What would Larry play?

If he were still spinning the wheels of steel, what would Larry Levan be playing today?

Would it be:

A) straight-up funky house/disco

or

B) a mix of stuff like Blaze, Henrik Schwarz, Ame, Kanzyani, Joris Voorn, Orlando Voorn, Milton Jackson, Francois Dubois, Andre Crom, Ashley Beedle, some oldies, some rock-edits, a twist of Sunburst Band and more - a variety which covers hand-holding percussionists to drum-machine tweaking groups of brothers whose names all begin with 'L'.

or

C) *another suggestion*

There is a reason I ask - What is the classic Garage style of DJing updated to 2009? I'd love to know what you think. Personally I think it's tending more towards option B than anything else.

I'd also opt for B... but if the money/junk/boys were right I am sure he'd play A

disco, he'd be milking his name for smack

What Websta said.
He'd have tried all that other stuff but come back to disco, because of it's apparent 'revival'. I mean the revival of the cool, minor-chords, funk-boogie disco -not the amazing Eurodisco like Cerrone / Boris Midney / Costandinos stuff which makes people run for the hills.

A & B. Too much $$$ to be made for him not to drop a bit of funky house every now and again.

But the highest paid DJs in the world generally share one trait... none of them play it. If they do it's the odd track, not the overall theme.

Dubstep

Larry would still be 3 steps ahead of what you thought he was going to play.

he sold all his good records to buy drugs...

i think in all likelyy hood he wouldn't be any diferent from people like Junior Vazquez.

Nott very much at all.

The reason he is soo loved now is cos he is dead and can't fuck up his legacy anymore

"i was lucky enough never to have a bad night at the garage" - rv

i didn't know Ricardo Villalobos went to the garage!

For dancing lessons, I thought you knew??

he was LL's dealer

my ignorance knows no bounds.

Interesting call Websta on the Junior Vasquez thing. He said in a recent interview he felt like Larry had 'passed him the baton'. In the early 90s it may have looked the case for sure but Jnr V lost the plot once big-room clubs got rolling in New York and that belting NY Hard House scene got going.

I picture Larry as being more along the FK style of things - maybe Danny Tenaglia when he's not playing belting techno.

It's also worth considering that length of sets too. These guys generally wont consider bookings for anything less than 5 hours and I imagine Larry would be the same. Given this, I'd guess he'd be way more down the 'B' category above than big tune after big tune.

The way it should be, what's with 1-2 hr sets??

I agree. But the skill of doing them was never learned by many current DJs - their focus is purely on the 'me' set which forgets that a night is a night, not just them. When I go out it is often as if the DJ before and after are the competition, not comrades.

As I've mentioned before, I've got mates in the states who say the 2 hr 'set' DJs are disparagingly called circuit DJs and the music they play is circuit music.

Ever wonder why Roger S and Eric Morillo, over the years, have never really had a (decent) regular gig in NY despite being from there? This is a big part of why.

i thought the circuit music was the house (?) played in the gay scene in Palm Springs etc but the likes of Tony Moran, Vasquez, Chris Cox et al?
You know... remixes of pop tunes, all very wannabe tribal.

Anyway - who do you think has Larry's baton then? remember he played wildly commercial stuff at the time - something that's not accepted as cool now.

I said above, maybe FK or Danny come closest that I can think of.

Danny and FK are known to play the odd quite cheesy tune (Danny especially) but that isn't the overall vibe of the set which was also the case with Larry. They play some tunes on shock value - which circuit and general house DJs don't do (pretty much ever). They always play safe which in my thinking is a sure fire way to ensure you are never anything special as a DJ. I have nothing wrong with the odd commercial tune in a set - as long as it's done creatively and not just one-after-another.

I'd also add that Derrick Carter and Derrick May have that Larry-esque mentality. They have an x-factor which, when they're on form, is undeniably brilliant - busting out african drum tracks, TV show theme songs etc.

One thing worth considering re: guys like Tenaglia/Cox etc and which I've seen Danny specifically mention as a reason he doesn't like people posting his sets online is that, because they play a high-percentage of unidentifiable tunes, when someone posts the ones they can identify online it looks like he played a set of old classics. When, if you are there, he might play one an hour for most of his set.