LEGENDS OF THE DANCEFLOOR
'A PIECE OF PARADISE' Part 1.

Out of the darkness of a broken USA in the early 70's there's a light, a new heartbeat, created in Philadelphia by drummer Earl Young of The Trammps, that starts to reverberate with the DJ's playing in the five New York borough clubs which will turn the lights on, seduce the world into a soulfully sexy, funky, grooving, loving mass of human happiness. Disco Music is born and becomes a giant sweeping around the world. 

The pinnacle of the era in the media was the infamous Studio 54 in Upper Manhattan but the real fire came from a club called the Paradise Garage, situated on the aptly named King Street in a Soho neighbourhood. 

Based in a huge parking lot of a building turned into a club for over 3'000 dancers with the world's greatest club sound system, an owner creating a dream of unifying people with dance music and a DJ gifted with an intuitive grasp on the sense of love in the songs he played through the loudest collection of speakers known that could turn his dance floor fanatics, gay, straight, black, white, hispanic, asian, male and female, into a collective loving mush, like a hypnotist working the congregation from the pulpit of the church.

The first interview in the YouTube feature below is Michael Linder, a then young news reporter in Manhattan pre 1975, who went on to create the hit TV show 'America's Most Wanted', gives the gritty view of life in a New York City bruised to the bone after the multi-$Billion decade long US war in Vietnam, the Stonewall Riots, the Hard Hat Riots, with the city on the verge of bankruptcy. Crime and violence rule the subway from 42nd Street to downtown Wall Street. Totally enthralling.

Music Beds

The Warriors Theme

Miroslav Vitous - New York City

Vince Aletti, an American music journalist and photography critic who was the first person to write about disco music in a weekly publication with a column called Disco File in the Record World magazine, also instrumental in the world's first ever record pool, the New York Record Pool with DJ David Mancuso from Mancuso's home club christened The Loft by its devotees. Aletti's five years of writing for Record World, from 1974 to '78, about the emerging new music in NYC is documented in his recently released book The Disco Files. Vince tells of his time in NYC as a young aspiring writer in those incredible days.

Music Beds

Booker T And The MGs - Melting Pot

Nicky Siano, Brooklyn born DJ, inspired by Mancuso's Loft creation starts his own legendary club The Gallery in 1972. Nicky is one of the founding fathers of DJ's blending music, reputed to be the first DJ to use three turntables in order to keep the sequence of the music flowing into a Nicky tapestry of sound, inspiring the inquisitive Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles. Much of what Larry learnt from Nicky at The Gallery was put to use on the bigger, grander stage of The Paradise Garage going on to shape dance music around the world. Siano was one of the first DJ's to play at Studio 54, the infamously 'only for the beautiful' nightclub in Manhattan but it was The Gallery that Nicky will always be remembered for and he gives his views on running those Manhattan streets in pre and post Gallery nights and how he was one of the first dance DJ's to 'break' a record. Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme" from being discarded by the major Record Company to hitting the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

Music Beds

Billy Paul - War of the Gods

War - The World is A Ghetto

MFSB - Love Is The Message

Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need A change of Mind

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - The Love I lost

Loleatta Holloway - Hit and Run

Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's Theme

Manu Dubango - Soul Makossa

Barabas - Woman

John Davis Orchestra - Up Jumped The Devil

Odyssey - Native New Yorker

Judy Weinstein - If anybody can lay claim to being the Queen of dance music then Judy is head and shoulders above all with her experience covering so much as one of the first Loft devotees, secretary at New York Record Pool and then founder and owner of For The Record, managing DJ Larry Levan, organizing weekly live acts to perform at the Paradise Garage in the 70's to managing Grammy winning DJ's Frankie Knuckles and David Morales plus Satoshie Tomie still to this day. Judy gives us a quick JW view from her office in Manhattan.

Music Beds

Diana Ross - Love Hangover

Rare Pleasure - Let Me Down Easy

Brenda and The Tabulations - Lets Go All the Way Down

Tom Moulton - If there were such things as Knighthoods for services to dance music Moulton would knighted for the changes he caused with his work. Aside from mixing some of the biggest dance records ever made like MFSB's "Love Is The Message" The Trammps "Disco Inferno" First Choice's "Doctor Love" plus many many more, Tom was also the originator of the 12" single disc, he was the first dance music writer for Billboard magazine in the US and to this day is worshipped by music fans all over the world for the happy music he helped to shape into joy. Tom's interview from the park outside his Upper Manhattan apartment reveals his memory to be lucid and his character to be one of spontaneous, mischievous laughter.

Music Beds

Trammps - Toms Song

Jakki - You Are A Star

Gladys Knight - Make This A Happy Home

Eddie Kendricks - Date With The Rain

Carstairs - It Really Hurts Me Girl

Don Downing - Dream World

BT Express - Do It Any Way You Wanna

The Trammps - Disco Inferno

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you guys did a MASSIVE job...
-rob boskampViciousAwesome!Digital Phuturegreat radio doc guys 10/10Shaunee Lever (Trick Babies)brilliantMartin MetcalfYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Lee GardenerYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Leigh The FlavaYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Urban Dance InstitutionFANTASTIC! CONGRATS!!!Traxx FM SwitzerlandYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.CubanitoGreat Show!Lady Duracell (Queen of Funk) / PushFM Yes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Mike London, Rhythmic Label Groupgreat interviewSteve Parryyes, yes and thrice yesAdaptor Recordings REALLY AMAZING!Ingela/Radio EskilstunaI can only say WOW!dj lincolnYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Deko-ze/Hi-Bias Records/Guvernment NightclubYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Thomas Herbreally dig this! great history dance music and interessting interviews here! thanks for this.....love from the compost camp!Ant Nichols very good and educational packageMystic VybesYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.SterlingYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.bobby speedthe whole week was excellentAntony AngellYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Silky JacK / zenfm.be Yes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.The Brother CYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Sucasa BeatsYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Chris PaulYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Soundmen on waxGOOD!James BlondYes I will definitely play and support this release on my shows.Umberto GianniniTruly inspirational..