Danny Krivit (US)

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, regularly popping 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. and 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 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 at "The Ninth Circle" which by now had been transformed into a disco. In 1975, Danny's father opened his second club, "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 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 to include, 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, Cash Box, Record World, & Dance Music Report amongst others, have listed Danny's playlists 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", Ecstacy, Passion & Pain on "Touch and Go", Brenda and the Tabulations "Let's Go All the Way", and Gloria Gaynor on "Casanova Brown". 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 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 inseption in 1996, Danny joined the Body and Soul team, Francois K and Joe Claussell, at club Vinyl and has regularly played the party every Sunday since, whilst regularly Djing in various clubs in New York & Japan & everywhere inbetween. In 1999 one of Danny's highlights as a Body and Soul resident was Djing for a 15,000 strong crowd at one of three special Body and Soul event for "Summer Stage" in Central Park, NY. Danny's reputation outside New York has grown immensely over this time with Danny playing the world over, from America to Japan to Europe. He has hosted 2 special international Body and Soul events in London for "Angels of Love" and Giorgio Armani. Danny's talents and reputation has grown and continues to do so like his 50,000-strong record collection. He is also a VJ, with a collection of over 5000 rare soul performances on video from the 60s, 70s, 80's, & 90's. As well as having producer/editor/mixer credits included on over 70 records. 2001 sees Danny's 30th anniversary as a DJ and already this year has seen his name on over 25 records.