“If disco – and the music which came after – has an angel, it is the raggedy figure of David Mancuso. If it has a birthplace, it is his club, the Loft.” - Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.
Legendary DJs such as Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles, Francois Kervorkian and David Morales cited him as their greatest influence. Without Mr David Mancuso (who died on Monday) and his utopian Loft "club", the whole genre that we now know as "Disco" would have looked very different indeed. His Loft hosted one of the earliest regular "gay dance parties" in New York, at which Mr Mancuso (and his state-of-the art sound system) gave a first outing for many later-to-be-successful artists such as MFSB, Manu Dibango, Nuyorican Soul and Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band to whooping crowds of dancers, and provided a launch-pad from which the multi-coloured, multi-sexual, hedonistic NY club scene would flourish in the 1970s.
There's a whole raft of fascinating dance gems that range across the five-decade history of The Loft (everything from Ian Dury to Harold Melvin to Jah Wobble to the Three Degrees!) in the "Top 100" list compiled by a user called "The Scientist" over at RateYourMusic, and from it, this...
Possibly one of the gayest things you will experience all week - here's Easy Going and Baby I Love You:
Thank Disco it's Friday!
RIP David Mancuso (20th October 1944 – 14th November 2016).
Hope you have a suitably chiffon-clad and sparkly weekend in his honour, dear reader...
Never heard of him. but I do remember discos' where people looked like that, the hair especially.
ReplyDeleteOh and yes we did all have chiffon or silk scarfs' but in pastel colours to match our Sobranie Cocktail cigarettes.
I am sure you did, dear! And I am equally certain that the dancers in the "Easy Going" video would have been the epitome of cool back in 1978, too... Jx
DeleteIf Daft Punk and Air went back in time and had a baby, I think it would be just like Easy Going. Fabulous!
ReplyDelete...with a touch of "The London Boys" thrown into the mix :-)
DeleteJx
Oh, the good old days. I have fond memories of nights at the original location of the Loft.
ReplyDeleteLordy! I bet you have some tales to tell... Jx
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