All hail the DJ

Kenny Carpenter





I arrived in these united states in the fall of 1981. I left the Virgin Islands right after I turned 18 and came straight to NYC. I had been fortunate to have met many people in St Thomas who were from NY because when I was 15, I worked as a DJ at a hotel beach club and spun records for some of the wildest parties on earth. Trust me. The people that owned the club, also owned another club on the island which was a branch of the legendary Studio 54 in NY. It was a place where Djs who worked in the New York dance palace, came and played records on a Richard Long designed sound system and let's just say it changed my life forever. I became friends with one of the best DJs that worked there, Bert Bevans, and so three years later when I finally moved to NY, of course I looked him up.

The late night world to which he introduced me, had me rubbing shoulders with performers who would later become superstars and engineers and disc-jockeys who already were. It was at Bonds International that I met Kenny. In the 80's, clubs in NY were big and small. Bonds was colossal. The place was packed with what seemed like thousands of people every night that they were open and Kenny masterfully whipped them into a frenzy and kept them dancing all night long.

In NY back then, DJs were evangelists, masters at inspiring an almost religious experience. Certainly it was spiritual and I was a devoted acolyte. After dancing my ass off, we (Bert, MG, Kenny and I) often went to breakfast together, still high on music and stuff. Somehow, I found the strength to make it to work the next day, often with no sleep, (hell, I was young) and the fortitude to do this at least a couple of times a week.

I found Kenny again just recently (yeah..I googled him) and we talked on Skype for over an hour.
It turns out he is still a DJ only now he is an "international DJ", living in Rome and working everywhere from Israel to London to Paris to Greece.

I had an awesome workout today to one of his mixes that he emailed to me. I sweat like a hog. Damn, 30 years later he's still making me dance!