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Larry Levan & The Paradise Garage According to the DJs: Danny Tenaglia No club is ever going to come close because, for everybody involved, that room was their passion. From Larry to the person that owned it to security. And the sound system was so professionally maintained. On a weekly basis he would check every speaker with audio gear, alter speakers that were wobbling or move them an inch if it was necessary. I have so many great memories of that place. It’s been a major influence on me and my career.
He was wild. There was no holding him back. There as no norm for Larry at the Garage. It was his home and he didn’t follow no book. The freedom he had and the non-chalance he had up there sometimes made 2,000 people come together as one. He made them feel like they were at a house party. And I never saw to this day a DJ do that. Ever.
It’s amazing now when I think about it. Things could have been so different. Just before I went to work at the Warehouse, these people from Chicago came looking for Larry to move there and for them. Larry, however, had no intention of doing that. He’d just moved to Soho and anyway he was a true diehard New Yorker. Larry was one of those people that refused to move. And after he refused, they asked me.
He kinda lived up to being Larry Levan, d’you know what I mean? He lived up to the legend. Whether it was to do with drugs, music, DJ-ing, or whatever. He was quite full-on in a lot of ways and passionate about stuff. The actual control of the sound was a great thing for him because it wasn’t like he was a great mixer particularly but the records came on in the right order. And the way that he would just use the volume knob, for instance, to accentuate certain parts of the song or lyrics or whatever was incredible. Working the record using the volume, bass, mild and treble. He was a master at that for sure.
Larry himself was a wizard when it came to DJ-ing and I don’t think many DJs today understand his philosophy. Everyone is still with the pretty mixes, making sure that it’s all onbeat but they don’t have a clue what it takes to present their music to a crowd. And he’s the only guy that’d be able to teach them. He was the best. The man of the turntables. Like the Miles David of the trumpet, the Jimi Hendrix of the guitar or the John Coltrane of the sax. Larry
Levan
One of the first DJs-as-artists, Francis Grosso, invents slip-cueing (holding one record on a slip-mat then cutting across at the right point). ‘Underground’ clubs with the DJ as the focal point appear. David Mancuso opens The Loft, one of the most Influential. Nicky Siano’s Gallery is another. Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan hang out together at both places.
The resident DJ at the Continental Baths walks out and the owner tells light-man Larry Levan that he’s got six hours to find a record collection. Levan becomes resident. The nightclub soundtrack of Motown and Soul gives way to Gamble and the Huff’s Philly sound. MFSB release, ‘Love Is The Message’ typifies gay clubbing in NYC.
Larry Levan outgrows the Continental Baths and Richard Long employs him at The Soho Place. He soon packs it out.
Dave Mancuso starts the first ever record pool (a means for record companies to distribute promos to DJs). Promo 12 Inches appear with Calhoun’s ‘Dance Dance Dance’ rumored the first.
Salsoul release the first commercially-available 12 inch. Walter gibbons takes double Exposure’s Ten Percent’ and works it into an 11 minute disco extravaganza. Repetitive beats and club music as we know it are born. Francois Kevorkian arrives in New York from France. He is hired as Gibbons’ percussionist at Galaxy 21.
In January, Levan, Michael Brody and Mel Cheren, the co-owner of West End Records, open the Paradise Garage. It’s a disaster. The sound system gets stuck in a blizzard and people wait outside in the freezing cold.
Everyone and their mother has made a disco record. Levan performs his first remix. It’s a disco-novelty record by Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster called ‘C Is For Cookie’.
Disco continues to be a powerful underground force. Levan remixes Taana Gardner’s ‘Heartbeat’. It sells 100,000 copies in New York in one week. Dance music expands to include the new sound of rap as the Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rappers Delight’ sells 200,000.
The use of electronics rises. Levan and Kevorkian add it to their mix while Arthur Baker drops ‘Planet Rock’. Electro arrives. Peech Boys release the definitive Garage record ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’.
Levan makes the move from remixing to production when the NYC Peech boys release the ‘Life Is Something Special’ LP.
Manuel Goettsching releases the proto-techno masterpiece of ‘E2-E4’. Another Garage classic.
The 110bpm original instrumental of ‘Mysteries of Love’ by Mr. Fingers becomes an anthem at the Garage after Levan gets hold of it on acetate.
The badass jacking sound of Chicago filters through to New York. Records like Mr. Fingers’ ‘Washing Machine’ and “Can You Feel It’ are massive at the Garage.
The Paradise Garage closes on September 26th. Michael Brody, the co-owner, is very ill with AIDS.
Levan fails to find another club to call home in Manhattan. He gets sacked from the World nightclub in the East Village after playing ‘ABC’ by the Jackson 5 three times in a row to an entirely disinterested floor.
Levans is contacted by the Ministry of Sound to help set up their sound system. After the club opens he plays both there and at Harvey’s Moist night.
After his Harmony tour of Japan on November 8th, Levan dies of a heart condition.
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