On Thursday, July 3, Tenaglia won't need to be chaperoned or have a curfew imposed on him when he returns to Miami to play at Club Space. He'll celebrate his 50-year career as a DJ just as the club recently observed its 25th anniversary this past March.
"I think one thing I won't be doing is a crazy 15-hour marathon," Tenaglia assures New Times. "I'm going to be doing my usual: reading the crowd, number one; and then going on a journey."
Tenaglia's set should follow the holy triptych of house sounds: tech-house to warm up, early aughts tribal house to mesmerize, and euphoric progressive house. The sounds may not be hard to navigate, but helping to introduce the music is something only a handful of DJs can put on their proverbial résumé.
One of them is Tenaglia.
Echoing Club Space cofounder Louis Puig, who spoke to New Times earlier this year about the trials and triumphs involved in opening the club and keeping it running until he sold it in the mid-2000s, Tenaglia fondly recalls an early marathon set that spanned from evening till the following afternoon.
"Space has a special place in my heart," he says. "I had some incredible nights there in the early days when I was still coming down from the high of Groove Jet parties in the '90s. We moved our Groove Jet parties to Space for three years."
1975-85: Coming Up in New York
A native New Yorker, Danny Tenaglia built his name in Brooklyn. From the Miami Lounge to local roller discos, Tenaglia brought the crowds. Back then, 150+ bpm techno and build-up-and-drop house music weren't the draw; Tenaglia spun disco and soul from artists like Donna Summer, the Trammps, and Marvin Gaye for hours on end. The way he tells it, there was no epiphany where he thought DJ'ing would be his raison d’être so soon into his career. He just had one goal back then: "Cross the bridge" into Manhattan for a booking. "That was as high as it could go back in the '70s," he says.
Back then, the holy grails were the Loft and Paradise Garage, the latter a revered SoHo club where Tenaglia saw firsthand the sway and power of the late, great Larry Levan, who could play sprawling, borderless music all night. Seeing not only Levan but also how Manhattan clubs like Inferno, Better Days, and Starship Discovery One could pack DJs for a night of music — even in the bathroom — made Tenaglia begin to see that a movement might be forming.
"I guess there was no such thing on the horizon where all this would go between the 80s, raves, and post-disco. Then techno came through, and they were bringing the rave mentality inside the nightclub; besides having the resident DJ, there were now three, four, or five DJs on the lineup. I saw all these changes globally, but I could have never predicted that it would have gone this far.""I'm going to be doing my usual: reading the crowd, number one; and then going on a journey."
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1985: Moving Down to Miami
Despite the bookings and residencies in New York, the moment when Tenaglia believed he could be a DJ came in Miami. In 1985, he moved down to the Magic City to play at Cheers, a venue in South Miami that held the distinction of holding the metropolitan area's sole 6 a.m. liquor license. "I was there for five years, three to four nights a week, alternating with another DJ. Cheers was a local gay bar and video lounge, and then they expanded to the building next door, where they installed a dance floor. That's when I started going there. It was predominantly gay until 3 a.m., and then people would come from all different bars, like Uncle Charlie's and Fire and Ice. It was the place to be."
Tenaglia's elevated profile in Miami meant industry representatives got to see him spin, especially when the Winter Music Conference relocated a few miles south from Fort Lauderdale in 1987. Thanks to the conference, Tenaglia was able to broaden his reach, performing throughout South Florida and connecting with artists, producers, music journalists, and other industry professionals who could help him secure global bookings. "The showcases we had would fill up with industry people, which you don't see anymore," he says.
The 1990s and Beyond: Recording Success
Cheers eventually closed (a strip joint called BT's Gentlemen's Club took over the space), in no small part thanks to the opening of Warsaw Ballroom in South Beach. Tenaglia used the lull in gigs to work on his production. In 1989, Atlantic records released his debut album, Waiting for a Call, under Tenaglia's Deep State alias. The album's success had the DJ busy with remixes and numerous releases on Tribal and Twisted Records. Then came his remix of Double Dee's "Found Love," which hit number one on Billboard. "It was one of my first remixes, and the people I knew in the industry said, 'Danny, New York is where you need to be if you want to pursue this career,'" he says.
Tenaglia moved back to New York in the '90s to take a gig as a resident DJ at the lauded Twilo club in Chelsea. "I got an invitation to play the Roxy, and then Twilo invited me for an afterparty, following Frankie Knuckles. Twilo became a regular occurrence. That's where I can say the rest is really history."
He also worked on compilation albums and more remixes, including Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy," The Daou's "Surrender Yourself," and Madonna's "Human Nature," which only brightened his spotlight. He says he owes the success in part to liner notes and album credits — a long-forgotten necessity in the streaming era. "It's unfortunate for the programmers and engineers and interns and keyboard players," he laments.
"It Feels Just Like Yesterday"
Tenaglia has witnessed every electronic music big bang (the birth of disco, house, and techno), seismic shifts (Larry Levan, the EDM explosion, and the introduction of CDJs), and stumbles (the Harlem Shake). His career has taken him across 50 countries. He's seen life and death. And he still greets the crowd with a boyish smile, as if time rewinds to 1975 with every set."It's almost hard to believe, looking back on my records from '75 and before. I look at the flyers and covers. I look at the mirror and say, 'Wow, 64 years old,'" he says. "It feels just like yesterday."
Danny Tenaglia. With Oscar G, Dennis Ferrer, Mai Iachetti, and Monoky 11 p.m. Thursday, July 3, at Club Space, 134 NE 11th St., Miami; 786-616-6742; clubspace.com. Tickets start at $10 via dice.fm.
