RENWL

Jewel Thais-Williams, 71 years  old , we hope we can look a third this good at that age—if we get there.

Late Saturday night we updated our Facebook profile with the following:

I just came across the very first house music track that made me break down into tears–this happened in the middle of Catch One’s dancefloor in ’92. It’s been almost that long ago since I’ve heard it. This is a very emotional moment for me right now.

What’s so funny about that update is that we didn’t reveal the name of the track. So naturally some of our Facebook connects were curious. We told one of them. But the others who’ve inquired we’ve kept at bay. And the reason why is because we wanted to include the track in this happy birthday post to Jewel Thais Williams, owner and proprietor of Catch One Disco in Los Angeles.

Actually her birthday was last week.

Jewel’s Catch One Disco is where we cut our gay teeth around 20 years ago give or take a year. Catch One , primarily a black gay club, is also the place where we discovered the religion we practice today. Up til that time, we were bopping around to dance tracks like Whitney Houston’s “Love Will Save The Day” in fag clubs in WeHo like Studio One—if anybody remembers that place now called the Factory we think. Yea, that’s where we spent our social time in our early 20s. That is, until some of our more sophisticated night life friends took us to Catch One one Saturday night. We’ll never forget it as long as we live.

From the moment walked into the club’s doors we were changed forever. God came to us in a form we’d never experienced or could possibly have imagined. We saw things—people responding to music in such a way— the dancefloor of Catch One around 1:30 am could’ve been easily substituted with the groaning pews of a black Pentacostal Church on a Sunday morning going full tilt boogie; folks falling out and laying down in the middle of the dancefloor—screamin’—speaking in tongues—waving their arms up skywards—tears comin’ out of their eyes—just raw primal in your face celebration of the spirit.  Catch closed on Sunday morning at daybreak—-some of these folks would be so soaked with sweat and so tired but just refused to get off the dancefloor til the wheels fell off.  Meaning —sticking it out to that last track before lights came on. It was not unusual to see people in the middle of the dancefloor propping each other up—-just so that they keep it goin’ without falling over.

At Catch One we discovered God. Laugh if you wanna.  No shame here. We sure did–our idea of God—and what that feels like. We always were devout music worshippers who kneeled joyfully at any alter of music and in our youth spent much time praising at its numerous temples.   We just weren’t 100%  conscious of it until that first night at Catch.  The way we see it, if you can’t find God in music, then you can’t find God in anything.

Jewel—-over the years you’ve morphed into an amazing and highly respected community leader with the holistic medicine clinic you’ve put next to the club, the Vegan restaurant on the premises and your support of the LGBT and black communities here in Los Angeles. But for us—well, we lifted the following short passage from a Huffington Post essay written last summer by black novelist Leonce Gaiter titled At Obama’s Rise, Praise King’s Movement, and Bury It. This passage says it all:

I have a friend who is obsessed with R&B. Knows it backwards and sideways. Yet, he never understood Aretha Franklin’s place was not just musical — it was cultural. Hollering “Freedom” in 1967 through every radio in America meant infinitely more to Afro-Americans than it did to him. To us, it was visceral, political, personal and spiritual. To him, it was great music.

That sums it all up for us. It’s exactly how we feel about Catch One. It’s a part of who we are.

Now here’s that song we talked about on Facebook and we’re dedicating it to Jewel: For every night we danced at Catch One, every tear we shed and every drop of sweat we dripped, not to mention all of those hottie hook ups cause Catch served up the boys sho’ nuff–thank you so much from the bottom of our heart, Jewel.

Happy 71st birthday darling.

A little background info for you serious house lovers:

“Marshall Jefferson once explained to me the genesis of Royal House’s leading track: “Can You Party”. In 1986, when Marshall Jefferson produced “Move Your Body”, he met a young DJ called Little Louie Vega, who he encouraged to make records. The year after, Louie Vega came to Marshall Jefferson with a track produced by a friend of his; the track was a remix of “Move Your Body”, the friend was Todd Terry.

Due to the unethical management of Trax Records, Marshall Jefferson didn’t want to release this remix, which became the track we know as “Can You Party”, produced under the nickname of Royal House.”

Discogs.com: Review of Can You Party by Souldancer

PS.  Jewel’s Catch One has a Facebook Fan page by the way. Go give it some “like love.”  And tell them RENWL says that they should post some classic house tracks on the page .  These Lady GaGa lovin’ kids need to hear how the children worked it out back in the day.

Facebook: Catch One Fan Page