Leon (Ndugu) Chancler, 65

Leon (Ndugu) Chancler, Versatile Drummer, Is Dead at 65
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, February 7, 2018

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Joni Sledge, 60

Joni Sledge, Who With Sisters Recorded ‘We Are Family’, Dies at 60
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 12, 2017

Joni Sledge, Singer in the ‘We Are Family’ Group Sister Sledge, Dies at 60
by Matthew Haag, The New York Times, March 12, 2017

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Remarkable Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers at Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Summer 2012
(photo by Darial Sneed)

Nile Rodgers
by Dimitri Ehrlich, Interview, November 2013

Good times. These. Are. The. Good. Times.

To read the news from across the states and abroad, you wouldn’t think so. These are certainly not good times for everybody.

But Nile Rodgers–that giant of popular music--knows that every day that you draw breath is a precious day, as he deals with nerve damage from an aggressive cancer now in remission. And every day that this gifted artist brings joy to an audience lost in his music is a good day for him and for us.

Nile Rodgers at Lincoln Center Out of Doors (Photo by Darial Sneed)

Case in point: last evening at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival (Damrosch Park Bandshell), where DJ KS*360 (aka Kwikstep of the Full Circle hip-hop empire) primed the party pump before Rodgers and his Chic Organization took the stage. As the head-spinners and Hustle dancers cleared out, I expected a lengthy wait for the main act. But Rodgers quickly took over. Everybody dance! Clap your hands, clap your hands!

The first several rows of folks immediately lurched up, of course, and would not sit down. So, I ditched my press seat and headed for the dance pit--backpack, water bottle, notebook, pen and all. I found a good spot to see, to write, to dance myself into a sweat, and soon wondered why anyone would bother hanging out back in those seats.

(Photo by Kevin Yatarola)

The weather graciously smiled on Rodgers and us. No blistering heat, no rain. Yowsah, yowsah.

Before long, we felt the old tug of that spare yet funky, insistent, intoxicating chugging (Rodgers on guitar, Jerry Barnes on bass, Ralph Rolle on drums, Rich Hilton and Selan Lerner on keyboards), that swirling, flute-y tenor sax (Bill Holloman) and rip-roaring trumpet (Steve Jankowski). I need your love. Please don't make me beg.

Rodgers and The Chic Organization, including vocalists Folami Ankoanda-Thompson (at right) and Kimberly Davis-Jones (Photo by Darial Sneed)

[See more of Darial Sneed's concert photo set here.]

"See that round building?" Rodgers said, pointing at a spot high behind our heads. We all looked around at an imposing tower with curved (if not quite entirely round) details in its design.

"28B." He gave the building's street address, too, which I'm not sure I got right. "We and David Bowie were up in that tower"--the other person in "we" being his great musical partner, Bernard Edwards, who died in 1996. "Chic is not a cover band. All these songs you hear us do, we did for everyone in the first place."

He was talking about little items like "Let's Dance" (for Bowie), "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down" (Diana Ross), "Like A Virgin" (Madonna), "We Are Family" and "He's The Greatest Dancer" (Sister Sledge) and an unbelievably massive number of worldwide hits. Throw in the entire slate of music written, arranged, produced and/or played in by the creative partners or each one alone for artists like Robert Palmer, Duran Duran, Rod Stewart, Luther Vandross, INXS, Steve Winwood, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones and so many more, and it's easy to come to the conclusion that without these guys, popular music--spanning and fusing a number of genres--would be unrecognizable.

When me and Bernard were sitting around the studio for hours on end, we always said we were lost in music....

And I remember being lost in that tune--caught in a trap, no turning back--playing and dancing to that particular Sister Sledge song as if I were in an endurance contest with the vinyl LP. We both survived.

It was a great show at Damrosch Park and a great party. I treasure Nile Rodgers and wish him good health and many more years of happiness in his work.

*** 

The always handsomely diverse Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, now in its 42nd season, runs through August 12. For a calendar of events, click here.

Summer (Donna, that is) into fall with BAAD!

BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) seeks choreographers who love to love Donna Summer for a special evening devoted to the late disco diva. Here's their announcement:

BAAD! is honoring Donna Summer as part of the 2012 BlakTino Performance Series by putting together an evening of dance at BAAD! on Saturday, October 13 at 8pm. We hope you can join the group of Bronx choreographers influenced and inspired by her music genius.

BAAD! can offer you an honorarium of $125 for a ten minute -->or less piece<---- (aprox.) as well as 4 free hours of rehearsal and discounted tickets. (2 complementary tickets and 10 $10 tickets)

Please indicate which song you will be choosing, below is the list of taken songs in an effort to not repeat songs.

We love originally mixed tracks and remixes also. Just let us know what you are thinking of.

McArthur Park

Love to Love You

I Feel Love

Works Hard For The Money

Could it be magic

Medley of love

State of Independence

Carlo Quispe
Project Manager
BAAD!
718-842-5223
carlobaad@gmail.com

Our Summer of Love

Donna Summer: The sonic seduction lives on in today's beats
by Randall Roberts, The Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2012

Jimmy Ellis, 74

RIP, Jimmy Ellis.


Jimmy Ellis Dies at 74; Lead Singer in Dance Band Trammps
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, March 8, 2012

Ortiz: On the (disco) beat

New York City dance journalist and critic Lori Ortiz talks about her first book, a cultural history of disco and its era.

Guillermo Canales and Kendra Jackson (photo by Lori Ortiz)

  Disco Dance

by Lori Ortiz

ABC-Clio/Greenwood, 2011

EYA: Your book--Disco Dance--is part of a series, The American Dance Floor, that includes Country &amp; Western Dance, Latin Dance, Swing Dancing, Folk Dancing, Rock'n' Roll Dances of the 1950s, and an upcoming volume on hip hop. Some dance advocates have suggested that social dancing could be pathway to greater awareness and appreciation of concert dance by potential audiences in the US. Do you agree and see a valuable connection?

LO: Definitely, I do. When people have dance in their lives already, it opens them up to seeing dance, and vice versa. That is, seeing dance on stage can inspire people to get on the floor themselves, in classes or socially. Social and theatrical dance feed each other. Exposure to dance in any way shape or form can change things for a person. I, for example, took classes for many years and then started going to concerts and writing about them.

EYA: Yes, that's also the way I started, too: taking many classes, then wanting to write about dance! Let's look at the reverse, too. Are there valuable lessons for contemporary dance artists to learn from social dancing? Or, specifically, from the disco phenomenon and its culture?

LO: Ballet tradition came from social dance; ballets, for example those of Jerome Robbins, include waltzes.  Lots of contemporary dance artists bring club or social dance into their work. Neil Greenberg has a famous dance about disco. It's one I haven't seen, but I wish it would come back; the New York Public Library for the Peforming Arts has a video. Nicholas Leichter has a new dance to disco music. Sidra Bell, Karole Armitage, and many others have choreography that includes club dances associated with disco. Much of contemporary dance is about life...and that (especially for dancers maybe) includes social dancing. Disco may have been close to the hearts of dance artists who lived through the era. In our current, retro era, disco is still, or again, part of club culture...sans some of the bad stuff that went with it back in the day, hopefully.

EYA: The book surveys the rise of disco culture in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. What methods did you use to conduct your research?

LO: I inteviewed many dancers, DJs and clubgoers. I went to some of the revival scenes, Hustle festivals, and remembrance parties, and I met people from different cities at these gathering places. People at these parties were generous with me. I was lucky to research disco at a ripe point in time, around people with lucid memories. I was literally attending reenactments! I also saw about forty movies made in or made about the era. Of course I read the material out there, the great books and classic articles of the day as well as later research. I photographed the dancers. As a visual person, this helped me understand the movement better. I took a basic Hustle series at You Should Be Dancing and some introductory classes at Dancesport.

When I first started, in 2008, I found very little information. I found my first interviewees through HARO (Help a Reporter Out). Gradually, I found more information on the Web as the Web itself grew, and disco seemed to be coming back into favor.  It was most helpful listening to the music, frequenting the vintage record stores, and reading the liner notes. NYPL's performing arts collection had growing clippings folders. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture had books I couldn't find at the performing arts library. As the project continued, more and more You Tube and VH1 videos were posted. A complete Soul Train DVD came out.

Whenever I told people about my project, many had a disco story they were more than happy to share. I joined the circles of dancers in a peripheral place. I have to say that it was not all peaches and cream. There were also people who felt proprietary about their memories and practice and resented the intrusion. I met with resistance from some. I'd love to be out there with them dancing, but alas, I'm here typing.

EYA: Did your research lead you to new information or insights, anything that surprised you?

LO: I was surprised many times over. I was surprised at how beautiful the Hustle dance can look on those that have put in the work of perfecting it. I was surprised that there is a very organized contingent of Hustle dancers who continue to refine and perform it. Although these dancers, along with the general public, rejected the term disco, it didn't die. 

Journalist Lori Ortiz

EYA: Were you a fan of the music in the '70s? Did you go to the clubs? If so, is there anything that you miss about that time?

LO: John Travolta, aka Tony Manero, went to my high school. I was a Deadhead (I liked the Grateful Dead). After college I moved back to New York. No, as a painter just starting out, I did not go to Studio. People I knew curated art shows in Limelight and other clubs, I showed in them and went to the openings in the 80s. I don't miss that, but I'm grateful for any experience I had of it.

EYA: As with any pop music, you'll find some schlock as well as some unforgettable classics. When you were writing your book, did you pull out old LPs and cassettes?  Any personal favorites to share with us?

LO:  I had a Jackson Five album as a teen. I had nothing when I started this project. I had to collect it all anew. I loved it. It was very moving to hear Grace Jones sing "Tomorrow." Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" is a major VH1 classic. That song is inseparable from Jackson's performance. I went to sleep and woke up with "Blame It On The Boogie" in my head. The video of Sheila Reid skating to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is absolute legend. I'm truly grateful to Bobby Viteritti, Ronald Ramdell and Billy Carroll— DJs who spent hours sharing music and stories with me. I bought Disco Box with wonderful liner notes by Brian Chin. I highly recommend this encyclopedic Rhino set.

EYA: Disco music and culture came under attack in the late '70s. Talk about that period and the reasons that an anti-disco movement arose in the US.

LO: Drugs, AIDS, crime, greed on the part of the club owners and the music industry--these associations enveloped disco, to name a few of the reasons. The word started to leave a bad taste in people's mouths. New pop music came to take its place. It became embarrassing to like disco AND dangerous. There were death threats!

EYA: The disco phenomenon eventually receded, but you detail the ways in which it still influences popular music. Tell us about some of them.

LO: DJs like to sample disco classics in new songs. You could say that "turntabling" started with disco. The art of the DJ developed in the disco era. The party atmosphere, the romance, has not died. Lady Gaga, Horsemeat Disco, and other performers and groups are directly building on disco. The ways are a bit different, but disco is music made for dancing. There are people out there on the floor. The interchange, the mixing, the dancing never died.

EYA: What kinds of readers will most benefit from Disco Dance?

LO: The series is a library reference for high school and college kids. But disco suffered from erasure, so there is still a lot for most people to learn about the era, the dancing, and the music.  I talk about the gay liberation movement. That may feel too basic to some readers but, for context, that story needed to be retold in the book. I couldn't assume that the reader knew about Stonewall. I came across a wonderful NYPL exhibit on it. I also found a collection of Saint posters at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center here in New York. One was composed of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs. That's in the book. I found a group of skaters in Central Park. A lot of this was discovery for me. Since there are so many facets within disco, more than likely, anyone who picks it up will find a lot they didn't know. No other book looks at disco dancing from this particular catch-all perspective.

*****

Publisher's information
Disco Dance on Amazon.com
ReadingDance.com, the Web site of Lori Ortiz

Save the date: Lori Ortiz, author of Disco Dance and publisher of ReadingDance will talk in a Galapagos Art Space "Get Smart" event,  August 11, 8pm, in DUMBO! (information and tickets)

Geek as Chic

I'm starting to like Virginia Heffernan more and more...

The Social Media Divide and Rock vs. Disco
by Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times, June 19, 2011