Grasso favored Latin music, African rhythms, big beats, and body music, and found dance-floor devotees in Sanctuary’s diverse clientele. Grasso was unlike any other DJ working at the time: He pioneered the idea of blending songs together seamlessly to keep partygoers dancing. In 1970, Sanctuary, a foundering nightclub in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, rebranded itself as a gay club, hiring a local disk jockey named Francis Grasso to provide the music.
