Award-winning ‘house music’ impresario
CHICAGO - Frankie Knuckles, a Grammy-winning Chicago disc jockey known as the “Godfather of House Music” who worked with artists including Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, has died at age 59.
Knuckles died Monday in Chicago, the Cook County medical examiner said Tuesday. The medical examiner said a cause of death was not available.
Knuckles is considered a key figure in the evolution of the house-music genre, dating back three decades to venues in Chicago and New York.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday that Chicago has lost “one of its most treasured cultural pioneers.”
Knuckles was born Francis Nicholls on Jan. 18, 1955, in the Bronx. He worked as a DJ in the early 1970s in New York before moving to Chicago in the late 1970s. InChicago he was resident DJ at The Warehouse club until it closed in 1983.
It was there that he defined house music’s distinct style and took on the role of DJ as taste maker, said Phil White, co-author of On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide.
Knuckles went on to have his own recording career, putting out his own albums on Virgin Records and working as a producer and remixer with many famous musicians. He had a hit with his first album’s first single, “The Whistle Song.”
Knuckles won a Grammy in 1997 for Remixer of the Year and Chicago named a stretch of road near downtown for him, calling it “Honorary ‘The Godfather of House Music’ Frankie Knuckles Way.”
He also was a governor and trustee for the New York City chapter of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/03/2014