Isa B

“I’m someone who loves to dance; what came through the disco ball with the mirrors was wonderful”

The ’70s and “Saturday Night Fever”: “I think it was truly epoch-making. I was 12-13 years old at the time. Back then, TV and radio were very limited in communication, and discovering that places like the ’70s discotheque could exist, with the lights on the floor, the dancing, John Travolta’s dance routine—it was sociologically a major change that came from the United States, even though it arrived almost a year and a half late compared to the film’s release. Anyway, for a year and a half I listened to nothing but Saturday Night Fever! It was an important moment, very beautiful, absolutely beautiful.”

Disco Music Between the ’70s and ’80s:
“I think that from ’70 to ’79 there was a way of making music, there were musicians, Giorgio Moroder, his muse Donna Summer, all the music was played, Chic and many other groups. When you move into the ’80s, there are the first technologies, there are samplers, perhaps it’s the commercial side of the ’70s, it’s exploiting that disco phenomenon, the first productions begin, perhaps commercial music is born, lighter music. I personally don’t love ’80s music very much, I don’t like it, I prefer from ’70 to ’79, more funky, the discovery of new grooves that are then found in today’s music. I don’t love the ’80s. I think that in the ’80s there was tremendous ferment, excessive, with many experiments, everyone was throwing themselves in, the British invasion regarding all the English groups, punk, many philosophies, truly a crazy moment, of confusion, but in my opinion very alive. I’m more attached to the ’70s, more played and more sung. Even though in the ’80s there are greats like Mike Oldfield with “Moonlight Shadow,” which seems like a simple song but isn’t, he was a great guitarist.”

An anecdote:
“I couldn’t go to the cinema to see Saturday Night Fever because it was restricted to those under 16 or 14 years old—I don’t remember now—there was the album which was a double, and so I studied all the photos of John Travolta by heart, and from there perhaps my passion for the discotheque was born, I couldn’t wait to go to the discotheque. That’s the anecdote, the sounds of the Bee Gees, the dance routine, the curiosity to understand and discover what was there. I was very young, I know.”

The “Madonna” phenomenon:
“Madonna, as you all know, worked in Patrick Hernandez’s first club in New York, where I think she could have met everyone from Mancuso to anyone, so she was living a ferment that we in Italy perhaps had with the “Baia degli Angeli” but that was still in ’72. I think that New York in the ’70s-’80s must have been something amazing with all the various clubs, it must have been an amazing time, I wish I were 56 years old to have been able to experience it!”

The birth of disco music through Professor Tim Lawrence:
“He did beautiful research, it could be university research, where those who know nothing about it can discover how disco music was born. The phenomenon is more American because it goes from ’70 to ’79, and it’s explained perfectly: the first club, David Mancuso, invitation only, the Loft, which was actually his home, there was no mixing, records were changed (there was no mixer!), so the technology was different, the need not to lift your finger. Regarding the drug phenomenon, aggregation… I think every moment has its criticisms. There were the Beatles, there was the psychedelic period, so where there’s aggregation there are pros and cons. I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s not that if there hadn’t been this musical revolution, nobody would have done drugs! Drugs have always existed.
We now live in a time when everyone can go anywhere, there isn’t this great social difference, whereas in the ’60s-’70s only certain people could go to clubs. Paradise Garage, Larry Levan, opened the doors to Puerto Ricans, mixed-race people, blacks, especially gays, and from there the club was opened to everyone. It was an extremely important social revolution. Then by mixing everything, drugs were also mixed especially, every culture was mixed. It was a great historical moment, truly important.”