Chicago icon, Godfather of House music Frankie Knuckles dead at 59
Grammy award winning DJ & Producer Frankie Knuckles at the Green Dolphin in 2009. Brian Jackson/Chicago Sun-Times
Frankie Knuckles, the legendary godfather of House music and a Chicago icon has died at age 59, 5 Magazine reports.
NBC Chicago has independently confirmed his death.
The magazine tweeted it learned the news from longtime Chicago promoter and Knuckles’ associate, Robert Williams. The news was corroborated to the Chicago music magazine by members of Knuckles’ inner circle as well as several prominent Chicago DJs on social media.
Knuckles moved to Chicago in 1977 and soon became a regular at The Warehouse, a “predominantly black, predominantly gay” nightclub. It was there that the Grammy Award winner played a pivotal role in creating the House music scene.
In a 1999 preview, the Chicago Reader’s Michaelangelo Matos wrote that Knuckles’ music “would help shape the modern club sound.
“The theory that house music was named after the Warehouse is a warhorse of club folklore, and with good reason: Knuckles would often underline the beats of the records he played with the deep kick of a Roland TR-909 drum machine, which is all over early Chicago house.”
Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
In 2004, a stretch of Jefferson Street near The Warehouse was renamed in Knuckles’ honor.
Prominent DJs, producers and members of the Chicago music scene have taken to social media to express their condolences.
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