Jeff Mills, Lisa Orlando, and more talk about the influential Motor City DJ.
With such a wealth of instrumental figures, some of the most innovative tend to become lost in Detroit’s vast legacy. Duane “In the Mix” Bradley is one of those individuals whose story remains sealed in history. Bradley was essential to shaping early house and techno culture through his work in radio, but his name is not often brought up in the globally accepted narrative of dance music. “In New York, they had Tee Scott and Larry Levan,” says Mike “Agent X” Clark. “In Chicago, they had Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy. In Detroit, we had Ken Collier and Duane Bradley. These were our heroes.”
Bradley left a lasting impact on those who knew the DJ and producer, felt all the way from Detroit to Chicago and beyond. He helped bridge the two cities by introducing originators of Detroit techno to pioneers of Chicago house, such as Jesse Saunders, who writes how Bradley was vital to jumpstarting his career in his autobiography House Music… The Real Story. To help keep his legacy shining bright, Bradley’s friends and coworkers share their memories of the brilliant turntablist and discuss how he brought house music to the masses through airwaves.
A key figure on WJLB for nearly 20 years, Bradley held a lunchtime slot called Midday Cuisine Mix and would often play the Saturday Night House Party. (On Friday and Saturday nights, WJLB aired live broadcasts of house, techno, electro and booty bass from Detroit clubs.) He could also be heard on sister station Mix 92.3. “Duane was the first on-air mixer at WJLB,” says radio personality Lisa “Lisa Lisa” Orlando, who was Promotions and Marketing Director at WJLB at the time. “He was flawless on-air… there were no edits, no drum machines or anything. It was all vinyl and he was live.” James Alexander, who worked alongside Orlando as the station’s Program Director, recalls how precise Bradley’s master mixes were: “He had a natural flow for the structure of a song and that allowed him to mix effortlessly.”
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