WHAT HAPPENED TO
THE DISCO PEOPLE ?




So... What happened to all the Disco acts in the early eighties? Did they just vanish from the surface of the earth or where did they go?
I can't tell what happened to everyone, but I can tell you what happened to some of them.

Remember for example the SalSoul orchestra?
The guy behind this great Disco orchestra was a man named Vince Montana Jr. Vince is still active in the music business... Lately you have heard him playing on the famous DJ- & Remixer-team - Masters at Work's Nuyorican Soul album. In this album "the Masters" (Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez & 'Little' Louie Vega) had managed to get some of the greatest disco acts to participate... Beside Vince Montana Jr. you can hear people like Roy Ayers, George Benson and the great voice of Jocelyn Brown on the Nuyorican Soul album.

Talking 'bout Jocelyn Brown... A guy who have been working a lot with her during the years is the great mega disco writer/producer/arranger & engineer – Patrick Adams and he thinks she's one of the greatest vocalists ever. She was of the lead singers in the Patrick written and produced act – Musique, which scored hits like "Push, push – in the bush" and "Keep on jumping". The later Jocelyn was singing again in 1997 but now together with Todd Terry and Martha Wash (one of "the Weather Girls").
Jocely was also the leadsinger of another Patrick Adams act, the group Inner Life. They recorded songs like "Ain't no mountain high enough" and "I'm caught up (in a one night love affair)". "I'm caught up..." Patrick still conciders one of his best works.
Jocelyn brown is still hot - even though she has been in it the business for over 20 years. She appears constantly in many records and her strong voice is very popular in many dance and house tunes.

Since sampling is very popular these days – I also have heard of disco writers and producers living very good on their work right now just because of the all the sampling-royalites they receive. Some of these guys didn't make top 10 disco hits but they made the kind of disco music that was very popular on the dancefloors and disco's and these kind of obscure disco tracks are very popular to sample. Specially since they are not that very known and they are hard-to-find.

Many other old disco acts is also still out there tourning and playing gigs. Artists like Gloria Gaynor and Vicki Sue Robinson along with groups like Kool & the Gang, Trammps and Rose Royce just to mention a few... OK – all the groups are not in the original settings but usually there's some of the original members. Sometimes the original setting wouldn't be possible to reunite, like for example Chic. Nile Rodgers have lately played very popular gigs as Chic in New York... In this case it's quite obvious the original setting never could take place, since Nile's former partner Bernard Edwards sadly passed away much too early a couple of years ago...

Other Disco people we miss that unfortunatly aren't with us any longer is people the very talanted writer/producer Dan Hartman who unfortunatly died in march 22, 1994. Dan is most famous for his song "Relight my fire" which is a gem. But he also wrote and produced many songs for other acts – he wrote and produced Loleatta Holloway's "Love sensation" (this song was sampled with great success by Black Box in their "Ride on time" a couple of years ago). At the time of his death he was working on a new album.
A couple of years earlier, in december 16 1988, the most famous Gay-disco star Sylvester passed on due to complications of Aids. Sylvester with his special voice gave us masterpieces like "You make me feel (mighty real)".
Karen Young is most famous for her 1978 hit "Hot Shot" on the West End disco label. She left us in january 26, 1991.
The memories of all the great artists who no longer are with us should live on forever!!!

I hope I've managed to let you all know that disco music and artist are still out there and the interest for disco is getting bigger and bigger for every day... I hope I've managed to open up YOUR interest for disco and the people behind as well...

Take care and Disco-on,

"Discoguy"