Yes, I was there while all this happened. I personally played with, hung with, dined with, danced with, drank, drugged and sex’d with in the dance club scene. Brooklyn life was portrayed reasonably accurate in Saturday Night Fever movie. Players Association, Poussez, etc., etc. were all heavy rotation and among the first that I noticed who had the BPM listed on the record. As a DJ who had to use my wristwatch then write the BPM on the jacket, I especially appreciated this. Naturally, I didn’t trust it completely, so I checked it with a wristwatch 😂.
Same here. I had a full list with the BPMs of all my dance records — wristwatch and headphones so I wouldn’t get distracted while counting. The things we did back then 😁
While you have a face for radio, a voice for horror movies, your format of narrated journalism is fantastic. I love your show, the format AND, of course, the music. Really spectacular!! I look forward to all the future pieces. I ❤️ NY LGA2IBZ
Brilliant music. While your description of your early years are quite disturbing 😳, the music in this show, which you highlighted spectacularly, is fantastic as usual. I ❤️ NY. Stay out of your relatives bedrooms. 😂
Another brilliant essay delving deeply into a label, an artist and a track that I’d never heard of before. The song was fantastic. I’m looking forward to your Shannon piece which I just saw in my inbox (only a week behind in my Substack reading now)
Haha, thanks Mark! The pieces will be there whenever you’re ready. One of the most rewarding things to hear is that something I’ve written helped a reader discover an unknown gem, label, or even a whole genre. And in this case, there’s plenty to explore—they’ve got a remarkably rich jazz and blues catalogue. Have a lovely weekend!
To answer your questions, yes I most certainly was there at this time when the music was turned up being part of the Midlands jazz funk/soul massive! I do have the 12" which was played so much that surface noise abounds. Attached are two flyers and two rather poor quality photos from 1979, bringing this up to date many of the DJs of the time continue to play out and regularly post onto Mixcloud.
Being Lyn, this is fantastic — I had no idea they toured! Everything I’d found framed them as a studio-only project, no TV and no live shows. So thank you for the correction — even as a trained historian I sometimes forget to challenge assumptions 😄
The flyers and photos are a treat. I know some of the dj’s of that era are still active on Mixcloud, so I’ll check the names.
I intentionally didn’t go too deep into the UK angle yet — I’m planning separate posts on the artists and possibly a broader piece on the late-70s/early-80s scene in the UK.
Really appreciate you sharing your memories — music and memory are so deeply linked. Keep spinning that beautiful track!
Keeper! Vanguard! Got to hand it to them. I have a few in my favorite CD: Charlie Musselwhite with Harvey "The Snake" Mandel on guitar; Joan Baez (two or three of them); and my two gatefold CDs of Larry Coryell "The Great Escape" and "Offering" had the vinyl in high school my sister had left them when she went to college. It changed how I looked at, listened to, and most of all played music. Groundbreaking but not essential. It carved out where music was going but still solitary statements of an artist at his most creative. Mike Mandel is keyboards on both so he's the man that connects the story with the Players Assoc. angle of your well-done piece. Love 1979 Mix He's the greatest dancer don't get me started... Chic / Gerardo Valez 0 degrees baby! Oh yeah and Doc Watson's first major record. NC Piedmont! Represent! I just want to testify what your mixes do to me! Keep spinning!!!
Haha, that’s such a great compliment, Steve — thank you for reading and reacting. Plenty more to come; I’m having far too much fun with this 😁 I’ve also made a mental note to dig into Vanguard’s non-disco catalogue. That Brooklyn studio sounds especially intriguing — it must have had quite a sonic character. Wishing you a great week, Steve!
I’ve learned so much from your newsletter. It’s like taking a masterclass in the history of disco. The mixtape was fantastic and really motivated me on a lazy morning. Thanks for all your hard work!😊
It's one of those that aged rather well! Thanks Dan. Please send over some sunshine from where you are at the moment. Weather is horrible in Belgium at the moment 😁. Thanks for reading/watching & reacting. Have a great weekend!
My favourite Players Association track is Ride The Groove. I was no jazz funk afficionado, but Ride spoke to my post punk sensibilities. As well as a killer bass line, punchy horns and lashings of sax, there's a metallic sounding sequencer driving the groove, that sounds as though it's drifted in from raw, early synth pop. It's part of the sound revolution taking disco to new, uncharted places at the end of the 70s that would continue into the following decade.
Indeed, Paul, great track! They have a few others I really like as well, and that one’s definitely among them. Thanks for reading and reacting, Paul. Have a great weekend!
Fantastic deep dive into Vanguard's disco pivot. The throughline from folk label to early electro (Baker, Bambaataa) is such an underrated piece of NYC music infrastrcture history. My intro to jazz-funk was similar, through an older cousin who had records I didnt quite get at first but kept coming back to. The fact that so many fusion session players passed through Players Association sessions explains alot about why it sounds so tight.
Wow, what a fantastic, in-depth essay that dives deep into the research, but also your love for the music, the scene, the influence, and everything good about Disco, Boogie, Jazz Funk, etc., pours out of the words. As with your amazing multi-part Casablanca story, this, too, is a pleasure to read. Thank you!
I love Vanguard. It is such an eclectic label and one of the more colorful ones (I would put the Casablanca and CTI labels into the same category). I have several albums on the label. Joan Baez, Buffy St. Marie, Sandy Bull, and Country Joe & The Fish were definitely well represented (and often appear on the inner sleeves). But there were so many other folk, jazz, blues, psych, rock, disco, funk, and boogie musicians and bands signed by the label.
I made a mental note while researching this to dive into the rest of their catalogue, Michael. The description of the Brooklyn studio especially caught my attention — it must have sounded amazing. Thanks for reading and reacting. Have a great weekend!
Yes, I was there while all this happened. I personally played with, hung with, dined with, danced with, drank, drugged and sex’d with in the dance club scene. Brooklyn life was portrayed reasonably accurate in Saturday Night Fever movie. Players Association, Poussez, etc., etc. were all heavy rotation and among the first that I noticed who had the BPM listed on the record. As a DJ who had to use my wristwatch then write the BPM on the jacket, I especially appreciated this. Naturally, I didn’t trust it completely, so I checked it with a wristwatch 😂.
Same here. I had a full list with the BPMs of all my dance records — wristwatch and headphones so I wouldn’t get distracted while counting. The things we did back then 😁
While you have a face for radio, a voice for horror movies, your format of narrated journalism is fantastic. I love your show, the format AND, of course, the music. Really spectacular!! I look forward to all the future pieces. I ❤️ NY LGA2IBZ
I'm the Vincent Price of Belgium 😁 Thanks Donald. Really glad you like(d) it. Have a great weekend!
The 80s is widely known as the decade of the destruction of music. The worst music of all time.
Haha… I’ll have to disagree with you on that one 😁
Brilliant music. While your description of your early years are quite disturbing 😳, the music in this show, which you highlighted spectacularly, is fantastic as usual. I ❤️ NY. Stay out of your relatives bedrooms. 😂
😂😂😂 Curiosity kills the cat. And my nephew was always there — I wasn’t allowed to touch his records without approval.
Another brilliant essay delving deeply into a label, an artist and a track that I’d never heard of before. The song was fantastic. I’m looking forward to your Shannon piece which I just saw in my inbox (only a week behind in my Substack reading now)
Haha, thanks Mark! The pieces will be there whenever you’re ready. One of the most rewarding things to hear is that something I’ve written helped a reader discover an unknown gem, label, or even a whole genre. And in this case, there’s plenty to explore—they’ve got a remarkably rich jazz and blues catalogue. Have a lovely weekend!
To answer your questions, yes I most certainly was there at this time when the music was turned up being part of the Midlands jazz funk/soul massive! I do have the 12" which was played so much that surface noise abounds. Attached are two flyers and two rather poor quality photos from 1979, bringing this up to date many of the DJs of the time continue to play out and regularly post onto Mixcloud.
Being Lyn, this is fantastic — I had no idea they toured! Everything I’d found framed them as a studio-only project, no TV and no live shows. So thank you for the correction — even as a trained historian I sometimes forget to challenge assumptions 😄
The flyers and photos are a treat. I know some of the dj’s of that era are still active on Mixcloud, so I’ll check the names.
I intentionally didn’t go too deep into the UK angle yet — I’m planning separate posts on the artists and possibly a broader piece on the late-70s/early-80s scene in the UK.
Really appreciate you sharing your memories — music and memory are so deeply linked. Keep spinning that beautiful track!
Keeper! Vanguard! Got to hand it to them. I have a few in my favorite CD: Charlie Musselwhite with Harvey "The Snake" Mandel on guitar; Joan Baez (two or three of them); and my two gatefold CDs of Larry Coryell "The Great Escape" and "Offering" had the vinyl in high school my sister had left them when she went to college. It changed how I looked at, listened to, and most of all played music. Groundbreaking but not essential. It carved out where music was going but still solitary statements of an artist at his most creative. Mike Mandel is keyboards on both so he's the man that connects the story with the Players Assoc. angle of your well-done piece. Love 1979 Mix He's the greatest dancer don't get me started... Chic / Gerardo Valez 0 degrees baby! Oh yeah and Doc Watson's first major record. NC Piedmont! Represent! I just want to testify what your mixes do to me! Keep spinning!!!
Haha, that’s such a great compliment, Steve — thank you for reading and reacting. Plenty more to come; I’m having far too much fun with this 😁 I’ve also made a mental note to dig into Vanguard’s non-disco catalogue. That Brooklyn studio sounds especially intriguing — it must have had quite a sonic character. Wishing you a great week, Steve!
I’ve learned so much from your newsletter. It’s like taking a masterclass in the history of disco. The mixtape was fantastic and really motivated me on a lazy morning. Thanks for all your hard work!😊
Thank you Marta. Such a great compliment. Love to do it. Thanks for reading/watching/listening & reacting. Have a great weekend!
Not at all familiar with this one Pe. Very cool sound though!
It's one of those that aged rather well! Thanks Dan. Please send over some sunshine from where you are at the moment. Weather is horrible in Belgium at the moment 😁. Thanks for reading/watching & reacting. Have a great weekend!
My favourite Players Association track is Ride The Groove. I was no jazz funk afficionado, but Ride spoke to my post punk sensibilities. As well as a killer bass line, punchy horns and lashings of sax, there's a metallic sounding sequencer driving the groove, that sounds as though it's drifted in from raw, early synth pop. It's part of the sound revolution taking disco to new, uncharted places at the end of the 70s that would continue into the following decade.
Indeed, Paul, great track! They have a few others I really like as well, and that one’s definitely among them. Thanks for reading and reacting, Paul. Have a great weekend!
Fantastic deep dive into Vanguard's disco pivot. The throughline from folk label to early electro (Baker, Bambaataa) is such an underrated piece of NYC music infrastrcture history. My intro to jazz-funk was similar, through an older cousin who had records I didnt quite get at first but kept coming back to. The fact that so many fusion session players passed through Players Association sessions explains alot about why it sounds so tight.
Indeed and why it has aged so well! Thanks for reading & reacting Neural Foundry. Much appreciated. Have a great weekend!
Wow, what a fantastic, in-depth essay that dives deep into the research, but also your love for the music, the scene, the influence, and everything good about Disco, Boogie, Jazz Funk, etc., pours out of the words. As with your amazing multi-part Casablanca story, this, too, is a pleasure to read. Thank you!
I love Vanguard. It is such an eclectic label and one of the more colorful ones (I would put the Casablanca and CTI labels into the same category). I have several albums on the label. Joan Baez, Buffy St. Marie, Sandy Bull, and Country Joe & The Fish were definitely well represented (and often appear on the inner sleeves). But there were so many other folk, jazz, blues, psych, rock, disco, funk, and boogie musicians and bands signed by the label.
I made a mental note while researching this to dive into the rest of their catalogue, Michael. The description of the Brooklyn studio especially caught my attention — it must have sounded amazing. Thanks for reading and reacting. Have a great weekend!