City of Chicago Frankie Knuckles Tribute

Join the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events as we pay tribute to Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House Music! Millennium Park Central Promenade the "Bean". DJ's include: Mike Winston Craig Loftis Greg Gray Elbert Phillips Words by: Robert Williams Alan King Bios Mike Winston was Frankie's original opening DJ at the Powerplant and longtime friend. A pioneer in 1970’s DJ underground scene, Mike Winston was one of Frankie Knuckles early cohorts and dj collaborators. Craig Loftis has been dj’ing in the Chicago music scene since 1979. He received a degree in Sound Engineering, and after redesigning the sound system for Frankie’s club the Powerplant, he became Frankie’s personal sound engineer, opening DJ and general manager. They jointly developed Frankie’s production company Powerplant LTD, did various remixes of existing songs which are now considered Deep House Chicago classics, and soon after concentrated on producing a Chicago artist named Jamie Principle, one of house music first stars. He later became chief engineer in charge of production for DJ International Records where he engineered, mixed and produced songs for Fast Eddie, Tyree Cooper, Julian Perez, Bad Boy Bill, Frankie Hollywood Rodriguez, Joe Smooth, Sterling Void, Paris Brightledge and Mike Dunn just to name a few. In 2000 Craig also became a member of the Slang Music Group, a remixing company based in Chicago which did mix work on such artist as Pink, Kelly Price, Sisco, R-Kelly, Ruff Endz, Backstreet boys and Whitney Houston. In 2012 Craig and longtime friend Joe Smooth teamed up to form GIFTED SOULS, with one of their first client being Frankie Knuckles himself, for the mix on Frankie’s track “Get Over You” featuring B-SLADE. Gifted Souls has developed a large remix catalog featuring some of largest Labels and Artist on the house music scene worldwide. DJ Greg Gray has been playing records since he was 12 years old. Greg got into beat mixing in high school and spent two summers as an intern at the Power Plant while he was in college, under the direction of Frankie Knuckles, solidifying their longtime friendship. Greg has seen the music come full circle. His continual DJ’ing and love for the music has made Greg a respected pioneer on the underground scene. Elbert Phillips came of age on the burgeoning Chicago House Music scene in the 1980s. From humble beginnings, Elbert would blaze a trail, his DJing has taken him from Chicago to New York and then the world. After being chosen by Frederick Dunson of D/E Entertainment to play at a birthday party for Frankie Knuckles in 2002, Elbert was given the honored privilege to open for Frankie at public and private gigs over the next four years. Elbert has been working on studio production, resulting in the release of his reworking of Rufuss’ “Higher Together” (DJ Elbert’s Dancefloor Redux) featured on Qalomota’s Classics Remixed, and "Beacon Of Light" featuring spoken word artist, Isa Bright Starr on Qalomota Records (France).