Disco Roots

Before house, before garage, before techno — there was The Loft. David Mancuso began throwing invite-only rent parties at 647 Broadway in 1970, playing records from start to finish without mixing, curating an emotional journey for a crowd of mostly Black, Latino, and gay New Yorkers. Mancuso never had a liquor license; admission was a donation. Meanwhile, Francis Grasso at the Sanctuary and Continental Baths was inventing the technical language of DJing itself — slip-cueing, headphone monitoring, beatmatching. These two figures, barely known outside specialist circles, invented the conditions that made everything else possible.

Key figures: David Mancuso, Francis Grasso, Nicky Siano, Larry Levan