Northwest Dance Music Association, Inc.

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Our History

The very first record pool in the Pacific Northwest was started in September 1976 by Gary Friedman and his company, Disco-Technics. That was the Northwest Disco Record Pool and it was located in Lynnwood, WA. Within a couple of years it had moved to downtown Seattle to an office that used to be located in the block directly across the street from the Paramount Theatre on the same block as the old Spags Tavern which now is where the Metro Bus Tunnel has a station at 9th & Pine Streets. Somewhere along the line, one of its members, John Bush, bought out Gary and took sole control over the pool.

Dana Andrews was a member of that pool also but later had a falling out with Bush. This lead to Andrews starting his own pool in December 1977, the Electric Canary. Northwest Dance Music Association was actually started as Seattle Dance Music which was a continuation of the Electric Canary Record Pool.

 By mid-September 1979, John Bush shut down his pool which left the Electric Canary as the sole provider of new music for the top jocks in the city at the time.  Some that I personally remember besides Dana were Paul Curtis who worked at the Brass Door, Fritz "Dunki" Jacobs, "Simple" Simon Smith (who was one of the first jocks to actually slip-cue & "cut" songs together with lightening quick speeds), Tom Lathrop and Ed Barthel (who shares with me the distinction of being one of the two original remaining Electric Canary members).  By 1979, the 35 member Electric Canary pool was the driving force behind the majority of the music that you heard in the Seattle nightclubs. 

As disco declined though, 1980 and 1981 proved to be pivotal years for us.  As one of the best jocks in the city, Dana was spinning at the top nightclubs in the area, the Brass Door (which later became the Brass Connection when they started serving hard alcohol) and George Freeman's underground dance club & church, the Monastery. And the success meant celebration.  Of course in the 70's, we all celebrated with substances.  Eventually it caught up with him.

Enter Ramon Wells who lead a group of us: himself, Larry Woelich, Tom Lathrop, Paul Curtis and myself, and made a deal to take over the record pool to ensure its survival.   Ramon is lovingly referred to as the "Godfather" of Northwest Dance Music -- he had previously been a DJ in the Portland, Oregon area and had helped them set up their first record pool down there.  It was Ramon who helped us draft a set of by-laws and helped guide us as we changed the ownership from private to a non-profit association governed by a Board of Directors (very much in line with the very first record pool in New York that was formed by David Mancuso, but that's another story.)  We renamed the pool to Seattle Dance Music Association, dropped the membership to a total of 25 members and Ramon was elected as our Director for the first 2 years of our new existence.  At the same time, Ramon was a Billboard reporter for the Seattle area and when Billboard became nervous about the amount of supposed power that a Billboard reporter who was also a record pool director might have, they forced everyone to make a choice; Ramon choose to remain a reporter and that is when I became the pool director the first time (1983/1985.) 

The next significant change was an expansion to 35 members representing more of the Seattle/Tacoma area around the 1985/86 time period.  Towards the latter part of the 80's, we chose to expand the pool even further to represent the Portland market, hence the name change to Northwest Dance Music Association and our final roster expansion to 50 members.  Though we have downsided that number to 25 members due to the recent flucuations in the music industry, we cover all of Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana as well as Alaska; basically the entire Pacific Northwest north of the California/Oregon state border and everything west of the Dakotas.  Our focus remains the same, breaking all genres of dance music at street level and making sure the whole world knows about it!  Though Dana passed away in 1989, we know he is watching us from that great dance-floor in the sky and smiling.  Our other spiritual guiding force, Ramon Wells, moved to New York City where he lives and works running his own label, Dot Dot Dot Records.

Our Honor Roll of Directors
 
Dana Andrews 1977-1981
Kerry Loewen  1987-1990
Ramon Wells  1981-1983
Kevin Jones  1990-1992
John England  1983-1985
John England  1992-present
Carol Rutenberg  1985-1987
 

There are SO many DJ's who have come through our organization and have influenced the Pacific Northwest club scene that it's hard to remember them all.  Of course, the DJ's DJ, Dana Andrews as well as Paul Curtis, Randy Schlager, Mike Joyce, Kevin Jones, Fritz "Dunki" Jacobs, Perry McIntyre, Bobby Hennis, Randal McCarrey, Harold Henkel, all the Board of Directors above as well as all of the other members who served so graciously on the Board, the list goes on and on. On a personal note, a big shout-out to the man who helped give me my first push in the right direction, Fred Kulstad. As he passed on his wisdom to me, I have tried to honor that spirit by sharing with others throughout my career as well. We would also like to honor all those nightclubs that have broken so much music along the way: Shelley's Leg, the Brass Door (later known as the Brass Connection), the Monastery/Sanctuary, Neighbour's, Celebrity Bar and Grill and all the rest who allowed us that brief moment to shine with a packed dance floor.

This is only a beginning of the story of dance music in the Pacific Northwest and the DJ's who love it. We dedicate this page to all those who ever stepped behind a set of turntables and transformed a nightclub full of people into a once in a lifetime experience that transcended the moment into something greater...the true power of the music we share.

And finally, in remembrance of our brothers and sisters who are no longer with us, we salute you and thank you for sharing your gifts with us...we will never forget you!

Dana Andrews Dana Andrews 1954-1989
  Graham Kiernan 1965 - 1993
Charles LaBenz Charles LaBenz, aka DJ Soonami 1975-2007
Buster Meston Buster Meston 1967 - 2009
Rick Hancock Patrick Hancock 1954 - 2010
   
   

John England (updated November 2013)

© 2013 Northwest Dance Music Association. All Rights Reserved