In all the years I went to the Garage… I was good friends with Larry & yet, I did feel uncomfortable to ask him to make me a tape from the night, I knew he thought of recording as not only a distraction, but also a distorted view of that actual moment in real time in the club. But once I just couldn’t resist & asked.
Read MoreI'll Do Anything For You
"I'll Do Anything For You" written & produced by Bert Reid. I first noticed Bert in 1974 as a member of Crown Heights Affair, who not only played trumpet & sang, but also co-wrote a number of their best jams, "Say A Prayer For Two", "You Gave Me Love","Far Out", "You've Been Gone" & "I See The Light". One night In the booth of the Garage, Larry introduced him to me & we quickly became close friends. Bert was also producing & writing a lot on his own, for groups like Unlimited Touch, The Jamaica Girls, Raw Silk, Abdul Tariq, Denroy Morgan, a few for himself & even a remix of a song called "Must Be The Music".
Read MoreMiss You
Growing up in the 1960's it easy to say The Rolling Stones had a huge influence on me, & when I first started DJing there was a lot of rock in my sets, including The Rolling Stones. In the end of the 60's & early 70's I went to a lot of legendary top rock performances at places like the Fillmore East, Madison Sq Garden, & even Central Park. But I never got tickets to see the Stones live, as their US performances were expensive, & difficult to see.
Read MoreI'm Your Baby Tonight
Remembering Whitney Houston... her amazing voice could make just about anything sound spectacular, hard to believe there were only 2 songs of hers I would pump in the club... The David Morales RMX of "Love Saves The Day" & Yvonne Turner RMX of "I'm Your Baby Tonight"... I do play them a lot, but wish there were more.
Read MoreCan't Shake Your Love
always loved this song, especially when I heard it in the Garage, as Larry had a special remix, he had done that he apparently never shared with anyone & I never heard it anywhere else. When The Garage finally closed I never heard it again... until one day a few years later.
Read MoreCompared To What
My mother being a Jazz singer & father Chet Baker's manager certainly put Jazz very prominent in my musical upbringing. As a kid, I respected Jazz, but especially the traditional jazz my parents were into... was for me an acquired taste. My father's next venture "The Ninth Circle" started out as a bar/steak house, & I had a lot of odd jobs there as a kid. Like every other bar in NY at that time, they had a jukebox, & like every other bar was pre stuffed with the current top 40 pop music... with little variation, as you would suspect, it was pretty tiered.
Read MoreWhere Is The Love
Like so many people, my first Betty Wright record I bought was Clean Up Woman, the same year I started DJing in 1971. It's hard to imagine now how few TV channels we had to choose from back then, but just flicking the channels by chance, I just happened to catch the 2nd half of this same performance of Betty Wright on the Mike Douglas show:
Read MoreLabelle
The first time I saw Patti Labelle was Patti Labelle & The Bluebells Summer of 1969, opening up for Sam & Dave at the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park. Their singing was off the hook... but they didn't have any actual songs I was really that interested in. By the next time I saw them in 1974, again in Central Park, they were opening for Mandrill... but this time I was coming to see them.
Read MoreBohannon
Bohannon @ The Beacon...
In the early 70's the Beacon Theater on Broadway sometimes had these incredible star studded shows. In 1975 I remember one very well featuring The Stylistics, Mandrill, Betty Wright... & Bohannon.