Frankie Knuckles passed away last week but is being honored with a special event in Philadelphia on April at the Dolphin Tavern on South Broad Street.
Knuckles, a Grammy-winning Chicago disc jockey known as the “Godfather of House Music” who worked with artists including Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, died at age 59.
Knuckles was born Francis Nicholls on Jan. 18, 1955, in the Bronx. He worked as a DJ in the early 1970s in New York before moving to Chicago in the late 1970s. In Chicago he was resident DJ at the city’s The Warehouse club until it closed in 1983.
It was there that he defined House music’s distinct style and took on the role of DJ as tastemaker, said Phil White, co-author of “On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide.” Knuckles “defined really what House music was in terms of style,” White said. Knuckles even would cut and tape together pieces of reel-to-reel recordings to make extended tracks, he said.
Knuckles went on to have his own recording career, putting out his own albums on Virgin Records and working as a producer and remixer with many famous musicians. He had a hit with his first album’s first single, “The Whistle Song.”
Knuckles won a Grammy in 1997 for Remixer of the Year and Chicago named a stretch of road near downtown for him, calling it “Honorary ‘The Godfather of House Music’ Frankie Knuckles Way.” He also was a governor and trustee for the New York City chapter of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
“His electrifying remixes and high-energy performances on the turntables packed clubs for decades, and he inspired a generation of DJs, bringing house music to the mainstream,” the academy said in a Tuesday statement.
Philadelphia Weekly reported that the April 9 event will give 100 percent of the proceeds to the American Diabetes Association.
The event “is all about life-celebrating and homage-paying, courtesy of Philadelphia DJ luminaries who’ve been influenced by the man, among them Rich Medina, Rob Paine and Sundae don Lee Jones,” it said.
“[Knuckles’] style was timeless, allowing him to take bits and pieces from the past and present and serve them as a musical feast to the hungry masses,” Jones told PW. “His sets were never pre-planned. They were always different because each crowd was different. He showed me how to connect with the crowd, from the fiercest drag queen to the well-dressed suit—how to ebb and flow with my dance floor.”
It will be $10 to get in. The event starts at 9 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
