Kenny Carpenter is a survivor. He’s a DJ who has gone through from every part of nightlife from doing the lights with Walter Gibbons to DJing at Studio 54 and, finally, addiction to crack cocaine and has come out the other side grinning. He’s an old-fashioned entertainer who knows to have a good time, is as dapper as they come (he does a great line in fur-trimmed coats) and can still rock a party. We love him.

 

Where did you grow up?

I was born in 1957 in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn where I've lived all my life. I grew up in the projects with seven brothers. It was a rough life. No father around. When I was younger I loved music and used to collect 45s like crazy. I loved Diana Ross; I had everything that was on Motown. The first 12-inch I ever bought was Nice And Nasty by the Salsoul Orchestra. I used to like being the centre of attention. An eccentric exhibitionist. My mother would go to work and we had this five-bedroom apartment in the projects, and as soon as she left it was party time. All you would hear is bass and this smell coming from the apartment [he means grass smoke]. I never had a mixer. I had two amplifiers and I'd go from one to the other.

 

What was your first club experience?

The first time I went to a club, I had some friends and they were like, ‘Come on, let’s go out to a club in Manhattan.’ I went to this bar called Hollywood which was on 43rd Street.

 

Richie Kaczor’s club?

That’s right. It was 1976. After that, we left there and went to Galaxy 21, because the Galaxy – Hollywood closed at about 4 o'clock – went on till 8 or 9. So they said, ‘Come on, let’s go over there, we know this other place’. I was hanging with all these girls, I used to hang out with seven of them. We had a fantastic time. And I kept looking at the DJ booth and thinking I gotta find a way to get inside there. It was the only thing I could think about. After I’d been to the club a couple of times, I met Walter Gibbons because he had eyes for me. I started talking to him and made it inside the booth. So I had a short relationship with Walter, we saw each other for a couple of months. He got me a job working the lights. So the second club I ever went to I started working in. I worked the lights for about a year then I left.

 

Tell me a little about Galaxy 21?

It was a brownstone with four floors. The top floor was this cabaret thing. They had a lot of shows, drag shows. It was a very private room and you had to pay to see the performers. It was nice. The third floor, they had these rooms called the Red Room and the Blue Room. The Blue Room had a bar and the Red Room was like a pillow room with all these pillows around, where you could go and get cosy with somebody in this room and do whatever. I don't remember the second floor. The first floor was a huge dancefloor. They made it like a tunnel. Walter was the first DJ I ever saw who cut up records, and he used tapes, and use echo, he would do edits, I never saw anybody work it like him. So talented and they loved him so much at that club.

 

Was François there then?

François had came at the end of Walter's reign, that's when François popped up on the scene. He was fresh over from France, not speaking a word of English. He'd hammer away at the drums during the party. I hated it. I used to go up to him and say, ‘Please, go take a break. Here's five dollars. Go get yourself a drink.’ Plus, he didn’t under stand a word I was saying [raucous laughter]. So Walter eventually left the club and they had many DJs in there. One of my favourites was Joey Madoni. Do you hear of him? Lives in Florida. Very good DJ. He works for TNS Sound in Fort Lauderdale. I worked there for a year or so then it got closed down. Then one of the guys that was part-owner and managed it, Angelo Clemente, decided to open up his own club which was on 19th St, between 5th and 6th called Inferno and I worked lights there for five years. I saw DJs going in and out of there. Too many.

 

Who were the main residents?

The one who had the longest stretch there was Rene Hewitt. Walter Gibbons played there, Joey Madoni, John Monaco, who was one of my favourites.

 

When did Walter go to Seattle?

I don't remember. I was too drugged up during that time. I can only remember things that are right in front of my face.

 

What did Inferno look like?

It was long. With eight huge columns in the middle. It was all Latin, Hispanic, it was the beginning of the cha cha days. Salsoul Orchestra, Fatback Band. Always a fight. Always. You don't wanna disrespect some Puerto Rican dude’s sister from the Bronx, knowhamsayin'? You just don’t wanna go there. Straight club. I work gay clubs and straight clubs. I don’t care as long as it’s good.

 

Did you go to other clubs while you were working at Inferno?

I used to go to the Loft often while I was working at Inferno. The Loft and the Garage. The Garage was a club from heaven. There just was no club that was better. I wouldn’t say that Larry was the best DJ, but I think he had his moments. But the club.... was amazing. Anybody could play there. I mean, if you had that kind of sound system under you, you know?

 

Why was it good?

The size of the bass. The fact that it was a club that welcomed African-American people. The fact that there was no alcohol. And that sound system. It was just so amazing. I've never heard any sound system that was better than that. And wonderful people; really partying who appreciated the music, like last night [Body & Soul] only on a bigger scale.

 

What about the Loft?

The Loft was always a place you could go and listen to classics and really appreciate the music. The Loft was always a place where I could go and wind down. They never played the music loud. It was always nice and mellow. The kind of place where you could go and wind down after you've been partying elsewhere. Cool out or hang out. It was a very social place and it didn't have alcohol. Most of the best places didn't serve alcohol. Once they started with the alcohol it messes the club up. I believe that when they serve alcohol they start immediately worrying about the numbers coming in instead of the quality of the club and the music. That's fucking the business up.

 

Do you think it also deters undesirables from coming, since they wouldn't come to a club that didn't serve it?

That's why people that like are not going to Body & Soul on Sunday afternoons. They're not going there to booze it up. Maye they go and smoke a joint or whatever, but they ain't gonna be on Es, it's just too early in the afternoon.

 

Tell me about DJing at Studio 54.

Rene Hewitt played at Inferno for three years. At that time I was playing at community parties in my neighbourhood. Six in the morning Rene would get tired. So he’d say, ‘Oh man, I’m tired. Could you go play for a while, I’m gonna go get some rest.’ He steps off and at that moment Mike Stone steps into the room with all these people from Studio 54. They're looking to hear Rene play, because they were going to fire Nicky Siano because he was forever falling over the turntables. So when they come in the door, I'm playing.

 

So what was Mike Stone’s role in this?

He was the promoter at Studio 54 from 79 to 81. This was when Steve Rubell was in jail. I played. They loved me. They asked me if I wanted to work Saturday nights. Told I’d love to. When Rene came back at about 7.30 and I said, ‘You won’t believe what happened. Mike Stone and these people from Studio 54 just came by and they asked me to work Saturday nights.’ Well he was ready to die. He didn’t speak to me for months. And I started working Saturday nights from the next Saturday.

 

This was post-Richie Kaczor? Where’d he go?

I don’t even think he was living in New York, I think he moved out. He passed away in the eighties. Nicky [Siano] would be able to tell you more.

 

What about Tom Savarese, Bobby Guttadaro. What happened to them?

I don’t know. I didn’t know them. I knew Richie Rivera. He passed away. About four years ago. So many DJs died. Larry Levan, Larry Paterson, Walter Gibbons, Tee Scott. To me all of those are legends. You know what I feel like? Since I come from that era of DJs, I feel like I’m still running with the torch. Trying to keep that underground music still alive.

 

Did you ever work with Tee Scott?

I worked with Tee Scott many times. He was a really good friend of mine. Tee’s really great heyday was at Better Days. The kind of DJ Tee was? He wasn’t a great mixer, but Tee knew how to play a record and make it into a real record. He knew how to work the sound system. When he worked at Better Days he used to wear slippers in the booth. And he had these huge feet, like size 15 or something. Triple E. When he was playing his music he would tap his feet. He was doing these taps and the whole booth was shaking! Tee was a good DJ. Gospelly, very black, very gay. But everybody was inspired by Nicky Siano. Nicky was the one everybody would go study at the Gallery. Nicky knew how to talk with music, that’s what they don’t do today; what makes it boring. He used lyrics to send a message to you. I love you, I hate, I miss you. You remember Freddy Prince, he was an actor in a famous sitcom here. He died and that night Nicky played Freddie’s Dead from the Superfly soundtrack. Those kind of things. He knew how make you feel like a real king on the dancefloor. Your drugs would be hitting you and he’d playing all this music, like Ecstasy Passion and Pain, the Originals. A lot of female singers, a lot of Diana Ross, Patti Labelle, like Spirits In It.

 

I started spinning at Studio 54 in October 1980, on my birthday, up until December of 1981. Steve Rubell got out of jail and he wanted his club back. Tell you a little story. Rubell came down one night. We got pretty much that underground feel. And Steve Rubell comes down with Calvin Klein, Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol to the booth. And he say, ‘Can you play Your Love by Lime?’ ‘I’m sorry but I don’t have it. It’s not my kind of record.’ I hated it. He says 'Well, listen, I own this club and I’ve got Bianca and Calvin and Andy and they wanna hear that record.’ I said, ‘Listen Steve, sorry I don’t have that record, but even if I did have it, I wouldn’t play that record because it’s not my style.’ He got mad. Stormed out of the booth. The following weekend, he hired Lime to perform live. And he stands looking at the booth, like, now I got Lime.

 

So Steve got his club back, briiefly, and I went to Bonds International which had the biggest dancefloor I've seen yet. It was on Broadway, between 44th and 45th. Right now, that club is the Criterion Theater. I worked there for two years. Good times. Heavy drug years. In New York, those were heavy coke years.

 

Which drugs were people doing?

Coke, acid, weed, and ethyl chloride. That's what I used to have all the time. I used to have dealers waiting in the queue to give me a hit. I used to see friends freebasing and I thought, ‘Oh, I could never do that’. I thought that I was better than that. Really. So one day I tried it. Loved it. It was around 1985, around that time. Started smoking crack and stopped playing music for five years. I had to get a regular job, with no experience. I got no big education. I had to humble myself and get out there into the regular workforce. First job was a messenger. I got a job working for a catalogue company, Laine & Bryant and I worked there for seven years. I was the handyman. I loved it. I wasn't making a big amount of money, but I loved it. People loved me there. That job saved my life, because during that time, in 1990, I found Narcotics Anonymous so all throughout my job I was insane. I was a mess. Terrible, but somehow or other they tolerated me. At the end of all my madness, I hadn't come in for four days and in 1990 and cleaned myself up. The counsellors helped me and my job helped me.

 

Do you still play in New York now?

Very rarely. The sound of New York is all R&B and techno. There's no in-between. All the large rooms - Roxy, Twilo, Tunnel and Limelight - and in all those clubs all the crowd is white, because the music is all that techno hard-track stuff. Black people in the city don’t wanna hear that, so they don’t go. Most young black kids wanna hear hip hop, they wanna hear R&B, they don't wanna hear house.

 

Do you think Body & Soul is important in terms of what it's trying to do?

I think Body & Soul is a sort of Sunday afternoon tea dance, it’s been its greatest asset, I really do. A lot of people don’t wanna go out on Saturday night. Especially older people. I’ve seen it all. I done all the ass-shaking I’m gonna do. There are loads of people that are tired of the club scene. If you’re gay you’re tired of the cruise scene in the clubs. I’ve never met a soulmate in a club and it’s been 25 years of searching. I used to play suggestive records to send a message, ‘Search to find the one, searching to find the one’ [he sings]. Like come to the booth, you know? ‘What’s he playing, that’s the fourth time tonight. He’s looking again, ain't he?’ Another thing that makes Body & Soul great is the music that they play. They’re playing the funky black music that people wanna hear.

 

It’s the first time I've seen such a mixed club for a long time.

You never see it in the city. That’s another thing that’s great about it. They got a great situation over there. I think it’ll just grow and grow. François told me they’re thinking of stopping doing flyers, because there’s too many people. A lot of people from out of town. Lot of Londoners. Lot of Japanese.

 

I went to Roxy on Friday and Djaimin was in town and he wanted to go to some places. The music was awful. Metal hard. And the crowd’s lovin’ it and that's the way it is in this town. A lot of muscle. Italian, straight muscle.

 

© DJhistory.com

Interviewed by Bill Brewster in Manhattan, 10.1.99

 

 

 

 

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