Johnny Dynell (born John Savas) is a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

DJ, record producer, recording artist, remixer, nightclub promoter, and nightlife

impresario An impresario (from Italian ''impresa'', 'an enterprise or undertaking') is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, Play (theatre), plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film producer, film or ...

Club DJ

Dynell started his DJ career at the

Mudd Club The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for post punk underground music and no wave counterculture events. It was opened ...

in 1980 and has been a resident DJ at influential New York City clubs for over three decades including The

Pyramid Club Pyramid Club may refer to the following night clubs: * Pyramid Club (New York City) The Pyramid Club was a nightclub in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. After opening in 1979, the Pyramid helped define the East Village drag queen, ...

Danceteria Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from May 1980 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous l ...

, The Roxy,

The Limelight The Limelight was a chain of nightclubs owned and operated by Peter Gatien. It had locations in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hallandale, Florida. History Florida and Atlanta locations Peter Gatien opened the first Limelight n ...

Area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

, The Tunnel,

Susanne Bartsch Susanne Bartsch is a Swiss event producer, living in the United States, whose monthly parties at the Copacabana in late-1980s New York City united the ''haute'' and ''demi-monde'', making her an icon of New York nightlife. "Ms. Bartsch's name," ...

parties, Jackie 60, Crobar, Mr. Black, Greenhouse, Marquee, The Copacabana, The Monster, The Ice Palace (Fire Island), Daniel Nardicio parties and Club Cumming.

Nightlife promoter and club owner

In 1990 Dynell, along with others, founded the performance club Jackie 60, a center of New York art club performance. In 1996, Dynell and Valenti took over full-time operation of the venue that housed Jackie 60, renaming the club ''Mother''. The venue, designed by Dynell, also housed Click + Drag, a “cyber-fetish-gothic weekly” and New York City's first weekly vampire themed club, Long Black Veil. ''Mother'' closed in June, 2000.

Music recording career

Johnny Dynell's first single "Jam Hot" (Acme Records, 1983) became a cult classic and has been remixed and sampled many times over. In 1990

Norman Cook Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of samples from eclectic genres, combined ...

aka Fatboy Slim and his group

Beats International Beats International were a British dance music band and hip-hop collective, formed in the late 1980s by Norman Cook (later in his career known as Fatboy Slim) based in Brighton, East Sussex, England, after his departure from the Housemartins. ...

released "

Dub Be Good to Me "Dub Be Good to Me" is a song by British dub group Beats International featuring singer Lindy Layton, released on 24 January 1990 by Go! Beat Records as the first single from their debut album, '' Let Them Eat Bingo'' (1990). It was written b ...

" which sampled the "Jam Hot" rap "tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty/ you're listening to the boy from the big bad city, this is Jam Hot, this is Jam Hot". The song was the seventh best-selling single of 1990 in the UK, reached #1 on the U.S.

Billboard Hot Dance Club Play The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

chart and #76 on the Billboard

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

. In 2010 a remix project on Smash Hit Music included re-workings by

Tensnake Marco Niemerski, known professionally as Tensnake (born 1975), is a German DJ and producer from Hamburg best known for his 2010 track " Coma Cat", which appeared on at least 15 compilations that year. "Coma Cat" reached number 85 on the UK Sing ...

Peter Rauhofer Peter Rauhofer (29 April 1965 – 7 May 2013) was an Austrian-American disc jockey (DJ), remixer and producer who formerly worked under the moniker Club 69 as well as Size Queen. A native of Vienna, Austria, he was famous for a variety of his ...

, Ilija Rudman, Clouded Vision, 40 Thieves and the song's original producer

Mark Kamins Mark Kamins (April 11, 1950 – February 14, 2013) was an American record producer, remixer, and disc jockey famous for his role in the New York club scene. He is best known for helping launch the career of singer Madonna by bringing her to Sir ...

. As a recording artist Dynell has also been released on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

, Heinz Records, Tribal Records, GIG Records, Xtravaganza Records, Pow Wow Records, Warlock Records and his own label Endless Night Music since 2011. Dynell, a longtime member of the

House of Xtravaganza Founded in 1982, the House of Xtravaganza is one of the most publicly recognized "houses" to emerge from the New York City underground ballroom scene and among the longest continuously active. House of Xtravaganza members and the collective group ...

, helped to introduce to the culture at large the "voguing" dance form with his 1989 release "Elements of Vogue", performed by MC David Ian Xtravaganza, a co-writer of the song with Dynell and David DePino.Regnault, Chantal and Lawrence, Tim. ''Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York City 1989-92''. Soul Jazz Books, 2011, p. 7 As a songwriter, Dynell has also collaborated with

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and ...

and

Pink Martini Pink Martini is an American band founded in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon. Group members call it a little orchestra that crosses several styles, such as Classical music, classical, Latin music, Latin, traditional pop, and ...

on "Una Notte a Napoli" and "Segundo".

Selected discography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dynell, Johnny Living people American DJs DJs from New York City American record producers Year of birth missing (living people)