Frankie Knuckles, a man often described as The Godfather of House Music, has died aged 59, it has been announced.
Breaking the news on Twitter, fellow DJ David Morales wrote: "I am devastated to write that my dear friend Frankie Knuckles has passed away today. Can't write anymore than this at the moment. I'm sorry."
Knuckles began his DJing career in the '70s in New York, before moving to Chicago and becoming a fixture at The Warehouse club. He went on to open his own house music venue, The Power Plant, in 1982, and was instrumental in securing the commercial releases of several classic house tracks.
One of these was Jamie Principle's Your Love, which would later form the basis of The Source's You Got The Love, which featured Candi Staton. Discussing the making of that track in 2012, Knuckles told Computer Music Specials: "I first heard Your Love a long, long time before it was released - a couple of years at least. Jamie Principle had a rough version on cassette, but straight away you could tell it was a special song. As always when I was working with Jamie, it was about finding the heart of the song - the bits that were going to hit the dancefloor."
Knuckles was also famed for his remixing and production work.
More details relating to his death are set to be released today, but it's being reported that it was caused by complications from Type 2 diabetes.
