Check
out these kickin' tracks:
A
great interview with Danny Krivit (worth checking out, it's a
mini history lesson)
Biography:
Growing up in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the 1960s, Danny
was surrounded by music. His mother was an accomplished jazz singer
and his father was the manager of legendary jazz trumpeter Chet
Baker before going on to open up The Ninth Circle, a
Village hot spot, where Danny worked as a boy. It was here that
Danny met some of the most influential people in the music scene;
Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Mingus, John Lennon & Yoko
Ono, amongst others. His home was also a hotbed of musical inspiration,
with The Mothers of Invention living down the hall, and Sid Bernstein
(Manager of The Rascals) living upstairs, the rascals would regularly
pop down to the Krivit household to practice their future hits on
the piano. At school, a close friend and classmate was the son of
Creed Taylor, the production genius behind many artists who recorded
on the VERVE, C.T.I. & KUDA labels, and another close friend
was the legendary soul guru Nile Rogers.
By 1970, Danny
was already a vinyl junkie & an amateur DJ, But DJ'ing as
a profession wasn't fully realized until 1971, after another neighbor/friend
of Dannys (Vice President of Polydor Records) introduced
Danny to one of his artists - none other than the legendary James
Brown, who gave Danny white-label promo copies of his Get
on the Good foot and Think by Lynn Collins.
Soon after, Danny started Djing for The Ninth Circle
which by now had been transformed into a disco. In 1975, Dannys
father opened his second club called Ones; Danny was
their sole DJ through 1977. Dannys sets were a big success
and from this he started promoting and Djing at his own after-hours
club down the street. At this stage, Danny was becoming part of
the underground scene, club-hopped a lot, meeting some of the
greatest DJ names of the time. These included Nicky Siano (of
the Gallery), Walter Gibbons (of Galaxy 21), Tee Scott (of Better
Days), David Rodriguez (of The Limelight), Richie Kaczar (Club
Hollywood), and Bobby DJ (of Le Jardin) amongst others. Although
all outstanding names, one DJ and club stood out amongst the rest:
DJ David Mancuso and The Loft.
The Loft (A
musical center and Mecca for DJs) was a unique place and home
of the original DJ Record Pool. This is where Danny
began his long time friendships with DJs Larry Levan and Francois
Kevorkian (Francois K). In 1977 when Danny started Djing at Trude
Hellers, he also had become an avid roller skater, and with
his girlfriend (Daphne Rubin Vega) would regularly skate over
to the Paradise Garage, where Larry would let them skate around
the club while he would check out some of the new records that
week on the sound system. The Garage remained Dannys main
stomping ground until it closed in 1987.
Dannys
list of DJ residencies steadily grew throughout the 70s and in
1979, after Djing at the opening of the Roxy; he became their
resident DJ for the next 4 years. In the early 80s the Roxy was
the home of some of the best Hip hop DJs of the day like D.S.T,
Grand master Flash, and Africa Bambaata. Since Danny was one of
the few white boys who could scratch mix, he became known as Danny
Rock. Throughout the 80s his list of clubs he played at exploded
& very often playing 6 & 7 nights a week, which included
places like, Area, Dancateria, The Ice Palace, Laces, The Limelite,
Red Zone, Save The Robots, Studio 54(Virgin Islands), Tracks,
The Tunnel, The World, and many, many others. Even a guest spot
at the legendary Paradise Garage.
Since the
late 70s trade magazines such as Billboard (which he still reports
to weekly), Cash Box, Record World, & Dance Music Report amongst
others, have listed Dannys play lists and Dannys mix
tapes have been getting airplay on radio station WBLS, WKTU, &
KISS FM.
The 80s
saw the beginning of Dannys studio work. He worked on tracks
featuring legends such as, James Brown on Soul Power,
The Funky Drummer, Give it up and Turn it loose,
Ecstasy, Passion & Pain on Touch and Go, Brenda
and the Tabulations Lets Go All the Way, Gloria
Gaynor on Casanova Brown, and what is probably THE quintessential
version of MFSBs classic "Love Is The Message".
Moving into the 90s, Danny commanded legendary status amongst
young and old as well as continuing to forge new paths in dance
music into the millennium. He inherited the Ninth Circle from
his father and continued to DJ at clubs such as Mars, Tracks,
The Choice, Palladium, Shelter, Sound Factory Bar, Twilo, The
Warehouse, & The Loft.
At it's inception in 1996, Danny joined the Body and Soul team,
Francois K and Joe Claussell, at club Vinyl and regularly played
every Sunday for it's entire run, while also regularly Djing in
various clubs in New York & Japan & everywhere in-between,
Body & Soul has been enjoying special events in Brazil, Portugal
& Italy, & sensational annual events in Japan, & occasionally
back in NYC where July 2006 celebrated its 10th anniversary.
While B&S is still seeking a home for its weekly event,
for the past 4 years, Danny has been enjoying a similar success
on his own, as resident DJ of the award winning Best Party
In NYC, THE 718 SESSIONS" @ club Deep in Manhattan,
where hes not just the DJ, but in charge of every creative
aspect of the party, from its lighting to its graphic
designing of the flyers & merchandise. And in-between this
& traveling, he also holds down a barrage of guest spots @
places like; APT, Cielo, Deep (LA), Devotion (San Francisco),
Love, Pacha, Roxy, Shelter, Stereo (Montreal), Sole, Spirit, Table
50, & Warehouse....
Djing 35 years
has given Danny many highlights. Just to name a few: In 1999 Djing
for a 15,000 strong crowd for the first of three annual Body and
Soul Summer Stage events in NYC's Central Park. Also
with Body & Soul DJing for a special sell-out 2-day event
annually for the past 5 years in. Also in Japan, New Years
Eve 2001 he played for a one night indoor event with an attendance
of 21,000 people. & Back in NY, summer of 2003 playing for
an incredible 7,000 of his own fans at Museum Of Modern Art's
PS1. & again in Japan, December 2005 @ club Ageha, also playing
for an incredible 7,000 of his own fans.
Dannys
talents and reputation have grown immensely and continues to do
so, with demand for his DJing & editing work reaching new
heights & exploding worldwide from North & South America
to Europe & Japan, with his Producer/Editor/Mixer credits
included on well over 200 records. Earning a status of King
Of The Re-edit since the early 80s, hes been
a major force in bringing attention & world acceptance to
the art of editing, even spawning an onslaught of imitators. Hes
also a VJ, with a collection of well over 5000 rare soul performances
on video from the 60s, 70s, 80's, & 90's. His vinyl record
collection is now well over 70,000. Historical film & literature
such as: Maestro, Love Saves The Day,
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, & Mel Cherens
My Life & The Paradise Garage all include Danny
Krivit as one of the key players in the history of NY night life
& Most definitely one of the very few people who can honestly
say hes consistently DJd in all the hottest clubs
in NY for the past 40 years!

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