David Morales
A New York house pioneer, Def Mix co-founder and Grammy-winning remixer whose musical instincts connected the Paradise Garage generation to the global dancefloor.
The remixer who made the groove global
David Morales grew up in New York during the period when disco, soul, garage and club music were building a new language for the city’s dancefloors. The Loft, Paradise Garage and the wider New York club network gave him an education in rhythm, emotion and the importance of the selector.
His early work at the Ozone Layer and Paradise Garage led into a remixing career that changed the scale of what a club producer could do. Alongside Frankie Knuckles and Judy Weinstein, he helped establish Def Mix as a major force in the development of house music and the modern remix.
Morales worked across pop, R&B and dance music without flattening the club identity of the records. His productions and remixes for artists including Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston and U2 carried house sensibility into the mainstream while keeping the rhythm central.
His own productions, mix albums and international residencies made him one of the first genuine superstar DJs. For British ravers, Morales belongs to the same transatlantic story as Frankie Knuckles and the early house records that travelled from New York and Chicago into UK clubs, warehouses and fields.
David Morales in frame
Portraits, performance images and the Frankie Knuckles connection place Morales inside the history of New York and Chicago house.
New York house in Essex and Wiltshire
Two preserved Rave Archive uploads connect Morales directly to British dancefloor history.
The groove keeps moving
