Although far from a household name, Tom Moulton is one of the most important individuals in the development of contemporary Dance music. His attention to club audiences and their reaction to the music being played helped result in key innovations such as the extended Dance mix, Disco breaks, and the 12-inch single. Although his approach to mixing is significantly different from some of the key mixers of today, Tom Moulton remains in demand for his ability to extend and/or clean up a mix while retaining the integrity of the original recording.
Tom Moulton was born in 1940 and dreamed of being a disc jockey at a young age. When the Payola scandals of the late 1950's hit and rock 'n roll pioneer Alan Freed's involvement was exposed, Moulton was crushed. Instead of becoming a disc jockey, he began to work in record stores and eventually landed a job as a record label promoter. He eventually became disillusioned with the corporate aspects of this work as well and moved on to capitalize on his own looks with success as a model. In the early 1970's a weekend trip to New York's Fire Island was a revelatory experience. Moulton was impressed with the spectacle of crowds of white people dancing to music created by black people. His love for the world of music was an irresistible pull and he soon found himself back in the industry.
In the early 70's club disc jockeys played 45rpm singles almost exclusively. Most songs were approximately 3 minutes and the DJ spent a lot of time simply moving from one record to another. Tom Moulton thought most people were not really finished dancing to one song before the next one had begun. He took on as a personal project putting together a tape that would move more seamlessly between songs and build a particular feeling with a natural peak of excitement in the music for the dancers. According to Moulton, he spent 80 hours putting together one 45-minute tape. The first club he took it to on Fire Island was less than impressed, but after a chance acquaintance took the tape to the legendary Sandpiper club and audiences were in awe, Tom Moulton was on his way back into the music business.
Through his past record industry connections with Scepter Records executive Florence Greenberg, Moulton was given the opportunity to mix the record Do It 'Til You're Satisfied by B.T. Express in 1974. He extended the original 3 minute recording of the song to nearly 6 minutes and it became a smash hit, peaking at #2 on the Pop chart. After working with producer Meco Monardo on a Don Downing recording, Tom Moulton was brought in to help out with Gloria Gaynor's first album, Never Can Say Goodbye. Moulton suggested creating a medley in which each song would segue into the next for the entire first side of the album. He also believed that recording approximately one minute of vocals followed by an extended breakdown of the instrumental backing into its component parts and then building them back together would be popular with dancers. To him, dancers imagining the vocals with the powerful beats and instrumental components would be just as powerful as the actual vocals. Gloria Gaynor was skeptical due to the amount of time without her vocals, but the final result was a Disco classic, an 18-minute medley that ignited dance floors across the country.
The music industry quickly took notice and Tom Moulton was in demand as a mixer for a wide range of Pop music recordings. Billboard magazine hired him to write Disco Mix, the first music trade paper Disco column in 1974. Moulton was also involved with one of the next major innovations that would propel the development of Disco music forward. According to Tom Moulton, he and engineer Jose Rodriguez stumbled upon the value of spreading out grooves on a larger record when they ran out of 7-inch acetates for I'll Be Holding On by Al Downing and used 10-inch acetates instead. Other stories exist, but it is clear Tom Moulton was among the first to see the revolution a wider groove could create in the club. The wider grooves allowed the recordings to expand beyond the middle sound range and reproduce deeper bass and more realistic highs. Walter Gibbons' 10 minute expansion of Double Exposure's Ten Percent became the first commercially released 12-inch single in 1976.
The phrase A Tom Moulton Mix became a universally respected symbol of mixing quality for the peak years of disco in the late 70's. Tom Moulton mixed such massive hits as the Trammps Disco Inferno, MFSB's Love Is the Message, Andrea True Connection's More More More, First Choice's Doctor Love, and Loleatta Holloway's Love Sensation. He has also done some production work, most notably Grace Jones first album Portfolio, and recorded himself as TJM. While he has not again reached the same prominence as he did in the late 70's Disco world, Tom Moulton has continued to utilize his mixing skills. He disagrees with the approach of many Dance remixers today. He believes they are actually re-producing since they often strip out much of the instrumental track from the original recording and create their own. Moulton's approach has always been one of using the components of the original recording to stretch and expand the listening experience while remaining true to the original musicians and vocalists. Among Tom Moulton's most recent projects include the remastering work on 1995's Paradise Garage compilation of classic mixes by the legendary Larry Levan and Moulton's involvement with the rebirth of classic disco label West End Records.