DJs
In the early 70s, in America clubs became the temples and DJs became the priests.
The DJ became the protagonist of the club, and as world famous New York DJ Bobby Guttadaro states, they were “masters of ceremony and psychologists” and had to use their sensitivity to understand the mood of the crowd and choose the right songs to get the party started. The DJ was the focus of the club, the one who was performing, and the ones that the people wanted to see, who created the atmosphere and set the tone of the club. Out of this, the symbiotic relationship between the DJ and crowd came to pass in which both sides needed each other to flourish. A DJ would on sight have to know the mood of a crowd and be able to guide the the crowd through the night. Guttadaro states that “Being a DJ is much more than simple, while mixing the music for two records is a real art to which it should be a musical ear, technique and a certain ability to entertain people…The secret lies mainly in the mix the discs between them so as to connect between them the rhythms of individual discs, forming a sort of uniform musical carpet that has the purpose to keep dancing people without stopping between a disc and the other “.
Who Was The First DJ?
In New York, in the early 70s, the most well-known DJs were of Italian origin: Francis Grasso, Michael Cappello, Steve D’Acquisto , David Mancuso, Bobby Guttadaro, Tom Savarese and Nicky Siano, a wholly Italian-American group belonging to the second-generation immigrant families. As such, they knew how to handle the insecurities and unstable equilibria of the surrounding world. Italian-Americans and the mob ran most of the localities.
The personality of the DJ was born at The Sanctuary in New York due to Francis Grasso, who was made famous by his track choices and musical combinations. Nicky Siano, later resident of Studio 54, proposed innovative music, such as “Love’s Theme” by Love Unlimited Orchestra, TSOP Mother, Father, Sisters & Brothers (MFSB), while David Mancuso was very skilled at creating atmospheres with particular sounds. Another two notable DJs of the time were Tom Savarese and DJ Bobby Guttadaro. “I’m a performer,” said Savarese “I do the show and it is precisely what is expected of me people, have fun and be entertained by my performance.” From 1976 to 1977, Savarese and Guttadaro shared first place in the special list of the best DJs on the American Billboard. In addition to working as a DJ, and Savarese Guttadaro is also occupied mixing as a studio musician. The first remix, of Chic’s “Dance Dance Dance” was highly successful while the next one was for the Soundtrack of Thank God Its Friday. Thanks to dj, disco became a mass phenomenon that allowed singers like George McCrae, Hues Corporation and Barry White to climb the charts all over the world. New York as in other American cities, such as Philadelphia and Miami, DJs launched numerous artists of the disco music later became famous. But their taste in music was, for a long time ignored by charts and snubbed by record companies, until, in 1974, shear demand imposed “Love’s Theme” of the Love Unlimited Orchestra on the charts, produced by Barry White and excluded from the radio.
DJing grows
DJs in New York became successful guides of the growing Dance industry. The manopoly of radio was broken even more when “Rock your baby” by George Mc Crae and “Rock the boat” of the Hues Corporation reached the top of the charts, and Barry White went to Le Jardin to thank Bobby Dj Guttadaro for his contribution to “Love’s Theme”. In 1975, on the initiative of Mancuso, all the DJs of the club emerging New Yorkers, who struggled to buy all the discs in the output, met for the first time in a union called Record Pool. That’s right: the disks belonged to the DJ and not to the Club, who without them did not have a job! The first DJ Union got the advantage of having the ‘new releases’ in preview, but nothing more. The deejays were happy to get the disks free and earn money for the evenings, but did not bother to have regular contracts nor realized it was very important part of a group that in a few years would attract the interest of all the labels on the disco music and help to bring about a change in the music. What were the changes that emerged at that time? The duration of the track was lengthened, and thanks to Tom Moulton who invented the first ‘break’ in the studio, which gave birth to the special mixed versions, the famous Disco mixes In January of 1976, Billboard magazine, realizing the success of the album, he organized the First Annual International Disco Forum. The disk was becoming famous in pop music all over the world, and the music industry took the opportunity to create a business empire of global dimensions.
Quotes
Dj Tom Savarese: “The DJ is not only a technician, a person must have an open, lively, musical flow, you must first love what you do, love all music not only what is heard but everything from pop to rock.”
Dj Tom Moulton: “I feel the distinction and tension in the bodies of the audience waiting for the next song, and observe how their bodies react to breaks and to changes in the rhythm of the music. […] People react to the sound of cymbals such a shock when you take them down, pausing only played from the battery or the conga, it is as if I held them suspended on the brink of a precipice. So with the power of the music resumes, resume them and take them on dry land, then crumble down, until they float in the air free again, back to safety. People are not aware of these feelings, but she loves.”
Vince Aletti: “To those outside of the realm of the clubs, the idea that someone who puts the disks is considered a kind of musician – able to create his songs based on those of someone else – may seem a bit too much. But there is no doubt, a true DJ can give life to a night of music with his personality, his style, his spirit, transforming a sequence of records in a spontaneous symphony.”