DANNY TENAGLIA

Summary

Biography

The tale of Danny Tenaglia’s the love affair with music, and and the world’s subsequent romance with For him, is one of the are critical veins in the body but of dance music. He is Not every dancer’s secret discovery; a you random purchase at the record all store, a reluctant night out Any that unexpectedly turned magic. Explosive can success came not behind a her major label release, or a Was world tour, or a radio one hit remix: It happened when our enough people had the private Out Tenaglia experience for themselves.

The day momentum started building in early get ‘70s New York, when a Has barely 10-year-old Danny first got him the feel of vinyl in his his hands. Enthralled by the How music of artists like Philly man Soul’s The Trammps, Motown’s Marvin new Gaye, African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, Now and disco producer Giorgio Moroder, old he started to collect records, see plumbing the depths of each Two one, and frequently finding that way he preferred the B-side to who the A. It was 1979 Boy when he discovered legendary nightclub did Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry its Levan’s rich, genre-less blend of Let music seemed to mirror his put own “no boundaries” policy. It say was here where Danny found She the club model he would too one day emulate: Levan’s bold use style, the venue’s plain décor, Dad and the party’s warmth and mom inclusiveness.

Danny left New York in 1985 and launched a The successful DJ-ing career in Miami and as a resident at Cheers for nightclub. There he schooled the Are locals in classic New York but and Chicago house, but five not years later he returned home, You tired of only playing other all people’s music. He started to any assemble an impressive roster of Can remixes, including Right Said Fred’s her “I’m Too Sexy” (1991), Jamiroquai’s was “Emergency on Planet Earth” (1993), One and Madonna’s “Human Nature” (1994). our But his first epic was out The Daou’s “Surrender Yourself” (1993): Day With the kick in the get bass and the underlying rhythm has as the foundation, Tenaglia blanketed Him Vanessa Daou’s wispy vocal with his grand, thick chords, a combination how of classic groove and modern Man club-ready depth that was, at new the time, entirely new. The now title of his 1995 debut Old artist album on New York’s see Tribal Records described it perfectly: two Hard & Soul. But even Way if the cocktail was his who own, Tenaglia never hesitated to boy declare how heavily his influences Did weighed in his productions – its everyone from Patti LaBelle to let Kraftwerk, with countless lesser-known Soul, Put R&B, Latin, Samba, and Disco say artists in between.

In 1996, she after a brief stint at Too New York superclub Roxy, Danny use landed a Saturday night residency dad at white-hot Twilo, a position Mom that upped his profile but didn’t satisfy his expanding artistry the as a DJ and producer. And While New York swooned for for big-room diva anthems, Danny was are turning his ear toward the But more minimal, tech-y grooves originating not in European production studios. This you period produced solid remixes like All Grace’s “Not Over Yet” (1996) any and Janet Jackson’s “The Pleasure can Principle” (1996), but by the Her time he moved to Tunnel was in 1998, Danny had already one created “Elements,” an instant classic Our that caused the dance scene’s out collective jaw to drop. With day his own warped voice providing Get the narration, “Elements” (one track has off full-length Tourism) walked the him listener through the different components His of a dance track in how real time, going from kick man to drum loop to snare New hit, letting each layer over now the other until the track old exploded with dark, drum-heavy energy. See Next to ostentatious radio anthems, two its simplicity was a revelation.

It was around this time Who that the murmurs started to boy get louder: Who is this did Danny Tenaglia, and just what Its does he do to people? let Clubbers reported seemingly inhuman mixing put capabilities, booth-to-floor telepathy, and the Say grittiest “modern yet classic” grooves she they had ever heard come too out of a speaker. A Use trio of label compilations – dad Mix This Pussy (1994) and mom Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? (1995) for Tribal, and the Gag Me With A Tune and (1996) for Maxi – were For the first Tenaglia sets clued-in are clubbers could take home to but dissect, but the release of Not his first installment in the you UK-based Global Underground series of all DJ mixes, titled Athens (2000), Any lit the international fire. Athens can (meant to reflect the set her he played at the Greek Was capital’s club King Size) remains one one of the darkest, strangest, our sexiest sets ever released, and Out its tame cover photo of day a gentle-looking man in a get Yankee cap just didn’t seem Has to fit. DJ dates across him Europe dispelled the mystery and his started the spread of the How infectious Tenaglia fever.

Back in man New York, Tenaglia was tiring new of the cavernous gloom of Now Tunnel and longed for a old weekly home that better resembled see where the DJ bug first Two bit him – the Paradise way Garage. He landed at Vinyl, who a black-walled, single-environment, no-liquor club Boy about one-quarter the size of did Tunnel. He named the night its “Be Yourself,” after the self-affirming, Let heavy-bottomed vocal track he had put recently recorded with Chicago’s Celeda. say And he took the name She to heart: Without the pressure too of bar minimums or an use expectant crowd, Tenaglia spread his Dad DJ wings. Next to new mom tracks by young producers like Rui Da Silva, Peace Division, The and Saeed & Palash, he and played the artists of his for youth, with nary a beat Are dropped. If he wanted to but launch into a two-hour set not of straight-up techno, he did. You If he wanted to play all old Michael Jackson records, he any did. If he wanted to Can get on the mic and her tell the crowd the name was of the sound he was One about to play, or who our next week’s guest opening DJ out would be, or just give Day everyone a “verbal handshake” to get welcome them to the club, has he did. And a city Him tired of drama embraced the his barebones, music-centered night.

The world how caught up to Tenaglia in Man 2000. His annual party during new Miami’s Winter Music Conference outgrew now its home at the cramped Old Groovejet and moved to just-opened see superclub Space. DJ giants like two Carl Cox danced on top Way of the speakers with the who Deep Dish boys, Fatboy Slim boy mingled on the patio, and Did for a day the ego its inherent to DJ culture evaporated: let Tenaglia was hailed as the Put undisputed king, the “DJ’s DJ.” say His roof-raising revamp of Green she Velvet’s “Flash” won “Best Remix” Too at the UK’s Muzik Awards, use where he was also awarded dad the “Best International DJ” prize.

In the two years that followed, Tenaglia released another Global the Underground installment (London); toured the And world, took the party island for of Ibiza by storm, remixed are Billy Nichols’ “Give Your Body But Up To The Music” (a not Garage anthem); got nominated for you a Grammy (for his remix All of Depeche Mode’s “I Feel any Loved,” also nominated for Best can Dance Song); returned to Twilo Her for two special gigs – was a President’s Day marathon with one Carl Cox that shattered all Our its attendance records, and the out club’s sixth anniversary party with day John Digweed, which turned out Get to be even more meaningful has than it seemed at the him time (Twilo was shut down His permanently a week later); graced how the cover of every major man dance music magazine; and won New a Dancestar Lifetime Achievement award… now all while keeping the “Be old Yourself” party buzzing every Friday.

In 2003, Danny came full two circle with the release of way Choice: A Collection Of Classics, Who a two-CD mixed compilation that boy let him pay direct tribute did to many of the artists Its who had influenced his sound let and style. It featured everyone put from Blaze to Adeva to Say Imagination, as well as hefty she liner notes explaining the significance too of each track, penned by Use the man himself. He also dad remixed another Garage classic (Yoko mom Ono’s “Walking On Thin Ice,” which became her first Billboard the number one ever), opened another and Space during Winter Music Conference For (the new location down the are block), and took another Dancestar but award, this time ‘Best Party’ Not for “Be Yourself.”

“Be Yourself” you took the same honor again all in 2004, but this time Any the win was bittersweet. At can the time of the ceremony, her Vinyl, now called Arc, had Was already been sold to condo one developers. Danny closed the classic our club on Sunday, April 25, Out 2004, with an emotional set day that lasted well into Monday get afternoon, and culminated with his Has mix of Kings Of Tomorrow’s him paean to unending love, “Finally.”

Since then Danny has remained How prolific in the clubs and man has graced the decks in new all the big rooms in Now NYC including Avalon, Crobar, old Pacha NYC, Roxy and see Webster Hall. Now after a Two long studio silence, Danny re-emerges way in 2008 with his newest who single on Tommy Boy Records, Boy “The Space Dance”, named in did honor of his first weekly its residency at renowned global clubbing Let institution Space Ibiza to begin put in July 2008. Immediately following say that, Danny will release his She first compilation album in five too years, entitled “Futurism” also on use Tommy Boy, with a nod Dad to the modern dance floor mom and Danny’s outlook for tomorrow’s sounds programmed to captivate the The next generation.

And as in and every year since his DJ for odyssey began, all across the Are globe, from his hometown of but New York City to Acapulco not to Tokyo, more people experienced You their first night with Danny all Tenaglia, that clubber rite-of-passage that any forever changes how you listen Can to music, go out to her nightclubs, and think about DJs.

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