Larry Levan
| Larry Levan | |
|---|---|
Levan performing at the Paradise Garage
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lawrence Philpot |
| Born |
July 20, 1954 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | November 8, 1992 (aged 38) Beth Israel Medical Center Manhattan, New York City |
| Genres |
Garage house Club/Dance House Post-disco |
| Occupation(s) | DJ, music producer |
Larry Levan (/ləˈvæn/; born Lawrence Philpot, July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992) was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential post-disco DJ François Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music.
Levan was born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, New York, to Minnie (née Levan) and Lawrence Philpot. He has an older brother Isaac and sister Minnie who are both biological twins. He was born with a congenital heart condition and suffered from asthma from a very young age which would make him prone to fainting in class. Although a fragile young boy, he excelled in math and physics, leaving an impression on his teachers that he would become an inventor one day. He inherited his love for music from his mother who loved blues, jazz, and gospel music, and that he was able to use a record player from the age of three and as his mother reflects back, "I’d make him put records on so that we could dance together." While attending Erasmus Hall High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the neighborhood of Flatbush transitioned to a predominantly African American population due to white flight, the flamboyantly vanguard Levan (who dyed his hair orange nearly a decade before the ascendance of punk rock) was frequently bullied by his classmates. Eventually, he dropped out of high school and found assuagement in Harlem's longstanding ball culture as a dressmaker, where he first became acquainted with fellow designer and lifelong best friend Frankie Knuckles.
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