They were in it for love of music and good times

Josell Ramos’ “Maestro” traces the roots of today’s global dance-music culture with a passion, knowledge and insight that is as infectious as the music itself. For the uninitiated it is a revelation, and for the aficionado it will surely be a special treat. Its every frame is an expression of love for the music, the underground club scene, its creators and its patrons.

Its title could apply to all successful club DJs, past and present, the world over, but it most specifically refers to two seminal New York figures, David Mancuso, founder of the Loft, and especially the late Larry Levan, DJ extraordinaire of the Paradise Garage.

Levan, a slim, shaggy-haired young man with a mop of dark hair, is spoken of with god-like reverence by those who remember him. One woman recalls that his special gift was to present each number so that it would flow into the next: “He led you by the hand.” The singer Billie credits him with bringing together blacks and whites, straights and gays. Fellow DJs and music-business professionals credit Levan with being a hit maker too. The Loft, an intimate, private club, opened in the early ‘70s several years before Michael Brody’s Paradise Garage, a vast subterranean former parking structure. Both became showcases for extraordinary, innovative dancers. Paradise Garage started out as a gay venue -- especially for black and Latino men -- and throughout the film, former patrons and other DJs of the era stress the paramount importance of the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 in the birth of dance-music culture. In New York (as was true everywhere in the U.S.), same-sex dancing in a public place was illegal. Once gay liberation was underway, gays and lesbians flocked to the new clubs for refuge.

Patrons of the Garage say that it really was a paradise, a place to relieve stress, have fun, express oneself on the dance floor and in mode of dress. It became so popular that it began to draw straights as well, with Friday nights attracting primarily straight people and Saturday nights drawing in mostly gays. The film affirms that the original prime movers of the dance-club phenomenon were in it for the love of music and good times rather than the money, although what they started would have a tremendous effect on popular music to this day.

Drawing from a treasure trove of grainy yet potent archival footage, Ramos suggests just how intoxicating the club scene could be, but he doesn’t downplay its downside. One ‘70s and ‘80s survivor recalls that club proprietors tried to warn patrons of lethal drugs and unprotected sex but “nobody listened.”

Brody closed the Paradise Garage after 11 years before dying of complications from AIDS in 1987. Not long after, drugs claimed the life of Levan. In one panoramic shot of the Paradise Garage going full blast, Ramos picks out artist Keith Haring -- his life soon to be cut short by AIDS -- dancing the night away.

Having faced the dark side of the club scene squarely, Ramos ends “Maestro” on an upbeat note with an impressive collage of club DJs the world over in action, which deftly suggests the full measure of the magnitude of the enduring impact of Levan, Mancuso and other underground dance-club music pioneers.

*

‘Maestro’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Frank language, drug references

An Artrution Productions presentation. Writer-producer-director-videographer Josell Ramos. Editors Ramos, Eric Moorman, Sara Kraushaar. Original music Antonio Ocasio, Jeptha Guillaume, Michael Cole (Slam/Mode). Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Exclusively at the Fairfax Cinemas, Beverly Boulevard at Fairfax Avenue, (323) 655-4010.