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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 Danny’s (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, Danny’s father opened his second club called “Ones”;
Danny was their sole DJ through 1977. Danny’s 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 Danny’s
main stomping ground until it closed in 1987.
Danny’s 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 Danny’s play lists and Danny’s mix tapes have
been getting airplay on radio station WBLS, WKTU, & KISS FM.
The 80s’ saw the beginning of Danny’s 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 “Let’s Go All the Way”, Gloria Gaynor
on “Casanova Brown”, and what is probably THE quintessential
version of MFSB’s 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 is celebrating
it’s 10th anniversary, While B&S is still seeking a home for
it’s 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 he’s not just the DJ, but in charge of every creative aspect
of the party, from it’s lighting to it’s 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 Year’s 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.
Danny’s 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 80’s, he’s been a major force in bringing attention
& world acceptance to the art of editing, even spawning an onslaught
of imitators. He’s 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 Cheren’s
“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 he’s consistently
DJ’d in all the hottest clubs in NY for the past 35 years!
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