LARRY LEVAN is the Greatest DJ Of All Time... by ARTHUR BAKER

[@JoaquinAnthony5]

I also have been around since the Sanctuary days. I have to say that Larry changed the landscape, when it came to mixing and playing disco and House. I still yell out his name when I'm at 718 Sessions and Danny Krivit is rocking the house with a record that Larry had memorialized. With all respect, to Danny Krivit, who I love, Larry was the quintessential DJ. I still relish those moments on the dance floor of Paradise Garage, and although many years have passed, no one has filled his shoes.

[@57dms]

LARRY was the best master of crowd control that I have ever seen. There are many, many legendary DJs. But the venue that Larry played at and the records he broke, guarantees the fact that there will NEVER be a DJ as great at deep and soulful HOUSE MUSIC, as Lawrence Philpot Levan. He did things and got away with things no other DJ could. The Richard Long system he played on was second to none back in the day. RIP Larry, Long Live the Paradise Garage!!! Keep Bangin'!!!!!!

[@richardvasquez4533]

Larry’s example and his classroom... the Paradise Garage inspired many to consider the deejay as a serious new art form… myself included. Most went there to just have a good time… but there were many who went there to study what he was doing. It was just so brilliant and must go down in history as the basis for our present Deejay Culture.

[@joeyllanos7573]

ABSOLUTELY

[@mattylga01]

the younger generation needs to understand that its not all about mixing great like louie vega but also the selection of songs which is more important. I mean whats the point of mixing 1 crappy song into 1 good song? Also, deejays nowadays dont know how to bring the crowd down a little bit and then bring the crowd back up. i used to always listen to pal joey mixing new songs that he made and he would ask me what i thought and sometimes i would tell him "that song is a walk to the bar". The point being is, its ok to bring the crowd down and then play a record that really jumps and make the people get on the dancefloor again. And what i hate the MOST are these 30 second djays who play a song for 30 seconds and cut the song off at the best part. LET THE SONG PLAAAAAAY young bucks ;-)

[@sjr10011]

Arthur Baker speaks the truth!!! The first club i ever went to was on west 43rd street just off 9th avenue, called the Sanctuary. So i have been around loving music and the clubs, ever since i can remember... Larry Levan was and will always be my favorite and the GREATEST DJ of all times!!! Thanks to Larry Levan, Richard Long & Associates sound systems, and Michael Brody's vision and money, they created the Paradise Garage. The music lives forever on my iphone4

[@daimonperez5571]

Really listen to what A.B. is really saying. He said when he went to P.G. he heard some of those records for the first time. Larry broke a lot of that music not traditional disco records. He would mix sometimes, he would slam a song and he loved vocals which was some of his best remixes. Through music he introduced and made you feel the music... That in essence is a D.j's job .... He gets my vote...

[@thatchinaboi]

Happy Birthday Larry..u were a bit before my time..heard one if ur legendary live sets at the Paradise which is on double cd set paying tribute to u. Pure magic! Your spirit will live on my brother!

[@missfitness713]

Larry Levan was the greatest, RIP MY BROTHER, you brought me many years of pleasure......!

[@synchopated09]

i agree with baker that levan had really soulful awesome vocal tracks through out his set that when unleashed at the right time, really put people in the mood to dance and feel free, feel lusty and feel many things for those few moments at least

[@JacquieAdorno]

Arthur, you are absolutely correct, Larry Levan was the GREATEST dj. He had the gift of vision and musical understanding.

[@missfitness713]

Larry Levan was the greatest, RIP MY BROTHER, you brought me many years of pleasure......! Preach the truth Arthur!

[@ToeKnee1]

MADD props to Arthur and Larry. Larry should definitely be in the musical history books as one of the best. (IMHO).

[@DOC_NO]

@JoaquinAnthony5 Larry was the quintessential DJ. I still relish those moments on the dance floor of Paradise Garage

[@frankcarrasquillo6394]

He probably coould have been if he were still alive but i believe other s have surpassed him because of all that s been done since he passed!

[@Toodles1218]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARRY....RIP

[@ashleystyles6888]

Ive watched all of these vids and the most convincing one?? THIS one. To have a heavy hitter like Arthur recommend someone is basically IT. The way people talk about Larry Levan this long after his demise. I know very little of Larry Levan. But after hearing all other arguments?. LARRY LEVAN-GREATEST DJ OF ALL TIME

[@johnpetty9310]

I'm happy to say that I've been to 84 KING Street just ONCE !!! I heard LARRY played 2 or 3 times in person (3rd times a lil questionable , might've been someone else) ... The 2nd time was the BEST, he did a party at Club Zanzibar (in my hometown of Newark NJ) right after Paradise Garage closed and the RLA system's "SONICS" were really PUSHED that night. So while he not my nomination (Don't Drag Me) he was really SOMETHING SPECIAL in terms of "Taste and Technicalities".

[@djkaneck1]

I disagree, DJ Kool Herc did something no other dj has done...he created a culture. Levan help promote and sell records, Kool Herc created a whole different style of DJ-ing with same music everybody else was playing.

[@dubsideproductions2859]

Larry Levan helped start house music.

[@nycbass78]

DJ KaNeck I would say they both were part of an underground that both went mainstream,rap and dance/house culture.the first records used for rapping we’re probably elongated break beats from the music being played at the paradise garage and the loft.

[@sheldonhchambliss1385]

I have to agree with you all the way baker should know also he jumped on the hip hop wagon

[@donnyn9199]

Larry Levan, David Mancuso, Walter Gibbons, Ron Hardy #allgenoius #housemusicforlife

[@synchopated09]

larry was great, i was barely born then, i heard his sets though, but what arthur baker is talking about is an epoch of certain time and place, where electro disco, dance music, remixing or dubbing and or engineering dance tracks, djing or turntablelism and the whole clubing thing was new and full of energy + drugs . it was pure time in dance music, b4 the greedy shitty music industry as a whole took hold of it.

[@aziblas8299]

Oh yeah Paradise Garage !

[@Keepsz]

AMEN !

[@psychowsky]

Would vote for Ron Hardy, but Larry Levan is great too!!! Cant actualy make the comparison :)

[@sundaramaji]

GOD BLESS ARTHUR BAKER FOR TELLING THE TRUTH

[@Jamallus55]

To have been a "Club-hopper" back in the day, and to have had access to the "D.J's" themselves, would have revealed a lot about the style of the player's in the game... Placed in a different environment, each "DJ" would perform differently..... Your "castle" is yours..... Given that "Larry" had the connections with the record industry, (and a bigger audience) he had access to far more music than the average "DJ", even though he was privy to the same records that "Tee Scott", and "Nicky Siano" and other's were getting at the "Record Pool"....... They may actually have been playing the same records, though "Larry had a wider audience to play to.... I'd say that "Larry" had been in the "right place, at the right time", but to call his skills worthy of "The greatest" status........ I say, there are others who were better!..... Just in some of the other comments, are "DJ's" who had "Mad skills!", and helped change the game..... "Larry", although I loved him "madly", could not match his contemporary "Tee Scott" in the "Soul-dance/House music" mixing realm...... "Tee" would have "toasted" "Larry!!!" If you need a witness...... Ask somebody!!!!

[@barbaralee8363]

Frankie Crocker the Chief Rocker. Those were some days.

[@Choubidou917]

OK, Just send me the vinyls behind Mr Arthur Baker ; ) How many THX 2 : Arthur Baker, Larry Levan, Ron Hardy, MAW, JJBenitez, Latin Rascals, RLP, Dimitri, Max Mix, DMC, Bad Boy Bill, Big Apple Mix, Chad Jackson, Sanny X, Roger Johnson, Double Dee + Steinski, Gapul, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Julian Perez, Mickey Oliver, Shep Petitbone, Francois K, , , (never ending list...) Those DJ's Saved Our Life !

[@sheldonhchambliss1385]

I like your dj list

[@lvhomesales]

I have been to the P.Garage back in the days, a few times when I was kid,18,19,20. Yes, he was one of the greatest DJ but not in the your traditional way of mixing. I thought Jelly bean was great when I used to go to the Funhouse. Jelly Bean was just as great as Larry but with better mixing skills. Larry would captive dancers intentionally or unintentionally with long breaks inbetween records. No real blending, mixing track after track.Once in a while he would mix one track into another another. Which sometimes sounded a bit sloppy at times. But no one cared about that while you were in the room. Dancers were in a musical trance. Each track Larry played sounded like the its being played for the first time. Thats what made his DJ sessions unique. Guess those breaks in between created a lot of anticipation that when Larry did play the next tract it was amazing. It was like savoring the sounds of each record from being to end. Which is how he played.I was fortunate to have met him one night at a party that I DJed at in mid town back in the 80s. He will be remembered.

[@hardcorehouse]

Agreed; most don't remember, choose not to remember or don't know/weren't there enough to know that he was great, at times, and other times mediocre, probably more so as the drugs deepened. At the same time, the influence of his remixes and of that place with the world's best sound system and also that time in NYC late 70s-early 80s with the greatest music happening then, all converged and he was good sometimes great at the right place and right time. Also, sometimes these guys with the perfect mixes are boring and leave things out with their perfection, as opposed to a rawer effect you'd get with Levan at the G. Tee Scott was arguably as good or better than Levan and turned it out but wasn't there often enough to be remembered as much, and he didn't have the added influenced of Larry's great remixes that were a big part of the sound.

[@sheldonhchambliss1385]

A great video just to short

[@virgilwilliams2378]

I'm glad he said some nights he was crap. Because some people make him sound like he never effed up.

[@sonet1231]

Agree

[@OneMixDJ]

Preach on Brother Arthur! Larry Levan is the greatest of all time, bar none.

[@abelrivera5048]

does anyone know the bongo version of lets be young that was the menu music for his documentary Maestro back in 2003. Please let me know where to find it i really love that song

[@dorotheaferguson8842]

Larry is the best it was like going to church and getting the Holy Spirit

[@frankcarrasquillo6394]

So do we judge the the GOAT DJ by his skill,body of work, consistency etc!

[@MrSteven2945]

I agree i would vote for ron hardy.... chi house music make the genre epic massive and global ....sorry NEW YORK .... YOU CANNT GET PROP UNDER FALSE PRETENSE

[@djdedan]

whew! good one!

[@sheldonhchambliss1385]

The best thing on you tube

[@ossessionerossonera]

@lwaysFK♥️🔝

[@loftmusic2880]

Larry was a legend but facts have it, he learned from the greatest of all time David Mancuso the loft nyc #lovesavestheday 🎈🎈🎈

[@abumc5104]

there is not only one GOAT dj some of them dj's were overhyped some of them had the sound system some had more/better(promo)discs others had much more personality some had a better taste in music others/a few had real mixing-skills but all of them made you dance and have a good time / night that's what dj's are for

[@Jamallus55]

Please people....listen to any of the mix sessions that are out there of Larry playing, and tell me that you still think he's the greatest D.J. of all time? As I've said before, as a joke, Larry would throw on records he hated, and laugh with his friends n the booth, as the crowd still danced to them!...

[@TheFernandoFunk]

Yes...yes it was :x

[@Jamallus55]

He built the sound system himself, and to watch him mix, was like watching a wizard!..(Side Note)...Frankie Crocker was following the wave that had started with DJ's like "Tee", "Walter Gibbons", and a host of others......Everything fell into Larry's lap, and like anyone else, he ran with it! It really wasn't Larry's mixing.....It was the "Richard Long" sound system that rocked the Garage.......I've heard other D.J.'s play in Larry's absence, and they were way better than him.

[@mixit313]

Larry Levan, Ron Hardy, Jeff Mills (as the Wizard (late 80s Jeff Mills) in that order...then Me (lol)

[@Jamallus55]

I disagree whole hardily with you, ....I noninate Mr. Torano "Tee" Scott, of the legendary club Better Day's, as the best DJ. of all time!....Sorry, but he was playing, when Lary was still in high school, him, and Frankie Knuckles!...."Tee" had the mixing chops, having learned from playing on a "Gemini" two channel mixer, and two of the earliest turntables there was in the 70's......At a club!...

[@DJRich01]

Djing is improvisation. Fuck doing pre determined sets. You feel the crowd, you drop a jam, see the reaction and go from there. Oh, and try sifting through records, slamming on the 12's, getting on beat and then mixing at the right time. Well, that how it used to be done. Oh yeah, did i mention records were not .99 or even 1.99. Try 5.99 domestic and 10.99 imports.

[@Jamallus55]

Let's show the "Emperor" that he really has no clothes on!.....I heard for years, people talking about how well Larry played, ....and I just couldn't hear it!....That CD that was put out a couple of years ago....proves it!.......Larry was a great studio remixer, but live..........Eh!

[@alainvincent1309]

Baker Speaks The Truth Levan, Kamins, Benitez. In That Order. At That Time.

[@Jamallus55]

In other clubs.....He was out of his element!......Click on any of the video's on the right of this page, and have a listen......I'd vote Tony Humphres,.......Kenny Carpenter...The list is long, and varied.....You Had to be there to compare the playing styles of the diffrent D.J.s, even of Larry's time!....Or before it!...Hell, Nicky Siano could only teach Larry so much!.....The talent part, had to come from him!

[@shepardwallace5300]

man, the algorithm is so diff now. None of that stuff in the right rail anymore. :-(

[@Jamallus55]

The system he played on, was the star!!!....NOT Larry!....Other D.J.'s who played at the "P.G." turned that place out!...The venue it's self, and the number of people it could hold, was a wonder, but I've gone on day's that Larry wasn't the headline D.J., and enjoyed myself!.....

[@frankcarrasquillo6394]

I agree with u on that! I been to some of those party with guess DJ s at PG and in my memories those were some the best party s at the PG!

[@Propofol98]

real real remixeur Dj the Best Arthur Baker ,Silk hurley's,Larry levan ,Fr Kevorkian,MAW, F feliciano larry Heard, Ron Hardy, Shep ptibone Paul Hardcastle,F knuckles M Jefferson,

[@DroopusTunes]

Love you like cooked food, Arthur my friend, but we don;t agree on this one. B)

[@bksson2818]

Sometime Arthur Baker was a good producer and sometimes he was trash😳

[@TheFernandoFunk]

Larry Levan, the Swedish House Mafia of the 80s. ....because he knew how to hype a crowd up!

[@DJABEATZ]

Some nights he was crap? Really?

[@lofttalking9266]

Best dj of all time no way sound system best of all time yes!! Their were many djs better than him in the 70s maybe u was not out Their!! I was!! I dance from the 70s to the 90s I'm a well known dancer sorry your wrong

[@reanimate21]

This was cool until he made a selfless promo...

[@djdedan]

are you serious? sarcasm right?