If you are looking for the main page to this web site CLICK HERE.
This page is dedicated to 12 West DJ
JAMES CHARLES STUARD
1945-1977
Dial up users please note: the text will show before the pictures do. Quite a few images will eventually download if you allow a few minutes.
Hearing Jimmy at 12 West during 1976 was the first time I heard the more advanced forms of turntable mixing as well as my first exposure to imported 12" dance - single records. DJ Jimmy was all too happy to let us know what was being played and to let aspiring new jocks watch him mix. He inspired a whole generation of us who were still coming into the dance scene and who had missed the earliest pioneers of the mix who are so well documented on many other disco web sites. His year in that booth was clearly a part of 12 West's greatest era. I will never forget this man or his role in the greatest night life experience I've ever known.
The picture above is a rare snapshot taken by Alan Adrian Robinson and forwarded by Tom Savarese. In the background from left to right are Tom Savarese (12 West), Bobby DJ Guttadaro (Ice Palace), and Jimmy Stuard (12 West). In the foreground with the headphone is Barry Lederer. By his side, not positively identified, might be sound system designer Peter Spar. Barry & Peter owned Graebar Sound: the company that designed and installed the legendary 12 West sound system.
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I was lucky enough to become a member of the New Jersey branch of the IDRC record pool. Here is a page from their newsletter with a remembrance of Jimmy at the page's bottom.
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JIMMY REMEMBERED BY "THE TRAMMPS"
an internationally known disco - era vocal group.
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Jimmy is also remembered in the "liner notes" printed booklet that accompanies Rhino Record's "The Disco Box" CD compilation. After three or so years of providing the cover notes on line they are now no longer doing so.
Jimmy (and 12 West) is also remembered in much more detail and with some suprising effect in the late Mel Cheren's book: "Keep On Dancin: My life and the Paradise Garage". Special thanks to Robbie Leslie for the information about Mel's book!
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Front Page Photo of the Everard Fire CLICK HERE
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