Bad, JC Brooks and The Uptown Sound, Akasha, Hepcat and much more.

In 2017 King Tony started the Happy as a Lark record label, which has released The Drastics “Noir” album, accompanied by a dub version. They also have released four 7-inch vinyl singles from the two albums, including: “What A Ting” with rub-a-dub veterans, Michigan and Smiley, and “What The Lick” by Chicago deejay MC Zulu.

King Tony is also a self-proclaimed “amateur musicologist” who has delved deep into the study of Jamaican music.  He explains, “I was a ska kid in the nineties, so I started digging deeper into what this ‘ska’ thing really was and immediately encountered some of the later releases of The Skatalites…That led me to some of the Studio One and Trojan compilations from the 80s which opened up all this great music from 1960s Jamaica.  After getting my hands on more of these compilations I started following Jamaican music chronologically from ska to rocksteady to reggae to roots, etc…knowing how it got from A to Z gives you a deep appreciation of how music and culture evolves.”

As a result of his study, King Tony is also a versatile DJ, selecting vinyl sounds from the soul, reggae, and world genres. King Tony has worked with the Simmer Down Sound crew since we started as a guest selector, dub engineer, and drummer, and recently joined us as a resident selector.  He also has several other residencies in the city, including at the Wild Hare, Logan, Hardware, The Owl, Estereo, Punch House, Five Star Bar and The Broken Shaker. He also is a gifted graphic designer and has lent his talents to the design of many of the posters which have promoted our night over the years.

Clearly a devotee of the arts, King Tony has a particular love of reggae, saying “I think music can be good as a message, for a banner to rally under.  It can be constructive or destructive, distracting or enlightening. Reggae is a music I hold dear; the message, the struggle, the attitude, and the competitive nature all weave together to form a truly authentic and raw music.”  We at Simmer Down are thrilled to be celebrating our fifth anniversary with King Tony, Saturday, May 13th at Subterranean.