Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Basil Paterson, Harlem Political Powerbroker











Photo

Basil A. Paterson, then a state senator, with his wife, Portia, and son David in 1970 after winning the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in New York.CreditLarry Morris/The New York Times
Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
NYT Now
This story is included with an NYT Now subscription.
Learn More »
Basil A. Paterson, one of the old-guard Democratic leaders who for decades dominated politics in Harlem and influenced black political power in New York City and the state into the 21st century, when he saw his son David A. Paterson rise to the governor’s office, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 87.
His family confirmed his death, at Mt. Sinai Hospital, in a statement released on Thursday. Mr. Paterson lived in Harlem. 
Mr. Paterson, a lawyer, labor negotiator and federal mediator who also served as a state senator, a deputy mayor and New York’s secretary of state, got into politics in Harlem in the 1950s and became part of the group of powerful clubhouse leaders known, sometimes derisively and at other times enviously, as the Gang of Four.
The other three were David N. Dinkins, who became the city’s first black mayor; Representative Charles B. Rangel, the dean of the New York State congressional delegation; and Percy E. Sutton, a civil rights leader and longtime Manhattan borough president, who died in 2009.





Photo

Mr. Paterson in 1978, then a deputy mayor. CreditNeal Boenzi/The New York Times

In the 1970s and ’80s, they were kingmakers, selecting and helping to elect many black candidates for legislative and executive offices once deemed beyond the reach of African-Americans, and paving the way for other black aspirants in the nation. The group also dispensed patronage, exercised legislative influence, forged alliances with state and national Democrats, and reaped the rewards of a Harlem political dynasty.
Although Mr. Paterson was one of the savviest veterans of New York’s political wars, he never held high elective office. In the late 1960s he was the state senator for much of Harlem and northern Manhattan, and in 1970 was New York’s first major-party black candidate for lieutenant governor, running on a Democratic ticket headed by Arthur J. Goldberg, the former United States Supreme Court associate justice. They lost to the Republican incumbents, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and Lt. Gov. Malcolm Wilson.
Mr. Paterson was Mayor Edward I. Koch’s deputy mayor for labor relations in 1978 and led pivotal contract negotiations with municipal unions in the first year of the Koch administration. He also was Gov. Hugh L. Carey’s secretary of state, largely keeping records of incorporation and licensing, from 1979 to 1982.
After mediating an end to a 46-day strike against scores of private nonprofit hospitals and nursing homes in the city in 1984 — a task that kept him in the headlines for weeks — he flirted with a mayoral race as a consensus candidate put forward by blacks and white liberals opposed to a third term for Mr. Koch. But he withdrew before the primary elections.
In the 1990s, the influence of Mr. Paterson and his old-guard allies waned as blacks left Harlem. While he had promoted the careers of many black officials, he was known to be ambivalent about the political ambitions of his son David, with whom he had always been close. Legally blind from childhood, David Paterson became a lawyer, a state senator, the lieutenant governor and New York’s first black governor in 2008, when Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal.
Associates attributed Basil Paterson’s ambivalence to a father’s instincts to protect a handicapped son from rough politics. But after years of keeping a distance from his son’s political life, Mr. Paterson became his closest confidant after the new governor became entangled in controversies, including domestic abuse charges against a senior aide and perjury accusations in an ethics case involving Yankees tickets.





Photo

Three members of the Gang of Four, from left, Mr. Paterson, Charles Rangel and Percy Sutton, outside City Hall in 1970. CreditNeal Boenzi/The New York Times

Governor Paterson paid a fine in the ethics case, but accusations that he had improperly intervened in the domestic abuse matter lingered even after the aide pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Amid reports of an extramarital affair and other hints of scandal, the governor resisted calls for his resignation. But after a tumultuous two years in office, he decided not to run in 2010 for a full term.
“It’s been very difficult for Basil to watch this happen to his son,” Harold Ickes, a political consultant who had known the Patersons for years, told The New York Times. “David has enormous talents and strengths and also has some weaknesses. Basil is one of the singularly most talented, sophisticated, subtle people I know, and is very wise to the world generally and to the political world in particular.”
Basil Alexander Paterson was born in Manhattan on April 27, 1926, to Caribbean immigrants, Leonard and Evangeline Rondon Paterson. (His father was from the Grenadines, his mother from Jamaica.) He grew up in Harlem, graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1942 and enrolled at St. John’s University. After two years in the Army in World War II, he returned to St. John’s and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1948 and a law degree in 1951.
In 1953, he married Portia Hairston. She survives him, as do David; another son, Daniel; and five grandchildren.
The young lawyer practiced in Harlem, joined civic and community organizations and plunged into Democratic politics. By the early 1960s, he was a rising clubhouse leader along with Mr. Dinkins, Mr. Rangel and Mr. Sutton. His 1964 election as president of the N.A.A.C.P. in Harlem was regarded as the prelude to a political career.
In 1965, he was elected to the State Senate, where he supported special education, divorce reform and other progressive measures. Despite his Roman Catholicism, he was an early supporter of liberalized abortion laws. He was re-elected, but gave up his seat in 1970 to become Mr. Goldberg’s running mate in the race for governor. While his ticket lost, he won an overwhelming primary vote, showing promise as a statewide candidate.





Photo

Mr. Paterson served as a state senator, a deputy mayor and New York’s secretary of state.CreditDon Hogan Charles/The New York Times

But Mr. Paterson was never again on a ballot for public office. He became increasingly involved in labor relations in the 1970s and ’80s, mediating dozens of disputes and representing transit and hospital workers, teachers and others. After serving in the Koch and Carey administrations, he joined the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, whose clients include scores of labor unions.
Mr. Paterson cited “pressing family problems” in declining to run for mayor in 1984. Months later, his son David quit his job as a prosecutor in Queens to work on Mr. Dinkins’s successful 1985 campaign for the Manhattan borough presidency. That fall, with the backing of Mr. Dinkins and Mr. Sutton, David won the State Senate seat his father had attained 20 years earlier.
In part to avoid conflicts of interest, Basil Paterson for more than 20 years kept a respectful distance from his son’s rising political career, especially after David became lieutenant governor in 2006 on the winning Spitzer ticket.
On March 10, 2008, as a prostitution scandal broke over Mr. Spitzer and it became clear that David would soon be governor, his first call went to his father, who offered simple advice.
“Well,” Basil said, “you say a prayer.”
“I’ve already said a prayer for Eliot,” David replied.
“That’s good. Now you’d better say one for yourself.”

***

Basil Alexander Paterson (April 27, 1926 – April 16, 2014), a labor lawyer, was a longtime political leader in New York and Harlem and the father of the 55th Governor of New York, David Paterson. His mother was Jamaican, and his father was Carriacouan (a person from Carriacou, the largest island of the Grenadine archipelago). 

Paterson was born in Harlem on April 27, 1926, the son of Leonard James and Evangeline Alicia (Rondon) Paterson. His father was born on the island of Carriacou in the Grenadines and arrived in the United States aboard the S.S. Vestris on May 16, 1917 in New York City. His mother was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and arrived in the United States on September 9, 1919 aboard the S.S. Vestnorge in Philadelphia with a final destination of New York City.  A stenographer by profession, the former Miss Rondon once served as a secretary for Marcus Garvey. 

In 1942, at the age of 16, Paterson graduated from De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx. He was shaped by his experiences with racism early on. "I got out of high school when I was 16," Paterson told New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, "and the first real job I had was with a wholesale house in the old Port Authority building, down on 18th Street. We'd pack and load these trucks that went up and down in huge elevators. Every year there would be a Christmas party for the employees at some local hotel. Those of us who worked in the shipping department were black. We got paid not to go to the party." He attended college at St. John's University, but his studies were interrupted by a two-year stint in the U.S. Army during World War II.  After serving honorably, he returned to St. John's to complete his undergraduate studies. While there he was very active in social and community service organizations, including among others the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, where he joined the ranks of the Omicron chapter of New York (now at Columbia University) in 1947. Paterson graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in biology in 1948. He was later admitted to St. John's Law School, where he received a Juris Doctor degree in 1951.   Paterson became involved in Democratic politics in Harlem in the 1950s and 1960s. A member of the "Gang of Four", along with, former New York Mayor David Dinkins; the late Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton; and Congressman Charles Rangel, Paterson was a leader of the "Harlem Clubhouse",  which  dominated Harlem politics during and after the 1960s.  In 1965, Paterson was elected to the New York State Senate representing the Upper West Side of New York City and Harlem. He gave up his Senate seat in 1970 to run for Lieutenant Governor of New York, as the running mate of former United States Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg. The Goldberg/Paterson ticket lost to the Republican ticket of incumbent Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Lieutenant Governor Malcolm Wilson. In 1978, Paterson was appointed Deputy Mayor of New York City by then Mayor Ed Koch. He stepped down as deputy mayor in 1979 to become Secretary of State for the State of New York, thereby becoming the first African American person to have held the post.  He served as Secretary of State until the end of the Hugh Carey administration in 1982. Despite having briefly served in the Koch Administration, Paterson made moves to run for Mayor against Koch as the latter sought a third term, but ultimately chose not to run. Paterson became a member of the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P. C., where he was co-chair of the firm's labor law practice.  Paterson was the father of former New York Governor David Paterson, who was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2006 on a ticket with Governor Eliot Spitzer. David Paterson succeeded to the governor's office upon Spitzer's resignation on March 17, 2008.  Basil Paterson died April 16, 2014. He was 87.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Lou Hudson, Jump Shot Master



Photo

Lou Hudson playing for the Atlanta Hawks. He averaged 20.2 points a game in a 13-year N.B.A. career that began in 1966. CreditNBA Photo Library, via Getty Images
Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
Continue reading the main story
Lou Hudson, a six-time N.B.A. All-Star who was one of the most reliable scorers in the league in a 13-year career, most of it with the Atlanta Hawks, died on Friday in Atlanta. He was 69.
His death, which came after a stroke, was confirmed by the Hawks.
A 6-foot-5 swingman who could play guard or small forward, Hudson was known as Sweet Lou, not least because his jump shot — quick out of his hands, released high over his head — went down so smoothly.
Drafted fourth over all by the Hawks in 1966, when they were based in St. Louis, Hudson went on to average at least 24 points per game for five consecutive seasons beginning in 1969-70. His N.B.A. career average was 20.2.
He shot 50 percent or better from the field four times, and he finished in the top 10 in field-goal percentage three times. He made the all-rookie team for the 1966-67 season and played in the All-Star game in six consecutive years, beginning in 1969.
For several seasons in the early 1970s, when Hudson’s teammates included Pete Maravich and Walt Bellamy, the Hawks came close to an N.B.A. championship but never won one.
“I enjoyed playing the game,” Hudson said in an interview with The New York Times in 2004. “I was a loyal team person. I went out every night and played to the best of my ability because I enjoyed basketball. The chips fell where they fell, and I don’t have a problem with where they fell. Guys that won championships, I tell them, ‘You won a championship, but you still weren’t as good as I was.’ ”
Louis Clyde Hudson was born on July 11, 1944, in Greensboro, N.C. He was a multisport star at Dudley High School, which was all-black at the time, and one of the top basketball prospects in the state as a senior in 1962.
But even as the civil rights movement swelled in the South, with sit-ins and marches in his hometown, top basketball colleges did not allow black players on their teams. Hudson planned to play for North Carolina A&T, a historically black college, but when the University of Minnesota offered him a scholarship, an A&T coach told him to accept it. “He told me I should take this opportunity to play in the big time, that I was good enough for that,” Hudson told The Charlotte Observer in 2009. “And he was right.”
As a junior at Minnesota, Hudson averaged 24.8 points and 10.7 rebounds and was named an all-American while leading the Golden Gophers to a second-place finish in the Big Ten.
He played much of his senior season with a cast on his shooting hand after breaking a bone in his right wrist, but he still averaged 19 points per game, often shooting left-handed.
He had played hurt before. In a 1964 defeat of Purdue, he scored 36 points, 24 of them after hitting his head on the backboard, an injury that required stitches during the game.
His jersey was later retired in Minnesota and in Atlanta, where the Hawks first played in the 1968-69 season.
Hudson spent his last two seasons playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. In his final season, 1978-79, he shot 51.7 percent.
His survivors include his wife, Mardi, and a daughter, Adrienne, from a previous marriage. His son from that marriage, Louis Jr., died in 1996 from a blood clot.
After his playing career, Hudson moved to Park City, Utah, where he pursued business interests and started a recreational program, the Growth League. “It teaches life skills through basketball,” he told The Times. “They spend an hour in the classroom and an hour in the gym.”
In 2003, an association of retired N.B.A. players named him the humanitarian of the year. 
At his death, he was in Atlanta receiving hospice care.
In Park City, Hudson was elected to the City Council in 1993. He is believed to have been the first African-American elected official in Utah. His campaign signs read, “Sweet Lou for You.”

*****
Louis Clyde Hudson (July 11, 1944 – April 11, 2014) was an American National Basketball Association (NBA) player.

Lou Hudson graduated from Dudley High School in Greensboro. As a junior at the University of Minnesota, Hudson averaged 24.8 points and 10.7 rebounds and was named an All-American.  After starring at the University of Minnesota, Hudson was selected by the St. Louis Hawks with the 4th pick of the 1966 NBA Draft.

Hudson was named to the 1967 NBA All-Rookie Team after averaging 18.4 points per game in his first season. At 6'5", Hudson could play as either a guard or a forward, and he had a long and successful professional career. Hudson went on to average at least 24 points per game for five consecutive seasons beginning in 1969-70, and scored 17,940 points in 13 seasons (1966–1979).  He was a six time All-Star with the Hawks (who moved to Atlanta in 1968), and he earned the nickname "Sweet Lou" for his smooth and effective jump shot. 

Hudson's jersey number was retired by both the Atlanta Hawks and the University of Minnesota.

After his NBA career ended in 1979, Hudson sold restaurant equipment in Atlanta and briefly worked as a radio announcer for the Atlanta Hawks. In 1984, Hudson relocated to Park City, Utah, where he became a real estate investor and served on the Park City city council in the early 1990s.  In Park City, he created a recreation basketball league where he served as coach for 20 years before suffering a major stroke on a Park City ski slope in February 2005. He made public appearances as an "ambassador" for the "Power to End Stroke" organization.

In 2014, he died after a stroke, aged 69.



Monday, April 14, 2014

Frankie Knuckles, "Godfather of House Music"


Frankie Knuckles, 59, Pioneer House D.J., Dies


Photo

Frankie Knuckles at the controls in a London club in 2007. CreditClaire Greenway/Getty Images

Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
Continue reading the main story
Frankie Knuckles, a club disc jockey, remixer and producer who was often called the “godfather of house” for helping that percussive genre of dance music spread from Chicago nightclubs to global popularity and influence, died on Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 59.
His death was confirmed by Maria Rotella, the assistant to his manager, Judy Weinstein. She said the cause had not been determined but that he had had health problems related to diabetes.
Mr. Knuckles, a Grammy Award winner in 1998, started his career working at various New York clubs in the 1970s. In 1977, when disco was at its peak, he moved to Chicago and began spinning at a club called the Warehouse.
He played R&B and disco standards along with a range of post-punk, reggae, funk and synthesizer-based Europop rarities. That unusual mix, he later said, came to be nicknamed house music, after the club.
By the early 1980s Mr. Knuckles had started using a reel-to-reel tape recorder to edit his favorite tracks so that he could extend the beat, keeping dancers on the floor.
He left the Warehouse in the early ’80s and soon began spinning at another Chicago club, the Power Plant. In 1984 he incorporated a drum machine into his mixes. The combination of disco or pop vocals and catchy, often electronic samples laid over a pulsating beat became the hallmark of early house, a style that many Chicago producers were beginning to adopt.
“When it comes to the foundation, the bottom end, the kick and the bass line and how they work, my theory is it should be felt and not heard,” Mr. Knuckles said in an interview for the Red Bull Music Academy, a series of workshops and festivals, in 2011.
His beat-driven version of “Your Love,” a pop song by a young singer named Jamie Principle, was released by Trax Records in 1985. It became a club hit and a local radio favorite and led to more records with Mr. Principle.
He returned to New York in 1988 to work in Manhattan clubs like the Roxy and the Sound Factory Bar. That same year, teamed with David Morales and Ms. Weinstein, he formed Def Mix Productions, which worked on elaborate house remixes for artists like Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Chaka Khan. In 1991 he released his first album under his own name, “Beyond the Mix,” which included the singles “The Whistle Song” and “Workout.”
His Grammy Award in 1998 was for nonclassical remixer of the year.
Francis Nicholls was born in the Bronx on Jan. 18, 1955. (“Knuckles” was a family nickname.) He rode the subway to Manhattan with the singer Luther Vandross, a neighbor, to attend the High School of Art and Design, from which he graduated.
The renowned D.J. Larry Levan, a childhood friend, hired him to help with lighting at the Continental Baths. He learned to spin records while Mr. Levan took breaks.
Mr. Knuckles’s second album, “Welcome to the Real World,” was released in 1995. “Bac N da Day,” a track from his 2004 album, “A New Reality,” that featured Jamie Principle, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s dance chart.
He is survived by a sister and two brothers.
In recent years Mr. Knuckles continued to tour as a club D.J. and recorded with Eric Kupper, working under the name Director’s Cut. In 2011 they revived a 1980s classic by releasing a contemporary remix of “Your Love.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Tuesday that Chicago had “lost one of its most treasured cultural pioneers.”


*****




Frankie Knuckles, house music 'godfather,' dead at 59

April 01, 2014|Greg Kot
    •  3943
  • Frankie Knuckles, seen here at the Chicago International House Music Festival at Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island in 2006, had a key role in developing house music as a DJ in the 1980s and helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, as a producer and remixer. In 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.
Frankie Knuckles, seen here at the Chicago International House Music Festival at Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island in 2006, had a key role in developing house music as a DJ in the 1980s and helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, as a producer and remixer. In 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. (Tribune photo by E. Jason Wambsgans)
In Chicago, Frankie Knuckles was called the “godfather,” not because of any underworld connections, but because he helped build house – a style of Chicago dance music that revolutionized club culture in the ‘70s and ‘80s and still resonates around the world today.
Knuckles died Monday at the age of 59, as confirmed by his longtime business partner, Frederick Dunson. More details would be forthcoming Tuesday, Dunson said, who said in an email that Knuckles “died unexpectedly this afternoon at home.” In addition to developing the sound and culture of house music, Knuckles would go on to mix records by major artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode.
Knuckles learned his craft as a club DJ in New York City, then moved to Chicago in the late ‘70s and developed a reputation as one of the city’s most influential dance-music tastemakers. He arrived in Chicago just as disco was losing steam. For many, disco literally went up in flames between games of a Chicago White Sox double header at Comiskey Park, when radio deejay Steve Dahl blew up hundreds of disco albums.
"I witnessed that caper that Steve Dahl pulled at Disco Demolition Night and it didn't mean a thing to me or my crowd," Knuckles told the Tribune. “But it scared the record companies, so they stopped signing disco artists and making disco records. So we created our own thing in Chicago to fill the gap.”
Knuckles was mentored by the renowned DJ Larry Levan in the early ‘70s while in New York. “We would spend entire afternoons working up ideas on how to present a record so that people would hear it in a new way and fall in love with it,” Knuckles said. “To us it was an art form.”
He brought that knowledge west with him to Chicago, where he became known as “the godfather of Chicago house music” at the Warehouse and later the Power Plant. He would extend mixes of soul and R&B records and turn them into dance tracks, introduce new singles being produced by fledgling house artists and incorporate drum machines to emphasize the beat. In addition to building dynamic ebb-and-flow sets that would keep his dancefloor filled from midnight to noon on weekends, he would create theater-of-the-mind scenarios with inventive sound and lighting. “Sometimes I’d shut down all the lights and set up a record where it would sound like a speeding train was about to crash into the club. People would lose their minds.”
Knuckles was primarily known as a DJ, but he also played a key role as a tastemaker, de facto talent scout and producer. Knuckles bought his first drum machine from a young Derrick May, one of the founders of techno music, who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see Knuckles at the Warehouse. Knuckles also had a musical partnership with Chicago artist Jamie Principle, and helped put "Your Love" and "Baby Wants to Ride" out on vinyl after these tunes had been regulars on his reel-to-reel player at the Warehouse. He also produced the house classic "Tears" with Robert Owens (of Fingers, Inc.).
House was initially cruder and less polished than disco, a reflection of its blue-collar origins. Knuckles was hardly the only innovator in the scene, as Marshall Jefferson, Ron Hardy, Steve "Silk" Hurley, Farley "Jackmaster" Funk and dozens more also played key roles. By the late ‘80s, Knuckles and many of his peers were stars in Europe’s emerging rave scene.
Knuckles would often joke that he could walk down the middle of the street in Chicago and not be recognized, yet would be greeted by cheering fans when he would arrive at European airports for overseas DJ gigs.
“I wasn’t frustrated by that, not at all,” he said. “I’m not the kind of person that lives for fame and glory. If I’ve got a nice, clean home and can put a meal on my table and can entertain my friends, I’m fine. I don’t need to see my face plastered everywhere.”
Yet he took pride in Chicago’s growing recognition over the years as the home of contemporary dance music, celebrated by such mainstream hitmakers as Daft Punk and Paul Oakenfold.
"The people I meet all around the world look at Chicago and the house scene with a new romanticism," he said. "They recognize more than ever that Chicago is the core of where it all began."
In 2004, Chicago named a street after Knuckles where the old Warehouse once stood, on Jefferson Street between Jackson Boulevard and Madison Street. It was a little slice of legitimacy for a style of music that often didn’t get much love from the city, which became notorious in the dance community around the world for passing the so-called “anti-rave ordinance” in 2000 that made property owners, promoters and deejays subject to $10,000 fines for being involved in an unlicensed dance party.

Frankie Knuckles, house music 'godfather,' dead at 59

April 01, 2014|Greg Kot
    •  3943
Knuckles once reflected on house music’s reputation as a soundtrack for hedonism, though much of the dance music he loved had a melancholy flavor, a yearning that evoked gospel and soul. He championed house music that wasn’t just about rhythm, but that embraced humanism and dignified struggle. It was in keeping with his belief that the dancefloor was a safe haven for the gay, African-American and Hispanic communities that first embraced him.
“God has a place on the dancefloor,” he once told the Tribune. “We wouldn’t have all the things we have if it wasn’t for God. We wouldn’t have the one thing that keeps us sane – music. It’s the one thing that calms people down.
“Even when they’re hopping up and down in a frenzy on the dancefloor, it still has their spirits calm because they’re concentrating on having a good time, loving the music, as opposed to thinking about something negative. I think dancing is one of the best things anyone can do for themselves. And it doesn’t cost anything.”

*****

Francis Nicholls, better known by his stage name Frankie Knuckles (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), was an American DJ and record producer.[2]
Knuckles was born January 18, 1955[1][3] in The Bronx, New York; he later moved to Chicago. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1980s, when the genre was in its infancy. Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often known as "The Godfather of House Music."[4]The city of Chicago named a stretch of street and a day after Knuckles in 2004 for this role. His accomplishments earned him a Grammy Award in 1997. Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005 as recognition for his achievements.

Career[edit]

1970s–1980s[edit]

While studying textile design at the FIT in New York, Knuckles began working as a DJ, playing souldisco, and R&B at The Continental Baths with childhood friend[5]and fellow DJ Larry Levan.[6] In the late 1970s, Knuckles moved from New York City to Chicago,[7] and when the Warehouse club opened in Chicago in 1977, he was invited to play on a regular basis. He continued DJing at the Warehouse until 1982, when he started his own club in Chicago, The Power Plant.[8] DJ History'reports: "The style of music now known as house was so named after a shortened version of [Knuckles' Warehouse] club."[9]
Knuckles bought his first drum machine from Derrick May, who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see Knuckles at the Warehouse and Ron Hardy at the Music Box, both in Chicago.[10] Knuckles also had a musical partnership with Chicago artist Jamie Principle, and helped put "Your Love" and "Baby Wants to Ride" out on vinyl after these tunes had been regulars on his reel-to-reel player at the Warehouse for a year.[10]
As house music was developing in Chicago, producer Chip E. took Knuckles under his tutelage and produced Knuckles' first recording, "You Can't Hide from Yourself"[11] Then came more production work, including Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride", and later "Tears" with Robert Owens (of Fingers, Inc.) and (Knuckles' protégé and future Def Mix associate) Satoshi Tomiie.[10]
When the Power Plant closed in 1987, Knuckles played for four months at Delirium in the United Kingdom. Chicago house artists were in high demand and having major success in the UK with this new genre of music.[12] Knuckles also had a stint in New York, where he continued to immerse himself in producing, remixing, andrecording.[10]

1990s–2000s[edit]

Knuckles made numerous popular Def Classic Mixes with John Poppo as sound engineer, and Knuckles partnered with David Morales on Def Mix Productions.[13]His debut album Beyond the Mix (1991), released on Virgin Records, contained "seminal work", "The Whistle Song".[14] The Def Classic mix of Lisa Stansfield's "Change", released in the same year, also featured the whistle-like motif. Another track from the album, "Rain Falls", featured vocals from Lisa Michaelis. Eight thousand copies of the album had sold by 2004.[15] Other key remixes from this time include his rework of the Electribe 101 anthem "Talking With Myself" and Alison Limerick's "Where Love Lives".
When Junior Vasquez took a sabbatical from The Sound Factory in Manhattan, Knuckles took over and launched a successful run as resident DJ.[16]
Knuckles continued to work as a remixer through the 1990s and into the next decade, reworking tracks from Michael JacksonLuther VandrossDiana RossEternaland Toni Braxton. He released several new singles, including "Keep on Movin'" and a re-issue of an earlier hit "Bac N Da Day" with Definity Records. In 1995, he released his second album titled Welcome to the Real World. By 2004, 13,000 copies had sold.[15]
In 2004, Knuckles released a 13-track album of original material – his first in over a decade – titled A New Reality. In October 2004, "Your Love" appeared in thevideogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on house music radio stationSF-UR.[17]

Awards and honorable recognition[edit]

In 1997, Knuckles won the Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical.[18] In 2004, the city of Chicago – which "became notorious in the dance community around the world for passing the so-called 'anti-rave ordinance' in 2000 that made property owners, promoters and deejays subject to $10,000 fines for being involved in an unlicensed dance party" – named a stretch of street in Chicago[19] after Knuckles, where the old Warehouse once stood, on Jefferson Street between Jackson Boulevard and Madison Street.[20] That stretch of street, called Frankie Knuckles Way, "was renamed when the city declared 25 August 2004 as Frankie Knuckles Day. The Illiniois state senator who helped make it happen was Barack Obama."[18] In 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievements.[18][19]

In media and popular culture[edit]

Films[edit]

Knuckles was featured in the documentary films Maestro (2003), written and directed by Josell Ramos,[21][22] The UnUsual Suspects: Once Upon a Time in House Music (2005), directed by Chip E.[23] and Continental (2013) about the Continental Baths.

Games[edit]

October 2004, "Your Love" appeared in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on house music radio stationSF-UR.[17]

Death[edit]

Knuckles died of Type II diabetes-related complications in Chicago on March 31, 2014 at age 59.[24][25] Knuckles had developed the disease in the mid-2000s.[26]

Selected discography[edit]

Releases[edit]

Remixes[edit]


*****

Francis Nicholls, better known by his stage name Frankie Knuckles (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), was an American disc jockey (DJ) and record producer.
Knuckles was born January 18, 1955 in the Bronx, New York.  He later moved to Chicago. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1980s, when the genre was in its infancy. Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often known as "The Godfather of House Music." The city of Chicago named a stretch of street and a day after Knuckles in 2004 for this role. His accomplishments earned him a Grammy Award in 1997. Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition for his achievements.