What David Mancuso taught me about playing records

My dear friend and mentor David Mancuso passed away earlier this week. It is incredibly difficult to come to terms with the fact that I will never see him again, never hear his laugh, see the twinkle in his eye, hug him or hear him send his love. I have spent hours crying, listening to records, reading old e-mails and reflecting upon the many different ways in which he changed my life. There were a multitude of ways in which he altered my way of thinking and my career in terms of social habits, party hosting and sound. And of course, he also taught me a lot about playing records or ‘musically hosting’.

I started going to David Mancuso’s Loft parties 25 years ago when I was in my early twenties. At the time, I was working as a syndicated radio host / producer and as a record reviewer. I already had a decent, varied record collection as I had worked in record shops from the age of 16. And I knew a thing or two about putting together music as I had made mix tapes as an adolescent, and from the age of 14 I had hosted radio shows on my high school’s 10-watt radio station through to my university days where I was a broadcaster and Program Director at WNYU. Even at my young age, I thought I knew a lot about music and the art of programming.

But when I stepped through the doors into David’s home on East 3^rd Street, the site of his weekly parties, I felt like Alice falling through the rabbit hole into a new musical wonderland. The space was beautifully lit and decorated with childlike balloons, a Buddha, a Christmas tree and a massive mirror ball. The dance floor was surrounded by ten Klipschorn loudspeakers from which emanated the most exquisite sound, a sound that gently engulfed the dancers and sounded more ‘musical’ than any other place I had been. And I didn’t know a single record that he played.

I’m going to abbreviate this part of the story as I have recounted it endless times, but after going to the party every week and having David up on my radio show, he invited me to play records with him at his party, and then we began a long and intense friendship which deepened with every year. Along with musically co-hosting parties with him, he sometimes asked me to fill in for him for an entire evening from midnight on Saturday to noon on Sunday. That meant putting together a 12-hour musical set that would not only sound great on the sensitive audiophile soundsystem but would also take the musically-tuned-in acrobatic Loft dancers on a journey. This was my apprenticeship.

Throughout my 25-year friendship with David, up through to the run of our Lucky Cloud Loft parties in London, I have learnt so much about the art of playing records. In the spirit of David, who always generously shared his knowledge, I feel it would be pertinent to share some of what I have learnt even if it may be applied in more of a DJ-led setting rather than the Loft world of musical hosting on an audiophile soundsystem.

At The Loft parties we only play vinyl and as the format has recently made a comeback, one should be warned that not all vinyl sounds great. David taught me to pay attention to how a record is mixed (in the studio) and to avoid records that already have too much bass as that will work against the other frequencies. The mastering and pressing are also a big part of the equation as if done incorrectly, a recording can sound like there is a blanket laid over it. At The Loft we feature records that have a sonically lifelike presence as the soundsystem only delivers what it is given. The source has to be correct.

After a brief period of experimentation David opted not to mix records for several reasons, one of which is technical. Instead of using a DJ mixer, he used a Mark Levinson ML-1 preamp that had two phono inputs and very simple circuitry without a headphone jack. The simplicity and incredibly high quality of the preamp allows for a purer sound. As somebody who has mixed records in club settings, I have witnessed another huge difference with the Loft ML-1 preamp set-up aside from the higher quality sound. Selecting without headphones to cue up the next record (you steadily place the Koetsu stylus on the record by eye) allows the musical host to be in the same musical moment as the dancers. We all hear the same thing; we are on the same trip.

When I started going to The Loft, the party lasted for 12 hours. In fact, I remember when David held a weekend-long memorial party for Larry Levan that carried on until Monday. Long ‘sets’ allow for deeper and more dynamic music journeys where there can be a beginning where the dancer is organically and warmly lured onto the dancefloor by subtle means, lifted up with peaks and highs and into the self with dips and troughs and then back again until the end is reached and the dancer is gently guided to re-enter the ‘real’ world. As there is no mixing, these journeys are not ruled by BPMs or musical styles. Instead songs are linked lyrically, musically and sonically with an intuitive flow.

The most important lesson I learned from David was how to be a ‘musical host’ rather than a DJ. David never considered himself a DJ as he felt that accolade was often related to an ego and he wanted to remove the ego from the party and didn’t want his own ego to get in the way of the music. Instead, David channelled music and we often talked about the synchronicity that a selector can feel with a dancefloor or a radio audience – a concept akin to a ‘third ear’. You cannot pre-program the records to achieve this higher musical state as it is a telepathic give-and-take conversation. In this sense, there isn’t one person in charge or in complete control but rather someone who facilitates. David always said the parties were not about him and that is why these parties will continue with the template he created. Once the ego is removed, everybody is on the same trip and then my friends, we have lift off.

I understand that these principles will not be easy to adhere to in the normal ‘club’ situation, but hopefully there are insights that will enable you to think in a different way about how to play records. And I can only hope that I can impart a fraction of what my dear friend and mentor David Mancuso has taught me. Love saves the day.

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy co-produced The Loft compilations with David Mancuso and is a musical host of The Loft. Along with Dr. Jeremy Gilbert and Tim Lawrence she runs the collective Lucky Cloud Loft Parties, which they started with David Mancuso in 2003 after she moved from NYC to London. She's also the founder of Classic Album Sundays.