David Mancuso, Iconic DJ and Loft Founder, Dead at 72
David Mancuso, the pioneering DJ who founded the iconic New York party the Loft, has died, Billboard reports. He was 72. The cause of death is unknown.
The Loft began in 1970 as a private, underground party in New York. Mancuso’s Loft was also the harbinger of similar club nights from other DJs (by Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles, and more). In 1999 and 2000, Mancuso released two The Loft compilations featuring music famously featured at those parties. The Loft has continued in recent years.
Mancuso’s other major contribution to DJ culture was that he helped start the record pool system. Labels and artists would drop off several copies of new releases at a central location, and the music would be distributed to influential DJs for club play.
Earlier this year, Mancuso discussed how his parties brought people together in a rare interview:
People just want to have a good time. They want to feel safe and have a good time. That’s always rule number one for a place, to be safe. … Don’t forget, you had the civil rights movement going on, you had gay liberation going on. You had all these movements going on. All this music that was coming from all different directions, it was all over the place. As long as you had a neutral place where people could come and just enjoy themselves, there was such incredibly good music.
Read “A Night at the Loft, the Dance Party That Spawned All Other Dance Parties.”
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