Nightclubbing

I recently watched the documentary "Maestro", which tells the story of the legendary New York nightclub Paradise Garage that opened in SoHo in 1976. The Garage was the place where Larry Levan (pictured below) was laying the fundations of DJ Culture, anticipating House, Techno and the vast jungle of genres created by turntablists around the world. According to the film it was him who created the first continuous breakbeats by mixing two copies of the same record. There isn't much footage from the Garage and it’s predecessors like Gallery, Sanctuary or David Mancuso’s Loft, but it's enough to take you back. Paradise Garage was still open when I came to New York for the very first time. Danceteria, Limelight and Area might have been familiar territory coming from Europe, but nothing prepared me for the borderline mass hysteria on the dancefloor of Paradise Garage.

Fellow Paradise Garage veteran Frankie Knuckles created this type of dancefloor ecstasy later at the '86 Tempo party in Munich and at the Music Factory on the Westside. This would be the moment to start complaining about the current state of New York nightlife, with the Daytona Beach style Meatpacking District and all those bland clubs like Lotus, Marquee and Bungalow 8 filled with „Apprentice“ types shilling out $ 300.- for bottle service to impress their anemic dates. On the other hand this seems to be nothing new. Not according to Ms. Gladys Knight, who described the feverish ambitions of New York nightlifers already a quarter century ago in her version of the Ashford & Simpson instrumental "Bourgie Bourgie" (which used to be one of Levan's staple songs at the Garage). I also might be a bit too distracted to find out where the real places are. Although - David Mancuso supposedly throws Loft parties again. That of course would be more than worth the effort.

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Trailer - Maestro

Listen to David Mancuso spinning on Shibuya FM podcasts

An audio fansite for the Paradise Garage