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106-526: Originally called Wonder Bar, the jazz nightspot opened around 1929 at 1601 Arctic Avenue, on the northwest corner of Kentucky Avenue and Arctic Avenue. In the 1940s and 1950s it was owned by Charles Randall. At one point B.B. King , a frequent performer at Club Harlem, became a part-owner of the Wonder Gardens and began appearing here exclusively two weekends a year. In July 1940 the Wonder Bar, Club Harlem,

212-603: A B.S. in music education from Morgan State University in Baltimore in 1961. Smith has cited Charlie Parker , John Coltrane and Miles Davis as major influences in his youth. While still a teenager, Smith became well known locally as a backing vocalist as well as pianist in the Baltimore metropolitan area . During this period, he regularly performed with a number of his contemporaries, including Gary Bartz (alto), Grachan Moncur (trombone), and Mickey Bass (bass). He also backed

318-543: A Fender Rhodes electric piano .' I didn't have anything to do, so I started messing with it, checking some of the buttons to see what I could do with different sounds. All of a sudden I started writing a song and everybody ran over and said, 'What is that?' And I said, 'I don't know, I'm just messing around.' Pharoah said, 'Man, we gotta record that. Whatcha gonna call it?' I'd been studying astral projections and it sounded like we were floating through space so I said let's call it 'Astral Traveling.' That’s how I got introduced to

424-443: A horn section , a string orchestra , and a variety of " classical " solo instruments (for example, flute, piccolo, and so on). Disco songs were arranged and composed by experienced arrangers and orchestrators , and record producers added their creative touches to the overall sound using multitrack recording techniques and effects units . Recording complex arrangements with such a large number of instruments and sections required

530-461: A recording contract until the turn of the decade , when the small Startrak label released Love Goddess (Startrak, 1990) and Magic Lady (Startrak, 1991). "I had a lot of idealistic concepts about music, and about the spiritual message I was trying to get across. But most record companies only care about demographics and bottom line sales." Both of the Startrak albums marked an about turn to

636-443: A Dance Floor , Random Access Memories , Future Nostalgia , and Kylie Minogue 's album itself titled Disco . Modern day artists like Dua Lipa , Bruno Mars and Silk Sonic have continued the genre's popularity, bringing it to a whole new younger generation. The term "disco" is shorthand for the word discothèque , a French word for "library of phonograph records" derived from "bibliothèque". The word "discotheque" had

742-486: A beat (which in 4/4 time is 4 beats per measure). Disco is further characterized by a 16th note division of the quarter notes (as shown in the second drum pattern in the picture above, after a typical rock drum pattern). The orchestral sound usually known as "disco sound" relies heavily on string sections and horns playing linear phrases, in unison with the soaring, often reverberated vocals or playing instrumental fills, while electric pianos and chicken-scratch guitars create

848-647: A double album retrospective of his Columbia output, Explorations: The Columbia Years , and his compositions remain a feature of jazz fusion orientated radio and CD compilations. The Cosmic Echoes track, "Expansions" has been featured in two videogames: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Driver: Parallel Lines , while "A Chance for Peace" featured in Grand Theft Auto IV . He appeared on the Jazz World Stage at Glastonbury Festival June 2009. In 2023, he released his first new recording in 25 years, "JID017," on

954-413: A fresh period of experimentation. Beginning with a live session at The Five Spot , New York City, November 9, 1965, Smith's time as a Jazz Messenger was fairly short-term, only lasting until a three-gig engagement at The Village Vanguard 26–28 April 1966; by May 1966 his position was filled by Chick Corea . No recordings exist of this period. In May 1967, Smith returned to working with Roland Kirk for

1060-551: A group of accompanying musicians who were among the most dextrous, knowledgeable, and brilliant in all of popular music (Motown bassists have long been the envy of white rock bassists) and 7) a trebly style of mixing that relied heavily on electronic limiting and equalizing (boosting the high range frequencies) to give the overall product a distinctive sound, particularly effective for broadcast over AM radio." Motown had many hits with disco elements by acts like Eddie Kendricks (" Keep on Truckin' " in 1973, " Boogie Down " in 1974). At

1166-441: A key influence in the development of electronic dance music , house music , hip hop , new wave , dance-punk , and post-disco . The style has had several revivals since the 1990s , and the influence of disco remains strong across American and European pop music. A revival has been underway since the early 2010s , coming to great popularity in the early 2020s . Albums that have contributed to this revival include Confessions on

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1272-465: A key part of the disco club experience. The Loft party host David Mancuso introduced the technologies of tweeter arrays (clusters of small loudspeakers, which emit high-end frequencies, positioned above the floor) and bass reinforcements (additional sets of subwoofers positioned at ground level) at the start of the 1970s to boost the treble and bass at opportune moments, and by the end of the decade sound engineers such as Richard Long had multiplied

1378-697: A major trend in popular music in the United States following the infamous Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and it continued to sharply decline in popularity in the U.S. during the early 1980s ; however, it remained popular in Italy and some European countries throughout the 1980s, and during this time also started becoming trendy in places elsewhere including India and the Middle East , where aspects of disco were blended with regional folk styles such as ghazals and belly dancing . Disco would eventually become

1484-406: A merengue, are commonplace. The quaver pattern is often supported by other instruments such as the rhythm guitar and may be implied rather than explicitly present. Songs often use syncopation , which is the accenting of unexpected beats. In general, the difference between disco, or any dance song, and a rock or pop song is that in dance music the bass drum hits four to the floor , at least once

1590-572: A minor hit in 1983 with "Never Too Late". He also appeared in Marvin Gaye's backing band at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival , which has since been released on both CD and DVD (Eagle Vision, 2003). However, public interest slowly waned in his newer material as the decade wore on, and the Cosmic Echoes eventually dissipated around 1976. The story of how Smith came to join Bob Thiele at Thiele's new label

1696-428: A non-phallic full body eroticism. Through a range of percussion instruments, a willingness to play with rhythm, and the endless repeating of phrases without cutting the listener off, disco achieved this full-body eroticism by restoring eroticism to the whole body for both sexes. This allowed for the potential expression of sexualities not defined by the cock/penis, and the erotic pleasure of bodies that are not defined by

1802-470: A number of compilation albums and being name-checked and sampled by an increasing number of younger musicians discovering his Cosmic Echoes output, he spent the next few years mainly involved in setting up his own label, Loveland, and it was not until 1998 that Sony International took advantage of his newfound audience by reissuing Exotic Mysteries and Loveland as a double CD. The same year, he recorded Transformation (Loveland, 1998), once again revisiting

1908-669: A number of jazz singers (including Ethel Ennis ) while performing in the house band at Baltimore's Royal Theater shortly after receiving his degree. In 1963, he moved to New York City , where he initially played piano in Betty Carter 's band for a year. Early in 1965, Smith began playing with Roland Kirk , first recording with his band on Here Comes The Whistleman (Atlantic, 1965), an album recorded live in New York on March 14, 1965. A further track from that gig, "Dream", appeared on Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler 's live album A Meeting of

2014-460: A prominent Moog synthesizer on the beat, was one of the first disco tracks to use the synthesizer. The rhythm is laid down by prominent, syncopated basslines (with heavy use of broken octaves , that is, octaves with the notes sounded one after the other) played on the bass guitar and by drummers using a drum kit , African/ Latin percussion , and electronic drums such as Simmons and Roland drum modules . In Philly dance and Salsoul disco,

2120-583: A re-arrangement of the gospel standard Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord , which Smith had also previously arranged for Sanders. I enjoyed the directness of this at first—piano improvisations striding over solid multi-percussion, in the spirit of Smith's former leader, Gato Barbieri , without the manic harshness. Then I begin to hanker for some harshness. It's not just the strings, which are at least as intelligent as, say, Alice Coltrane 's, and less ubiquitous. It's also

2226-495: A relationship to a penis. The sexual liberation expressed through the rhythm of disco is further represented in the club spaces that disco grew within. In Peter Shapiro 's Modulations: A History of Electronic Music : Throbbing Words on Sound , he discusses eroticism through the technology disco utilizes to create its audacious sound. The music, Shapiro states, is adjunct to "the pleasure-is-politics ethos of post- Stonewall culture." He explains how "mechano-eroticism", which links

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2332-399: A stronger effect. According to Peter Braunstein , the "massive quantities of drugs ingested in discothèques produced the next cultural phenomenon of the disco era: rampant promiscuity and public sex . While the dance floor was the central arena of seduction , actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells , and so on. In other cases

2438-480: A team that included a conductor , copyists , record producers, and mixing engineers . Mixing engineers had an important role in the disco production process because disco songs used as many as 64 tracks of vocals and instruments. Mixing engineers and record producers, under the direction of arrangers, compiled these tracks into a fluid composition of verses, bridges, and refrains, complete with builds and breaks . Mixing engineers and record producers helped to develop

2544-493: A young reporter, who happened to be covering the opening of the club, impulsively took control of the record player and introduced the records that he chose to play. Klaus Quirini later claimed to thus have been the world's first nightclub DJ. During the 1960s, discotheque dancing became a European trend that was enthusiastically picked up by the American press. At this time, when the discotheque culture from Europe became popular in

2650-406: Is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines , string sections , brass and horns , electric piano , synthesizers , and electric rhythm guitars . Discothèques as a venue were mostly a French invention, imported to the United States with

2756-588: Is achieved by lightly pressing the guitar strings against the fretboard and then quickly releasing them just enough to get a slightly muted poker [sound] while constantly strumming very close to the bridge." Other backing keyboard instruments include the piano , electric organ (during early years), string synthesizers , and electromechanical keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes electric piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, and Hohner Clavinet . Donna Summer 's 1977 song " I Feel Love ", produced by Giorgio Moroder with

2862-454: Is played for dancing, typically equipped with a large dance floor, an elaborate system of flashing coloured lights, and a powerful amplified sound system. " Its earliest example is use as the name of a particular venue in 1952, and other examples date from 1960 onwards. The entry is annotated as "Now somewhat dated". It defines Disco as "A genre of strongly rhythmical pop music mainly intended for dancing in nightclubs and particularly popular in

2968-495: Is told on the LP cover notes to Dreams of Tomorrow (1983) by Leonard Feather. Clearly Smith was at a crossroads. The reuniting with Thiele brought Smith full circle for Thiele was partly responsible for supporting Smith's early work. Thiele's new record label 'Doctor Jazz' (distributed through PRT in the UK) provided the perfect platform for Smith to showcase his new and critically acclaimed work of

3074-480: The Hammond B3 organ at the Wonder Gardens and Club Harlem. With his shoeshine earnings, Fogel bought a Hammond organ at age 11 and at age 13 debuted at the Wonder Gardens. At age 16 Fogel was leading the Wonder Gardens house band , which included his Atlantic City High School classmate Harvey Mason on drums. Mason recalled that the band regularly played the "breakfast show" at the Wonder Gardens from 4 AM to 10 AM in

3180-520: The Step By Step disco dance TV show was launched with the sponsorship support of the Coca-Cola company. Produced in the same studio that Don Cornelius used for the nationally syndicated dance/music television show, Soul Train , Step by Step' s audience grew and the show became a success. The dynamic dance duo of Robin and Reggie led the show. The pair spent the week teaching disco dancing to dancers in

3286-635: The fusion , smooth jazz and acid jazz genres. Smith was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia , United States to a musical family; his father was a member of Richmond Gospel music group The Harmonizing Four , and he remembered groups such as the Swan Silvertones and the Soul Stirrers (featuring a young Sam Cooke ) as regular visitors to the house when he was a child. He studied piano , tuba and trumpet in high school and college before receiving

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3392-539: The hippies informed proto-disco music like MFSB 's album Love Is the Message . Partly through the success of Jimi Hendrix , psychedelic elements that were popular in rock music of the late 1960s found their way into soul and early funk music and formed the subgenre psychedelic soul . Examples can be found in the music of the Chambers Brothers , George Clinton with his Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Sly and

3498-490: The recording studio . Larry Levan, for example, was a prolific record producer as well as a DJ. Because record sales were often dependent on dance floor play by DJs in the nightclubs, DJs were also influential in the development and popularization of certain types of disco music being produced for record labels. In the early years, dancers in discos danced in a "hang loose" or "freestyle" approach. At first, many dancers improvised their own dance styles and dance steps. Later in

3604-468: The "disco sound" by creating a distinctive-sounding, sophisticated disco mix . Early records were the "standard" three-minute version until Tom Moulton came up with a way to make songs longer so that he could take a crowd of dancers at a club to another level and keep them dancing longer. He found that it was impossible to make the 45-RPM vinyl singles of the time longer, as they could usually hold no more than five minutes of good-quality music. With

3710-470: The 'Doctor Jazz' albums are now considered amongst Smith's finest work. The Dreams of Tomorrow sessions were produced by Marcus Miller. In October 1986, he moved closer to his musical roots with Make Someone Happy (Doctor Jazz, 1986), an acoustic session that included new recordings of several jazz standards by the trio of Smith, Cecil McBee and Al Foster , produced by Bob Thiele. However, despite critical acclaim for this work, Smith found himself without

3816-521: The 1960s, the Motown record label developed its own approach, described as having "1) simply structured songs with sophisticated melodies and chord changes, 2) a relentless four-beat drum pattern, 3) a gospel use of background voices, vaguely derived from the style of the Impressions , 4) a regular and sophisticated use of both horns and strings, 5) lead singers who were half way between pop and gospel music, 6)

3922-505: The 1960s. In the 1960s, the Wonder Gardens booked jazz organists Brother Jack McDuff and Gene Ludwig , drummers Art Blakey and J. C. Heard , the John Banks Trio, Damita Jo , Kenny Barron and Dizzy Gillespie , tenor saxophonist Bootsie Barnes , R&B/soul group The Delfonics , and singers Marvin Gaye , Russell Thompkins Jr. , and Florence Ballard , formerly of The Supremes . In

4028-471: The Family Stone , and the productions of Norman Whitfield with The Temptations . Lonnie Liston Smith Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. (born December 28, 1940) is an American jazz , soul , and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in

4134-588: The Gang , and Blue Magic . The aspiring Commodores played as the house band one summer. Joseph Smith, a black Baltimore high school student, was also given some time on stage with his magic and ventriloquist act. In the early 1990s, the club featured jazz keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith and drummer Ralph Peterson, Jr. on its weekly jazz night from 5 PM to 2 AM. The club also gave the stage to up-and-coming singer Sybil and Boyz II Men , while aspiring DJ Ahmed Kahn spun R&B and rap music. Disco Disco

4240-577: The Gang , and Village People . While performers garnered public attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the genre. By the late 1970s, most major U.S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, and DJs would mix dance records at clubs such as Studio 54 in Manhattan , a venue popular among celebrities . Nightclub-goers often wore expensive, extravagant outfits, consisting predominantly of loose, flowing pants or dresses for ease of movement while dancing. There

4346-508: The Guinness Book of World Records. He danced for 205 hours, the equivalent of 8½ days. Other dance marathons took place afterward and Roberts held the world record for disco dancing for a short period of time. Some notable professional dance troupes of the 1970s included Pan's People and Hot Gossip . For many dancers, a key source of inspiration for 1970s disco dancing was the film Saturday Night Fever (1977). Further influence came from

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4452-573: The Latin Wonder Gardens. Featuring Afro-Cuban musical entertainment, the club announced that Joe Cuba would be the house band; opening acts included Típica 73 , Vitín Avilés , and Mayro & Silvio's Cuban Rumba Dancers. In 1991 the club underwent a second renovation and name change to the New Wonder Gardens, now offering Latin, jazz, R&B, hip hop , and reggae music. The 2000 edition of Lonely Planet 's New York City listed

4558-483: The Paradise Club, and Grace's Little Belmont were raided by police, led by the newly elected mayor, Tom Taggart, seeking proof of illegal gambling activities. The police confiscated "three truckloads of gambling paraphernalia" and arrested 32, then shut down the four clubs. The arrestees from the Wonder Bar included Randall, John Doyle, and Albert Leighton, who all pleaded not guilty and were released on bail. The next day

4664-462: The Stonewall riots. As New York state had laws against homosexual behavior in public, including dancing with a member of the same sex, the eroticism of disco served as resistance and an expression of sexual freedom. He uses Donna Summer's singles " Love to Love You Baby " (1975) and " I Feel Love " (1977) as examples of the ever-present relationship between the synthesized bass lines and backgrounds to

4770-494: The Times (Atlantic, 1972). Late in 1965, Smith joined Art Blakey 's Jazz Messengers , sharing the piano position with Mike Nock and Keith Jarrett . The Jazz Messengers, together with Miles Davis' group, were one of the main proving grounds for young up-and-coming jazz musicians, experimentally edgy and musically stretching, and both were an ever-revolving door of young modern jazz musicians as modes and moods rapidly changed during

4876-446: The United States, several music genres with danceable rhythms rose to popularity and evolved into different sub-genres: rhythm and blues (originated in the 1940s), soul (late 1950s and 1960s), funk (mid-1960s) and go-go (mid-1960s and 1970s; more than "disco", the word "go-go" originally indicated a music club). Musical genres that were primarily performed by African-American musicians would influence much of early disco. Also during

4982-538: The Wonder Gardens as a jazz club in its Atlantic City excursions section. Dancer LeRoy Myers purchased the club in the 1970s and sold it in 2001. Throughout its history, the Wonder Gardens presented both popular musicians and new talent. In the late 1950s Dan Fogel began hanging around the Kentucky Avenue clubs regularly at the age of 10, shining shoes and listening in on top jazz organists like Groove Holmes , Larry Young , Jimmy Smith , and Jimmy McGriff playing

5088-424: The album sessions for Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith (Verve, 1967) before continuing his career as pianist for a year with drummer Max Roach (although once again no recordings were made of this lineup). Following this stint, Smith moved to Pharoah Sanders ' ensemble early in 1968, a group Sanders had set up on the death of John Coltrane the previous year. Fiercely improvisational , Sanders pushed

5194-416: The background "pad" sound defining the harmony progression . Typically, all of the doubling of parts and use of additional instruments creates a rich " wall of sound ". There are, however, more minimalist flavors of disco with reduced, transparent instrumentation. Harmonically, disco music typically contains major and minor seven chords, which are found more often in jazz than pop music. The "disco sound"

5300-400: The band creatively to the boundaries of free jazz , recording three of Sanders' finest recordings: Karma ( Impulse , 1969), Jewels of Thought ( Impulse , 1970) and Thembi (Impulse, 1971), together with 1969 recording sessions not released until 1973 as Izipho Zam ( Strata East , 1973). It is at this point that Smith began experimenting with electric keyboards : On Thembi , that

5406-649: The beginning of another song using the DJ mixer's crossfader. Notable U.S. disco DJs include Francis Grasso of The Sanctuary, David Mancuso of The Loft , Frankie Knuckles of the Chicago Warehouse , Larry Levan of the Paradise Garage , Nicky Siano of The Gallery , Walter Gibbons , Karen Mixon Cook , Jim Burgess , John "Jellybean" Benitez , Richie Kulala of Studio 54 , and Rick Salsalini. Some DJs were also record producers who created and produced disco songs in

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5512-535: The capital area's gay and straight college students in the late '70s. By 1979 there were 15,000-20,000 disco nightclubs in the US, many of them opening in suburban shopping centers, hotels, and restaurants. The 2001 Club franchises were the most prolific chain of disco clubs in the country. Although many other attempts were made to franchise disco clubs, 2001 was the only one to successfully do so in this time frame. Powerful, bass-heavy, hi-fi sound systems were viewed as

5618-560: The cha cha ". The pioneer of disco dance instruction was Karen Lustgarten in San Francisco in 1973. Her book The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing (Warner Books 1978) was the first to name, break down and codify popular disco dances as dance forms and distinguish between disco freestyle, partner, and line dances. The book topped the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks and was translated into Chinese, German, and French. In Chicago,

5724-557: The chest. Men often wore Pierre Cardin suits, three piece suits with a vest, and double-knit polyester shirt jackets with matching trousers known as the leisure suit . Men's leisure suits were typically form-fitted to some parts of the body, such as the waist and bottom while the lower part of the pants were flared in a bell bottom style, to permit freedom of movement. During the disco era, men engaged in elaborate grooming rituals and spent time choosing fashion clothing, activities that would have been considered "feminine" according to

5830-422: The clubs were open for business as usual. The raid followed a period of unease between the new mayor and black citizens of Atlantic City's north side; earlier, Taggart had filed a restraining order against a white dancer, who bathed in milk during her performance, from appearing at Randall's black club. In 1979 the Wonder Gardens was renovated and redecorated as a Latin disco , with a new sound system, and renamed

5936-418: The dance and fashion aspects of the disco club scene, there was also a thriving club drug subculture , particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud, bass-heavy music and the flashing colored lights, such as cocaine (nicknamed "blow"), amyl nitrite (" poppers "), and the "... other quintessential 1970s club drug Quaalude , which suspended motor coordination and gave

6042-413: The dancers wanted, transitioning from one song to another with a DJ mixer and using a microphone to introduce songs and speak to the audiences. Other equipment was added to the basic DJ setup, providing unique sound manipulations, such as reverb , equalization, and echo effects unit . Using this equipment, a DJ could do effects such as cutting out all but the bassline of a song and then slowly mixing in

6148-482: The dancing, sex, and other embodied movements that contributed to the corporeal vibrations within the Sanctuary. It supports the argument that disco music took a role in facilitating this sexual liberation that was experienced in the discotheques. The recent legalization of abortion and the introduction of antibiotics and the pill facilitated a culture shift around sex from one of procreation to pleasure and enjoyment. Thus

6254-415: The disco became a kind of 'main course' in a hedonist's menu for a night out." At The Saint nightclub, a high percentage of the gay male dancers and patrons would have sex in the club; they typically had unprotected sex , because in 1980, HIV-AIDS had not yet been identified. At The Saint, "dancers would elope to an unpoliced upstairs balcony to engage in sex." The promiscuity and public sex at discos

6360-571: The disco clubs. The instructional show aired on Saturday mornings and had a strong following. Its viewers would stay up all night on Fridays so they could be on the set the next morning, ready to return to the disco on Saturday night knowing with the latest personalized steps. The producers of the show, John Reid and Greg Roselli, routinely made appearances at disco functions with Robin and Reggie to scout out new dancing talent and promote upcoming events such as "Disco Night at White Sox Park". In Sacramento, California, Disco King Paul Dale Roberts danced for

6466-675: The disco era, popular dance styles were developed, including the "Bump", "Penguin", "Boogaloo", "Watergate", and "Robot". By October 1975 the Hustle reigned. It was highly stylized, sophisticated, and overtly sexual. Variations included the Brooklyn Hustle, New York Hustle , and Latin Hustle . During the disco era, many nightclubs would commonly host disco dance competitions or offer free dance lessons. Some cities had disco dance instructors or dance schools, which taught people how to do popular disco dances such as "touch dancing", "the hustle", and "

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6572-464: The early to mid 1980s. For Dreams of Tomorrow , Smith enlisted the vocal talents of his younger brother Donald Smith for the album's opener A Lonely Way to Be and side two's stunning opening Never Too Late . A major musician on the album was Marcus Miller on bass guitar. David Hubbard plays a series of saxophones and flutes on the album, with Yogi Horton, Buddy Williams and Steve Thornton leading on drums and percussion. The album relaunched Smith and

6678-515: The effects of these innovations in venues such as the Garage." Typical lighting designs for disco dance floors include multi-colored lights that swirl around or flash to the beat, strobe lights , an illuminated dance floor , and a mirror ball . Disco-era disc jockeys (DJs) would often remix existing songs using reel-to-reel tape machines , and add in percussion breaks, new sections, and new sounds. DJs would select songs and grooves according to what

6784-513: The electric piano. During this period, Smith also backed Sanders vocalist Leon Thomas on his first album Spirits Known and Unknown ( Flying Dutchman , 1969). Having already guested on Gato Barbieri 's 1969 album The Third World (Philips, 1969), Smith joined Barbieri's band from 1971 to 1973. Barbieri had by then begun to temper his free jazz excursions of the 1960s with softer Afro-Cuban and South American textures in his music, which would influence Smith's playing into new directions in

6890-450: The end of the 1960s, musicians, and audiences from the Black, Italian, and Latino communities adopted several traits from the hippie and psychedelia subcultures. They included using music venues with a loud, overwhelming sound, free-form dancing, trippy lighting, colorful costumes, and the use of hallucinogenic drugs. In addition, the perceived positivity, lack of irony, and earnestness of

6996-441: The entire body rather than the obvious erotic parts of the body. The New York nightclub The Sanctuary under resident DJ Francis Grasso is a prime example of this sexual liberty. In their history of the disc jockey and club culture, Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton describe the Sanctuary as "poured full of newly liberated gay men, then shaken (and stirred) by a weighty concoction of dance music and pharmacoia of pills and potions,

7102-571: The first discotheque and to have been the first club DJ in 1953 in the "Whisky à Go-Go" in Paris. She installed a dance floor with colored lights and two turntables so she could play records without having a gap in the music. In October 1959, the owner of the Scotch Club in Aachen, West Germany chose to install a record player for the opening night instead of hiring a live band. The patrons were unimpressed until

7208-487: The following year Smith expanded upon his success with a new contract with Columbia Records and two further crossover albums in Loveland (Columbia, 1978) and Exotic Mysteries (Columbia, 1978), the latter containing the single "Space Princess" which became a disco/R&B hit popular in clubs today in both 7" and remixed 12" versions. "Space Princess" was written by, and featured the bass lines of 16-year-old Marcus Miller , who

7314-507: The following years. Smith played on a number of albums marking this transition, Fenix (Flying Dutchman, 1971), the live album El Pampero (Flying Dutchman, 1972), Under Fire (Flying Dutchman, 1973), and Bolivia (Flying Dutchman, 1973). One further album, El Gato (Flying Dutchman, 1975), was released after Smith had again moved on; from 1972 he had also taken up the invitation to join Miles Davis band on electric keyboards. Over

7420-662: The gender stereotypes of the era. Women dancers wore glitter makeup, sequins , or gold lamé clothing that would shimmer under the lights. Bold colors were popular for both genders. Platform shoes and boots for both genders and high heels for women were popular footwear. Necklaces and medallions were a common fashion accessory . Less commonly, some disco dancers wore outlandish costumes, dressed in drag , covered their bodies with gold or silver paint, or wore very skimpy outfits leaving them nearly nude; these uncommon get-ups were more likely to be seen at invitation-only New York City loft parties and disco clubs. In addition to

7526-561: The genre he had been most successful in and reuniting with his brother Donald's vocals. For this release he re-recorded "A Chance For Peace (Give Peace a Chance)" (both as vocal and instrumental versions) and "Expansions" as well as "Space Princess". Since 1998, he has continued to perform live and tour on a number of occasions, especially in Europe and Japan, where he remains popular with new generations of listeners. He has also spent much of his time teaching at various workshops. In 2002, Sony issued

7632-549: The hardcore free jazz fans who had appreciated his earlier work, but this new relaxed fusion style proved popular with a cross-over audience not normally associated with jazz, and the following albums, Expansions (Flying Dutchman, 1974), Visions of a New World (Flying Dutchman, 1975) and Reflections of a Golden Dream (Flying Dutchman, 1976) have since become mainstays of the jazz-funk and chill jazz genres with DJs and audiences worldwide, especially in Europe and Japan. Renaissance (RCA, 1977) continued this crossover fame, and

7738-414: The help of José Rodriguez, his remaster/mastering engineer, he pressed a single on a 10" disc instead of 7". They cut the next single on a 12" disc, the same format as a standard album. Moulton and Rodriguez discovered that these larger records could have much longer songs and remixes. 12" single records , also known as " Maxi singles ", quickly became the standard format for all DJs of the disco genre. By

7844-600: The late 1960s to the mid-to-late 1970s. Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music at the time. Several dance styles were developed during the period of 70s disco's popularity in the United States, including "the Bump ", "the Hustle ", "the Watergate", and "the Busstop". During the 1970s, disco music

7950-466: The late 1970s, Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan was arguably the best-known nightclub in the world. This club played a major formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general. It was operated by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager and was notorious for the hedonism that went on within: the balconies were known for sexual encounters and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor

8056-864: The late 1970s, most major US cities had thriving disco club scenes. The largest scenes were most notably in New York City but also in Philadelphia , San Francisco , Miami , and Washington, D.C. The scene was centered on discotheques , nightclubs and private loft parties. In the 1970s, notable discos included " Crisco Disco ", "The Sanctuary", "Leviticus", " Studio 54 ", and " Paradise Garage " in New York, "Artemis" in Philadelphia, "Studio One" in Los Angeles, "Dugan's Bistro" in Chicago, and "The Library" in Atlanta. In

8162-405: The message" Smith told Australia's Daily Telegraph Mirror newspaper in 1995. Smith appeared on Guru's groundbreaking Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 album (Chrysalis, 1993), once again finding a new audience for his earlier work as a result. He had also toured Europe in 1991, but after this short period of activity Smith produced little further work in the 1990s. Despite extensive radio play, appearing on

8268-555: The mid to late 1970s.", with use from 1975 onwards, describing the origin of the word as a shortened form of discotheque . In the summer of 1964, a short sleeveless dress called the "discotheque dress" was briefly very popular in the United States. The earliest known use for the abbreviated form "disco" described this dress and has been found in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 12, 1964; Playboy magazine used it in September of

8374-463: The mid-1960s, a young George Benson , then known as "Little Georgie", played guitar in McDuff's trio at the Wonder Gardens. After his set ended at 3 AM Benson would walk over to Grace's Little Belmont to talk music with future jazz composer Charles Earland . In the 1970s the club began presenting rock, soul, and pop musicians. Performers included Stevie Wonder , James Brown , Aretha Franklin , Kool and

8480-799: The music and dance style of such films as Fame (1980), Disco Dancer (1982), Flashdance (1983), and The Last Days of Disco (1998). Interest in disco dancing also helped spawn dance competition TV shows such as Dance Fever (1979). Disco fashions were very trendy in the late 1970s. Discothèque-goers often wore glamorous, expensive, and extravagant fashions for nights out at their local disco club. Some women would wear sheer, flowing dresses, such as Halston dresses, or loose, flared pants. Other women wore tight, revealing, sexy clothes, such as backless halter tops , disco pants , "hot pants", or body-hugging spandex bodywear or "catsuits". Men would wear shiny polyester Qiana shirts with colorful patterns and pointy, extra wide collars, preferably open at

8586-516: The next year, during an intense period of studio recording by Davis, various line-ups laid down a considerable number of sessions, which were later inter-cut and remixed for final release. Miles Davis insisted that Smith learn to play the organ for the sessions: "Miles gave me two nights to learn how to make music on the thing. Miles liked to introduce new sounds in a surprising way — that's how he produced such innovative, fresh music." Smith's contributions appeared on On The Corner (Columbia, 1973) and

8692-468: The off-beat, and a heavy, syncopated bass line. A recording error in the 1975 song " Bad Luck " by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes where Earl Young 's hi-hat was too loud in the recording is said to have established loud hi-hats in disco. Other Latin rhythms such as the rhumba, the samba, and the cha-cha-cha are also found in disco recordings, and Latin polyrhythms , such as a rhumba beat layered over

8798-425: The opening of Le Club , a members-only restaurant and nightclub located at 416 East 55th Street in Manhattan , by French expatriate Olivier Coquelin , on New Year's Eve 1960. Disco music as a genre started as a mixture of music from venues popular among African-Americans , Hispanic and Latino Americans , gay Americans , and Italian Americans in New York City (especially Brooklyn ) and Philadelphia during

8904-524: The result is a festivaly of carnality." The Sanctuary was the "first totally uninhibited gay discotheque in America" and while sex was not allowed on the dancefloor, the dark corners, bathrooms. and hallways of the adjacent buildings were all utilized for orgy-like sexual engagements. By describing the music, drugs, and liberated mentality as a trifecta coming together to create the festival of carnality, Brewster and Broughton are inciting all three as stimuli for

9010-514: The rhythms themselves, serving a purpose so expanded and cosmic that it's not even spiritual anymore, thus rendering their connection to the body irrelevant. —Review of Expansions by Robert Christgau (1981) The following year Smith's brother, Donald, joined the Cosmic Echoes as vocalist for Cosmic Funk ( Flying Dutchman , 1974). Although he remained close to his earlier roots with featured versions of Wayne Shorter 's " Footprints " and John Coltrane's " Naima " on this album, by now Smith

9116-596: The same meaning in English in the 1950s. "Discothèque" became used in French for a type of nightclub in Paris, after they had resorted to playing records during the Nazi occupation in the early 1940s. Some clubs used it as their proper name. In 1960, it was also used to describe a Parisian nightclub in an English magazine. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Discotheque as "A dance hall, nightclub, or similar venue where recorded music

9222-618: The same year to describe Los Angeles nightclubs. Vince Aletti was one of the first to describe disco as a sound or a music genre. He wrote the 13 September 1973 feature article Discotheque Rock '72: Paaaaarty! that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. The music typically layered soaring, often- reverberated vocals, often doubled by horns, over a background "pad" of electric pianos and "chicken-scratch" rhythm guitars played on an electric guitar . Lead guitar features less frequently in disco than in rock . "The "rooster scratch" sound

9328-401: The sensation that one's arms and legs had turned to ' Jell-O . ' " Quaaludes were so popular at disco clubs that the drug was nicknamed "disco biscuits". Paul Gootenberg states that "[t]he relationship of cocaine to 1970s disco culture cannot be stressed enough..." During the 1970s, the use of cocaine by well-to-do celebrities led to its "glamorization" and to the widely held view that it

9434-452: The simulated sounds of orgasms. Summer's voice echoes in the tracks, and likens them to the drug-fervent, sexually liberated fans of disco who sought to free themselves through disco's "aesthetic of machine sex." Shapiro sees this as an influence that creates sub-genres like hi-NRG and dub -disco, which allowed for eroticism and technology to be further explored through intense synth bass lines and alternative rhythmic techniques that tap into

9540-524: The smooth jazz mode of the Cosmic Echoes period, Love Goddess featuring vocalist Phyllis Hyman and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine . Around this time, the emerging hip-hop movement took an interest in Smith's earlier work, and he found himself working with rapper Guru , who was mixing hip-hop with jazz in an innovative way. "Guru and the other rappers would tell me how their uncles used to make them listen to me and Miles and Donald Byrd and how they got

9646-468: The sound was enriched with solo lines and harmony parts played by a variety of orchestral instruments, such as violin , viola , cello , trumpet , saxophone , trombone , flugelhorn , French horn , English horn , oboe , flute , timpani and synth strings , string section or a full string orchestra . Most disco songs have a steady four-on-the-floor beat set by a bass drum, a quaver or semi-quaver hi-hat pattern with an open hissing hi-hat on

9752-522: The technology used to create the unique mechanical sound of disco to eroticism, set the genre in a new dimension of reality living outside of naturalism and heterosexuality. Randy Jones and Mark Jacobsen echo this sentiment in BBC Radio's "The Politics of Dancing: How Disco Changed the World," describing the loose, hip-focused dance style as "a new kind of communion" that celebrates the sparks of liberation brought on

9858-593: The track "Ife" on Big Fun (Columbia, 1974). While passing through Miles Davis' ever-changing line-up, Smith had finally formed his own group, 'Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes' in 1973, together with his partner in Pharoah Sanders group, Cecil McBee , on bass, George Barron ( soprano and tenor sax ), Joe Beck (guitar), David Lee Jr. (drums), James Mtume ( percussion ), Sonny Morgan (percussion), Badal Roy ( tabla drums), and Geeta Vashi ( tamboura ). Blending atmospheric fusion, soul and funk , Smith

9964-448: Was a "soft drug". LSD , marijuana , and "speed" (amphetamines) were also popular in disco clubs, and the use of these drugs "...contributed to the hedonistic quality of the dance floor experience." Since disco dances were typically held in liquor licensed - nightclubs and dance clubs , alcoholic drinks were also consumed by dancers; some users intentionally combined alcohol with the consumption of other drugs, such as Quaaludes, for

10070-571: Was also a thriving drug subculture in the disco scene, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as cocaine and quaaludes , the latter being so common in disco subculture that they were nicknamed "disco biscuits". Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity as a reflection of the sexual revolution of this era in popular history. Films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) contributed to disco's mainstream popularity. Disco declined as

10176-522: Was decorated with an image of the " Man in the Moon " that included an animated cocaine spoon . The " Copacabana ", another New York nightclub dating to the 1940s, had a revival in the late 1970s when it embraced disco; it would become the setting of a Barry Manilow song of the same name . In Washington, D.C. , large disco clubs such as "The Pier" ("Pier 9") and "The Other Side", originally regarded exclusively as " gay bars ", became particularly popular among

10282-412: Was described as having a " pansexual attitude [that] was revolutionary in a country where up until recently it had been illegal for two men to dance together unless there was a woman present; where women were legally obliged to wear at least one recognizable item of female clothing in public; and where men visiting gay bars usually carried bail money with them." Disco was mostly developed from music that

10388-579: Was developed further, mainly by artists from the United States as well as from Europe . Well-known artists included the Bee Gees , ABBA , Donna Summer , Gloria Gaynor , Giorgio Moroder , Baccara , The Jacksons , Michael Jackson , Boney M , Earth Wind & Fire , Rick James , ELO , Average White Band , Chaka Khan , Chic , KC and the Sunshine Band , Thelma Houston , Sister Sledge , Sylvester , The Trammps , Barry White , Diana Ross , Kool &

10494-449: Was discovered by Smith and also wrote the track "Night Flower" on Exotic Mysteries . A further track from the same album, "Quiet Moments", was to become a mainstay of the smooth jazz genre over the next decade. After the crossover success of the 1970s, and continuing interest in and discovery of his earlier work by fans of the new " Quiet Storm " late-night radio/smooth jazz format, Smith moved to Bob Thiele's new label, Doctor Jazz, and had

10600-460: Was encouraged by Bob Thiele , the owner of Flying Dutchman Records , who had produced both Pharoah Sanders ' and Gato Barbieri 's output while Smith had been in their bands, the latter for Thiele's newly formed label. For his debut album, Astral Traveling (Flying Dutchman, 1973), Smith re-recorded the title song he had composed and played on with the Pharoah Sanders band two years previous. An instrumental album, Astral Travelling also contained

10706-595: Was fostered a very sex-positive framework around discotheques. Further, in addition to gay sex being illegal in New York state, until 1973 the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as an illness. This law and classification coupled together can be understood to have heavily dissuaded the expression of queerness in public, as such the liberatory dynamics of discotheques can be seen as having provided space for self-realization for queer persons. David Mancuso's club/house party, The Loft ,

10812-465: Was heading into the smooth jazz funk /fusion style that would dominate his output from here on, with dreamy vocals and long, spacy instrumental passages underlaid by strong funky bass-lines and a distinctive use of light percussion , with a message of peace and tranquillity in both the lyrics and song titles. "I was trying to expand the consciousness of humanity" explained Smith in an interview in 2009. This attitude may not have endeared Smith to

10918-404: Was much more costly to produce than many of the other popular music genres from the 1970s. Unlike the simpler, four-piece-band sound of funk , soul music of the late 1960s or the small jazz organ trios , disco music often included a large band, with several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion, electronic drums),

11024-473: Was part of a broader trend towards exploring a freer sexual expression in the 1970s, an era that is also associated with " swingers clubs , hot tubs , [and] key parties ." In his paper, "In Defense of Disco" (1979), Richard Dyer claims eroticism as one of the three main characteristics of disco. As opposed to rock music which has a very phallic centered eroticism focusing on the sexual pleasure of men over other persons, Dyer describes disco as featuring

11130-468: Was popular on the dance floor in clubs that started playing records instead of having a live band. The first discotheques mostly played swing music . Later on, uptempo rhythm and blues became popular in American clubs and northern soul and glam rock records in the UK. In the early 1940s, nightclubs in Paris resorted to playing jazz records during the Nazi occupation. Régine Zylberberg claimed to have started

11236-455: Was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to set up his drums, Pharoah had to unpack all of his horns. Everybody had something to do, but the piano was just sitting there waiting. I saw this instrument sitting in the corner and I asked the engineer, 'What is that?' He said, 'That's

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