Larry Patterson
Hope your well & taking all the very necessary precautions, a lot of important news & information daily, I'm just staying in & doing the best I can with it all, one day at a time.
Occasionally I do need a break from all that, today I was thinking about DJ Larry Patterson... someone you really don't hear about very often, but a truly exceptional DJ & wonderful person. The picture below has been circulating for years as just a garage dance floor moment, but actually a very special picture for me. This was taken on one of the rare occasions I DJ'd at Paradise Garage, when I was playing "We Got The Funk" & Larry Patterson & David Todd ran to the dance floor, Larry Patterson in the red T-shirt, David in brown. Having these two dance to my music was almost as important to me as playing at the Garage itself. The night was a special Tues. night event, celebration of (Judy Weinstein's record pool) For The Record's 1st anniversary. With DJ's Kenny Morgan, Jellybean Benitez, Jonathan Fearing, Danny Krivit, finishing with Larry Levan. Larry Levan was a member of that pool & allowed all pool members free full access to the Garage. David Todd was a pretty well known impressive DJ & remixer, but Larry Patterson was also quite exceptional & really impressed me, his taste, his delivery... a DJ's DJ.
The edit I did of the Chi-lites "My First Mistake" was inspired by the way I heard Larry Patterson play it the night he filled in for LL at the Garage. It was a short & difficult song to work, & a very rare thing to hear a DJ work 2 copies of the original... properly. In 5 decades of listening to most of the best DJ's ever, Larry Patterson is definitely in my top 5. I also included the entire photo spread from that night's original DISCOTHEKIN' magazine article, very rare to see a photo of the early version of Larry's DJ booth with light man MG, the original FRED'S KING ST. PARKING GARAGE sign, & the original very rough version of sound proofing boards in the ceiling of the dance floor, with only a smattering of lights.
Stay well, Mr. K :)