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Emperors of the Night

Promoters Martel Toler and Nabiel Musleh's night-life business puts San Francisco on the map By Amanda Nowinski WHAT STARTED as an intimate, invite-only party nine years ago in a small Hunter's Point warehouse has evolved into a veritable club-kid mecca. Every Saturday night, almost 3,000 people converge at Release--San Francisco's longest-running club--where they shake their booties until those godforsaken churchgoing hours. Drive by 1015 Folsom St. at 7 on a Sunday morning and you're sure to find an exodus of pager-sporting partiers who are so worn out that they can barely find their yellow-tinted shades to hide their bloodshot eyes. Call it debaucherous, call it out of control, but you can also call it "highly profitable for the promoters." Hence the office space in Nob Hill, where Release promoters Martel Toler and Nabiel Musleh run an incredibly successful entertainment business. Owners of the hip Japanese restaurant Sushi Groove, as well as the Bacchus Wine and Sake Bar, Martel and Nabiel have wisely reinvested their clubber profits in other flourishing businesses. "We're dedicated to making San Francisco a better place to be, in terms of night-life culture," Nabiel explains. With the assistance of two full-time employees (Karin Cohn and Christine Cavender), Martel and Nabiel, otherwise known as M&N Promotions, also produce three other highly successful clubs: Eye Spy (Friday nights at V/SF), Leopard Lounge (Sundays at Blues) and Seance (Wednesdays at Backflip). But back to Release. If you've ever found yourself in the VIP lounge late at night (where you can gaze down upon the peons on the main floor), you'll understand why people keep coming back: the music is always exceptionally good. "There's incredible talent in San Francisco," Nabiel says. "And we definitely have some of the best." With 11 rotating, world-famous American house DJs, including Marques Wyatt, Doc Martin, Terence Toy, Julius Papp, EFX and Rasta Q-Tip, the bill is consistently impressive. Guests such as Danny Teneglia, Lil' Louie Vega and Dimitri from Paris have also graced the turntables with their top-notch selections. "Release is our pillar," explains Nabiel, whose main task in producing the club is to book the outside DJs. "But there's more to it than just organizing the DJs," Martel says. "We create a chemistry. We have to know the style of each DJ, and that's how we arrange the time slots for them each to play." In addition, the team hires dancers to vibe the crowd in the main room and contracts with JC Didier and Jerry Gonzales of Visual Attack to produce tripped-out film and slide projections throughout the club. "We've been promoting clubs for 12 years," explains Nabiel, who befriended Martel in 1986. "That's how we can survive. We know what we're doing. Release is the biggest club in San Francisco, but it's the teams of people who support us that make it all possible, especially people like Karin and Christine. Plus we always have our ears to the ground--looking for new talents and inspiration. We take this business very, very seriously. I mean, it's hard to keep a seven-year party fresh, so we're constantly pushing the limits." But with 3,000 guests at 12 bucks a pop, hasn't this venture become just another business to them? "We went into promoting because we truly enjoy it. It was based on how much fun we were having. When your goal is to create a great social scene--and you succeed--the bank account and all the rest just follows. You have to do what you love, and we happen to be very lucky and very, very hard-working." The sign of a good club is the amount of regulars a promoter can maintain, and the Release family--with all of its thousands of brothers and sisters--is extremely dedicated. Eye Spy, Seance and Leopard Lounge consist mainly of the extended Release posse (in fact, I recognized a few diners at Sushi Groove from the last time I was at Release). "People follow us," Nabiel says. "We did a Release in Miami and Ibiza last year, and a lot of our people flew out to attend." In addition to the clubs and the restaurants, Martel and Nabiel produce benefits for various AIDS and leukemia associations. And with their unbeatable reputations as powerful night-life organizers, they have also produced parties for the Macy's Passport Show, the grand opening of the Diesel store and the recent Details magazine party, as well as the Bammies' 11th annual Street Block Party. Leaders of the straight San Francisco glamour scene, they are often asked to throw private parties for celebrities, including Rob Schneider, Ronnie Lott and local socialite mogul Harry Denton. "It's true that we're very good at marketing," Martel admits. "But it's not all about the hype--it's about having a really great time." Nabiel agrees: "We're like marketing gurus when it comes to events, but we're serious about putting San Francisco on the map as one of the finest places to be--we want this city to have the finest night-life around" [ San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]