David Mancuso

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David Paul Mancuso (born October 20, 1944 in Utica (New York) , † November 14, 2016 in New York City ) was a New York DJ . He gained importance as the host of the loft parties he founded, which became the nucleus of the New York disco movement. The Village Voice called him a "Guru of the club underground".

Live and act

childhood

David Mancuso was born out of wedlock. It was the result of a love affair with the Italian-born Catilana Mancuso (called Kathleen), while her husband Karl Hajdasz was serving in the army. Ten days after the birth, the mother gave her child to a children's home run by nuns, where she did not release him until she was five.

The years in the children's home were very formative for David. One of the nuns, Sister Alicia, had set up a party room with a piano, record player, and refrigerator, and used every possible occasion to throw a party with balloons and garlands with the children. As the children in the home were constantly changing, Mancuso experienced an expanded form of family.

youth

At the age of 16, David Mancuso left school, moved into a cheap apartment in New York and earned his living cleaning shoes and washing dishes. A friend from Brooklyn introduced the music lover to Klipschhorn speakers. Mancuso went out a lot and attended Electric Circus from 1967 and Bill Graham's newly opened Fillmore East from 1968 . There he heard Nina Simone , but also a lecture by the LSD advocate Timothy Leary . Mancuso became an avid Leary supporter and attended his lectures and private LSD parties. Soon David Mancuso was organizing his own LSD experiments in his apartment, with a pre-compiled audio tape playing on his high-quality stereo to provide a meditative background . The musical spectrum ranged from classical music to moody blues to jazz and was structured according to the three bardos from Leary's Psychedelic Handbook . In the end, the focus was on dancing.

Loft parties

In order to pay for the expenses for the loft, which he occupied illegally, Mancuso resorted to the concept of the house-rent-party , which has been tried and tested in the Black Community of New York . Visitors to these “house parties” in the real sense paid a small fee and were then able to take part in a semi-public party with music, dance and drinks. On February 14, 1970 , David Mancuso invited his extensive circle of friends to his first loft party, including many from the LGBT scene. The Valentine's Eve had the ambiguous motto Love Saves the Day . The Guardian described the evening as the "first underground dance party in New York".

More parties followed; they were named loft parties after their venue . The special thing about these parties in the loft back then was:

  • There was no bouncer, instead you were invited directly, but paid a fee of $ 2, later up to $ 25.
  • There was no dress code, each invited guest was allowed to wear what he or she wanted.
  • There was no alcohol so as not to conflict with the law; this would have required a serving license. Instead, there were free juices, fruit and LSD.
  • David Mancuso played all titles out of "respect for the artists". That's why he didn't call himself a DJ, but rather a “musical host”, the “musical host” of his house parties.
  • The audience was allowed to request titles from the DJ and could also bring their own records. All guests should feel comfortable.

Mancuso worked with electrical engineers and sound pioneers Alex Rosner and Richard “Dick” Long to achieve the best possible sound . Alex Rosner sold him the Klipschorn corner speakers and also installed four tweeters on the ceiling of the loft. The idea for this came from Mancuso.

meaning

The loft parties with their private feel-good atmosphere and the mixed crowd (gay, lesbian, black, Asian, Latino, etc.) shaped the style of the emerging disco movement in New York. Mancuso made several music titles known because he was the first to play them in front of a larger audience. David Mancuso also financed the first Record Pool, founded in 1974 with Steve D'Aquisto .

Setlist of the loft

Selection discography of the Loft from 1970 to 1973

Discography

  • David Mancuso presents The Loft , Nuphonic 1999.
  • David Mancuso presents The Loft - Volume Two , Nuphonic 2000.

literature

  • Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton: The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries. Grove Press, Black Cat 2011 ISBN 978-0802170897 .
  • Tim Lawrence: Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979. Duke University Press 2004, ISBN 978-0822331988 .

Web links

Obituaries German
Obituaries english

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Barry Walters: David Mancuso's Message of Love In: The Village Voice, November 22, 2016.
  2. ↑ David Mancuso, Whose New York Loft Was a Hub of '70s Night Life, Dies at 72 (obituary) In: The New York Times, November 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ Tim Lawrence: Love Saves the Day , p. 5.
  4. ↑ Tripticon: David Mancuso - Loft Saves the Day of July 29, 2018.
  5. ↑ Tim Lawrence: Love Saves the Day , pp. 6-10.
  6. ↑ David Mancuso, Whose New York Loft Was a Hub of '70s Night Life, Dies at 72 (obituary) In: The New York Times, November 18, 2016.
  7. ↑ Jens Balzer: 50 Years of Disco: Divers, emancipatory and innovative on Deutschlandfunk from February 14, 2020.
  8. ↑ David Mancuso, DJ and dance culture pioneer, dies aged 72 The Guardian of November 15, 2016.
  9. ↑ Alexis Petridis: The legacy of David Mancuso: 'His dancefloor was a kind of egalitarian utopia'
  10. ↑ David Mancuso, Whose New York Loft Was a Hub of '70s Night Life, Dies at 72 (obituary) In: The New York Times, November 18, 2016.
  11. ↑ Barry Walters: David Mancuso's Message of Love In: The Village Voice, November 22, 2016.
  12. ↑ Tim Lawrence: Love Saves the Day , pp. 84-85.
personal data
SURNAME Mancuso, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mancuso, David Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American DJ, host of the loft parties he founded
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Utica (New York)
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 2016
Place of death New York City