ABOUT TONY NEWTON

Some musicians play the hits. Tony Newton made them.

The Detroit-born bassist, composer, keyboardist, and producer began on piano at age 5, then moved through classical woodwinds and sax in school orchestras before switching to electric bass at 14.
Playing blues, jazz, and rock clubs across Detroit, Newton joined the legendary Funk Brothers at 17 — the youngest member ever — laying down bass lines on some of the most important recordings in popular music history for Motown, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Warner Bros., and Atlantic. His studio credits read like a Hall of Fame roll call: Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson (for whom he served as music director), Gladys Knight, and Little Richard.

When jazz and rock merged in the mid-‘70s, Newton was at ground zero. As co-founder of the Tony Williams New Lifetime, he helped architect the jazz-rock fusion genre, composing the now-classic
instrumentals “Snake Oil” and “Red Alert” — tracks Robby Krieger of The Doors has called some of the greatest compositions in any genre. He went on to work with Gary Moore in British rock group G-Force, collaborated with Krieger on his solo album Cinematrix, and performed on Academy Award-winning soundtracks including An Officer and a Gentleman.

In 2024, Newton was inducted into the Hollywood Music Akademia Hall of Fame. He is the creator of the groundbreaking Novaphonic Q’ Sound Harmonic Library, an author of over 20 books including his best-selling autobiography Gold Thunder, and the producer-director of the award-winning docu-musical Mars Quest. In 2025, Newton formed the TNT Power Trio with guitarist Tracey “Spacer-T” Singleton (Fishbone) and drummer Barry Chenault (George Clinton / Rose Royce),
releasing the single “NightKatz”. His mission remains paramount: “Empower Through Music.”