Larry Levan
Larry Levan | |
---|---|
music producer[1] |
Lawrence Philpot (July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992),
Early life
Levan was born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, New York, to Minnie (née Levan) and Lawrence Philpot. He has an older brother Isaac and sister Minnie who are biological twins.
He became infatuated with an idea of making the "music that would never stop" during a brief affair[9] with hippie DJ David Mancuso, who introduced Levan to Manhattan's burgeoning underground downtown dance culture.[6][7] Mancuso was the proprietor of The Loft, a minimally decorated, members-only dance club (uniquely situated in his home) where "punch, fruit and candy" were served in lieu of alcohol[8] and music was processed by a state-of-the-art sound system. According to the pseudonymous "Apollo," an acquaintance of Levan and Knuckles, "You could only get into the Loft by private invitation. This was not because Mancuso wanted to create an elitist environment; he intentionally wanted to bring together diverse groups of gays who wouldn't ordinarily party together to create a democratic, integrated venue. David was powerfully attracted to black music and culture as well as men, so this Loft party was instrumental in bringing together wealthy, white gay men, many of them music executives, with this black musical dance culture he adored."[9]
Musical career
Levan got his start alongside
At the height of the disco boom in 1977, Levan was offered a residency at the Paradise Garage. Although owner Michael Brody—who employed Levan at the defunct Reade Street in 1976, where he "developed the techniques as well as the sound – the deep, dark bass, the queasy, dubby emotion that he would extract from records – that would make him a legend"[8]—intended to create a downtown facsimile of Studio 54 catering to an upscale white gay clientele, the new venue initially drew an improbable mix of streetwise blacks, Latinos, and punks after a disastrous opening night alienated the target demographic; according to West End Records founder Mel Cheren, Brody's former companion and a silent partner in the venture, "The sound equipment got stuck in a blizzard at an airport in Louisville, Kentucky. And people were kept outside in 17-degree weather. Some of them never came back... the club didn't really take on the atmosphere that people remember it for until 1980."[11]
Open only to a select membership and housed in an otherwise unadorned building on King Street in Greenwich Village, the club and Levan's DJing slowly entered the mainstream. Influential WBLS DJ/programming director Frankie Crocker often mentioned the club on air and based his playlists around Levan's sets. The Richard Long & Associates Sound system (RLA) of the club included custom-designed "McLaughlin" bass speakers.
Filling the void left by leading DJ/remixer
As the popularity of the Garage soared in the mid-1980s just as many patrons and friends succumbed to
The Garage ended its run with a 48-hour-long party in September 1987,[3] weeks before Brody died from AIDS-related complications. The club's closure and Brody's death devastated Levan, who knew that few club owners would tolerate his quirks and drug dependencies. Although Brody had verbally bequeathed the club's sound and lighting systems to Levan, they were instead left to Brody's mother in his will. This change was reportedly instigated by the late impresario's lover and manager, who reportedly despised Levan.[13]
Despite protestations and pleas to the Brody family from Mel Cheren, the systems remained in storage as their property. Unable to secure a long-term residency after a stay at the short-lived Choice in the East Village alongside DJ/proprietor Richard Vasquez and Joey Llanos, Levan began to sell his valuable records for drug money. Friends like Danny Krivit would buy them back for him out of sympathy.
As the 1990s dawned, Levan was on the brink of a comeback. Dismissed as a relic in New York despite managing occasional appearances at the au courant
Although he was still dependent on heroin, Levan's 1992 tour of Japan garnered gushing accolades in the local press. Encouraged by Cheren, he entered rehab and continued his tentative recording forays. François Kevorkian described Levan's final Japanese sets as nostalgic and inspirational, imbued with an air of bittersweetness and closure.[14]
Later months and death
Levan informed his mother in June 1992 that he had "lived a good life" and was "ready to die". Having been mildly injured on the Japanese tour, he was voluntarily hospitalized at
Personal life
Levan was openly gay. He was previously romantically involved with
Legacy
In September 2004, Levan was inducted into the
Tributes
- Anything Goes! (1994), the second album by dance group 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican.)
- The album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006), by the electronic music duo Matmos, contains a tribute to Levan titled "Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan".
- The 2003 documentary Maestro, directed by Josell Ramos, tells the story of the underground dance music movement and the importance of Larry Levan as one of its key figures.
- In 2019, Corrado Rizza directed and produced a documentary movie titled Larry's Garage about Larry Levan.[17][18][19][20]
- The LCD Soundsystem song "Losing My Edge" (2002) mentions both Levan and the Paradise Garage.[21]
See also
- LGBT people from New York City
References
- ^ a b c d e Genres AllMusic - ((( Larry Levan ))), artists. Retrieved 2011-08-09
- ^ Post-Disco Artists Highlights AllMusic. Retrieved on 2010-01-04
- ^ a b c d e Bidder, Sean (June 1999). House: the Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides Ltd. pp. 202–205.
- ^ "History of Queer Club Spaces in Newark". Rutgers University.
- ^ a b Broughton, Frank; Brewster, Bill. "Larry Levan's Paradise Garage". DJHistory.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
- ^ ISSN 1070-4701.
- ^ a b c Pareles, Jon (Nov 1992). Archives > "Larry Levan, 38; His Tastes Shaped Dance-Club Music." The New York Times Company Retrieved 06-20-2014.
- ^ a b c d e Peter Shapiro (April 22, 2014). "Saturday Mass: Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage". RBMA Daily.
- ^ a b "Living Art Productions - Rave: Articles". livingart.com.
- ISBN 0-8195-6498-2. see p.67
- ^ Group, Vibe Media (November 1, 1993). "Vibe". Vibe Media Group – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Sam Richards (March 28, 2016). "'He was like the Messiah': Larry Levan, the DJ who changed dance music forever". The Guardian.
- ^ Owen, Frank (November 1993). "Paradise Lost". Vibe. p. 66. Retrieved January 12, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 9780802194367. Retrieved January 12, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ Pareles, Jon (November 11, 1992). "Larry Levan, 38; His Tastes Shaped Dance-Club Music". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
- ISBN 9780822385110.
- ^ "5 magazine". June 24, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
- ^ "Electric Mode (UK)". November 29, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
- ^ "Parkett Channel" (in Italian). Retrieved December 7, 2019.
- ^ "New documentary tells story of Larry Levan and Paradise Garage". October 22, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ "I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan". Genius. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
Bibliography
- Brewster, Bill; Broughton, Frank (1999). Last Night a DJ Saved my Life: the History of the Disc Jockey. Headline Book Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7472-6230-6.
- Lawrence, Tim (2004). Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3198-5.
External links
- Larry Levan discography at Discogs
- West End Records – Larry Levan's associated label
- Larrry Levan featured on the free Emancipation podcast (October 2008)
- Larry Levan at SoundCloud
- Legends of the dance floor: A piece of Paradise ("Garage-Gate-Tape") – Larry Levan 1979, full five hour show at BBC Radio 6
- Legends of the dance floor: A piece of Paradise ("Garage-Gate-Tape") – Larry Levan 1979, full five hour show at SoundCloud