ExpatMichael's opinion of anything relating to disco, Italo disco, funk and boogie music. Promotion for my Ebay and Discogs stores which concentrate on the sale of Disco, Funk, Italo Disco, Hi NRG, New Wave, morning music, sleaze and anything pressed on vinyl. There's a link to my Ebay store on the bottom of the page, right under the counter widget. Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave comments. Follow my twitter and join the Disco Vinyl Fan Page on Facebook.
I do like the Warm Weather. I do like a jazzy funky groove too. This Pieces of a Dream classic featuring Barbara Walker combines it just right. Produced by Grover Washington Jr. how could you expect less then smooth?
This Philadelphia based jazz fusion group first broke with the sublime Mt. Airy Groove, 1982.
Mt. Airy is a break dance classic. Combining Jazz, Funk, Electro and Disco it became a track that was sampled often for it's funky breaks.
Johnny Carson's Musical Director and Trumpet Player Doc Severinsen released this WhiteLabel Promo 12" on Columbia Records in 1976. I Wanna Be With You remains a solid disco nugget and rather obscure. It got little to no promotion.
The vocals were handled by Leon Thomas a very well regarded session singer. His 1975 release Thank You Baby on Don Records is extremely hard to come by. Here are parts I and II from the 45 rpm single.
In 1998 a Leon Thomas Anthology was released on Soul Brothers U.K. It includes work he's done with Carlos Santana, Pharoah Sanders, and more hard to find Leon.
Jazz keyboardist, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock has had a long career moving in and out of different genres of music. His foray into Disco was extremely successful and made for some very smart dance floor music.
In 1978 his vocoder laiden track I thought it was You was an early mix of Electro, Vocoder and Disco/Funk. 1979 was filled with gems from his Feets Don't Fail me Now l.p. with You Bet Your Love, Honey from the Jar and Ready or Not being pressed onto 12" vinyl.
1980 double A side of Go For It and the sublime Stars in Your Eyes has become his most coveted 12" single. The double A side with Stars in Your Eyes on both sides features the 11:21 version which is in the zip I provided above. I had two copies and I sold them both on Ebay about five years ago for just under $200.00 each. They have since become less coveted with I Thought it Was You often fetching the higher bids of the two. 1980's Monster l.p. was over the top. Gavin Christopher's vocal performance on Stars in Your Eyes, Saturday Night and Don't Hold it In were nothing short of perfection. Gavin had his own best chart showing more then ten years later when the House record Don't Lose the Magic went to #1 on the Billboard dance chart.
1981 was another hot year for Herbie Hancock with his dabbling in hip hop, Everybody's Broke which seems like it would be just as appropriate in 2009 as it was then. Also the phenomenal collaboration with Sylvester, Magic Number again fusing Funk, Disco, and R&B.
1982's 12" release was Lite Me Up while in 1983 with Electro and breakdance so prominent, Herbie had the biggest hit of his career with RockIt but I chose to stick to the disco era stuff in my zip.
