“A soul night in a punk rock tiki bar? This I gotta see!” a man once remarked to DJ Connie T. Empress, founding member of the Empire State Soul Club (ESSC).
If you feel the same, you should know that the ESSC takes over the back room at Otto’s Shrunken Head in the East Village on the second Saturday of every month, with Empress spinning her 45s along with a changing roster of guest DJs for a room full of happy dancers who are guaranteed to hear more than a few discs that they’ve never heard before.
This past weekend was a one-year anniversary celebration for the current incarnation of the party, but Empress — proudly at the age of 71 — has been at it for a lot longer than that. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years,” she lets us know.
It all started at a long-gone joint called The Dive, a former belly dancing club, where “they would just let anybody up there,” Empress recalls.
“I came up with my little box of records and a black and white TV, and I just sort of fell into it sort of by accident,” she says.
Over the years, she has set up shop in various venues such as the Mudd Club, Tramps, Coney Island High and the North River Bar. There were various names as well: “Get On The Good Foot,” “Soulfinger” and an earlier version of the ESSC that was founded by Empress, Warren Lee, and Jeff (The Chef) Loshinsky. That was a party with a theme song — “Big Bird” by Eddie Floyd — and the whole idea was to get people dancing and smiling. If they were just listening, that was fine, too.
Along with classics from the Stax label, Empress would throw in hard-to-find discs from Cajun Heart, William Bell, Tabby Thomas, Wally Cox (not that Wally Cox!), and the finger-popping northern soul version of “16 Tons’”by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Her embrace of the Stax tracks inspired Steve Greenberg from Atlantic Records to create the “Complete Stax/Volt Singles” box sets, employing Empress as a consultant and even mastering some songs from her 45s in cases where the original masters were missing.
Although Empress took an extended break from NYC, working for the Olympics in Atlanta from 1995 to 2005, she “missed New York terribly” and jumped right back into DJ’ing upon her return.
The current version of the ESSC differs from the original in that the first version featured Empress, Lee and Loshinsky at every gig, with only the occasional guest spinner. The new configuration features Empress and different guest DJs at every gig.
The party on Saturday featured Phast Phreddie Patterson, DJ NoGoodNick (aka Nick Crucé), and Agent Jay, who also happens to play guitar in The Slackers, a long-running reggae band. Each had their own unique mix of the familiar and unknown, which kept Empress busy between dancing and running up to the decks to find out what was playing.
“That’s how I get my steps in!” she laughs.
Liza Kramer took a break from dancing to muse on why she is a fan: “I love dancing on her dance floor because when she’s DJing, I feel like I’m tapping into something that’s really authentically New York. She has a coolness that sets the vibe for the whole experience. This has been a hub for so long, with music bringing us together, and she’s been the center of it all. And I’m lucky to be a part of it.”
“I have to say that there is one thing that we do really well, that the ESSC does really well,” says Empress. “We make people happy.”
Follow Connie T. Empress on Instagram at @connie_t._empress and the Empire State Soul Club at facebook.com/p/The-Empire-State-Soul-Club-NYC-61571286161142.
