David Mancuso

For the ones who get it done.

On Valentine's Day in 1970, a young DJ named David Mancuso decided to host a private party at his loft in downtown Manhattan.

Just to be clear, he wasn't setting out to start a global musical revolution, right?

Not at all.

And how many dishes can we juggle? And that's what I find with this young lady.

When I met her, she was in the middle of helping a very famous DJ, first-generation DJ named David Mancuso.

She was helping him with his parties at The Loft.

She was also presenting a show on WNYE, which I went on as a guest and was interviewed and did a live DJ set when she was in New York presenting in those days.

And I went and I had a really great time.

And I don't know who was DJing, but I later found out it was the Choice Party.

But they were renting the space from David Mancuso, who I would get to know like two years later.

So it was really my friend Adam Goldstone, who was a friend of mine from NYU, who only did one year and then dropped out because he went out every night.

Really

... shout out to David Mancuso.

That's right.

That's why I thought it was like, is this like a reunion-

You know, it's very much the Mel Sharon Paradise Garage model with Larry Levan.

Or The Loft with David Mancuso.

It all centers around the sound source.

And that sound source being evenly dispersed and creatively enhanced with lighting and other accoutrements, atmosphere, but it all comes back to the core.

Got into there, got to number 17.

Looking at the Loft Top 100 for the Bill Brewster book, that's compiled by David Mancuso, DJ Cosmo.

First of two tunes in this list that were also in the Loft list.

First of four tunes that were in the Gallery Top 50 that Nicky Ciano put together.

I mean, Danny Krivit was the one that brought it very much into the UK's radar with his legendary edit, getting right to the meat of the track.

I mean, a true disco symphony.

I remember listening to David Mancuso play, I think it'd be the Tom Moulton version.

It had the three degrees in it.

And I think today, when we talk about spiritual jazz as a contemporary form, a lot of the time, especially if you're talking about British artists, like people on the Gondwana label, you're talking about people whose very explicit key musical reference point is still Alice Coltrane.

i think that's it and that is interesting it's obviously it's interesting in terms of the kind of gender policy it's interesting in terms of the fact that you know there's a real desire to make sure that women aren't occluded from musical histories you know i first got really interested in jazz in the late 80s when i was a teenager and at that time alice coltrane was still really regarded as a bit of a footnote the the one like woman kind of band leader who was considered important from the early 70s was Carla Bley but of course you know it's all it's it's interesting to reflect as well that the the love is the message is patron saint kind of David Mancuso like was a big always a big fan about the

sport I don't I sometimes find listening to her is quite is quite is like more difficult than listening to a lot of spiritual jazz like you think it's going to be more spirit it's kind of leans more towards free jazz a lot of the time than The spiritual side.

But maybe I'm ignorant on this.

definitely I

think one that always stands out for me is Colleen Cosmo Murphy yes because she's just an icon and it was also interesting to interview someone who's been in the game for a while and who's just got so many stories because a lot of the artists that I get on are rising stars or up and coming so it's great to hear someone who's more established in their career and just has such amazing stories of you know back in New York the loft parties with David Mancuso it's just iconic so to actually pull apart all of that and get to know her and her experience and her stories and also just like what she's done for women in the industry is so inspiring to me so I think that is always such a standout for me and yeah really in-depth chat which was great but literally every week I love who I get on I only ask people that I genuinely am so like intrigued by and want to know more about them and their music and their art so every single week I try and get on someone that I just really admire like today I had Liv East who's an amazing uh singer-songwriter really really soulful sounds and Max Snell who you mentioned who's playing my party tomorrow.

He's one of my favorite producers.

And yeah, I've just got to know people that I've

What does the New York ethos actually mean when we're talking about the structure of a DJ set or an album?

When The Source discusses the New York ethos, it's pointing to a very specific historical club culture, specifically the legacy of clubs like the Paradise Garage and DJs like Larry Levan or David Mancuso.

Legends.

Total legends.