This was the beginning of Disco from my perspective:

Eddy Grant in the mix...


The Sanctuary - Francis Grasso - 1971 Live Recording - Part 1

This is a small sample from the full recording.
The Full Recording Contains 21 Tracks Recorded & Remastered By Luis Mario "Flaco" D.J.
This recording was made approximately between 3 am & 7 am.
Keep in mind this was a small battery operated recorder.

New York 1970. "The Sanctuary" 43rd Street & 8th Ave.

I would like to pay tribute to my friend and mentor Francis Grasso the innovator and creator of the slip-cueing Mix. I would like to thank Francis for allowing me to record him while he was playing, a little recorder was placed near the DJ area "The Altar" remember this was a church. You can hear the participation from the audience and how they reacted to the music this man was playing and mixing by clapping their hands, cheering and chanting with whistles and screams.
Outside the club there was a sea of people trying to get in, by midnight Francis would arrive while Michael Capello was warming up the crowd and to this day he is up there with the pioneers of DJ's. I had the honor to work with Francis 2 times once at "The Directoire" along with Al Garcia & Leo Sayan and the other time at the after hours club "Cobra's" where he would come in the middle of the night and ask me to let him play, how could I say no to a legend. I will keep Francis' memories alive and continue to play the music that made all the DJ's pay attention and to be creative, to learn how to read a crowd and how to manipulate and teach the audience that the DJ is in control not the other way around. Sadly, the man passed away just prior to his 53rd birthday, on March 20, 2001. I'd like to know if any of you remember these clubs and if you have any memories of it please post it.

List of songs in this recording

Don't Worry - Curtis Mayfield
You Brough The Joy - Denise LaSalle
Stick Up - Honey Cone
I Know I'm In Love - Cheche & Peppy
You're The One - Little Sisters
You're The One - Three Degrees
Stand - Sly & The Family Stone
Moment of Truth - Earth, Wind & Fire
Scorpio - Denis Coffey
C'mon Children - Earth, Wind & Fire
I'm Coming - Bobby Bird
Life And Death - Abaco Dream
Rain - Dorothy Morrison
I Wanna Take You Higher
Sultana - Titanic
Dam Fool - Exuma
Melting Pot - Booker T & The MG's
K-Gee - The Night Liters
Shaft - Issac Hayes
Listen Here - Bryand Trinity
Funky Chicken - Rufus Thomas - Part 1

The credit for these pictures belong to Phil Dickerson & Rick Squillante
From "Disco" by Albert Goldman, 1978.
From suenomartino.net
GET THAT PERFECT BEAT; FACE MAGAZINE - OCTOBER 1983
From the liner notes of the Rhino Disco Box Set:
Francis Grasso (Obituary from the New York Times, Sunday April 8th, 2001.)

Please visit DJ's Gone But Not Forgotten



This was the first Disco I ever visited back in 70-71...

AnthonyC offers this line

Disco came in went in less than half a generation. Punk is still around.

so is syphillis. its longevity does not make it any more desireable, at least, not to me.

AnthonyC,

Most disco songs were produced and arranged by the best jazz musicians in world.

Are you aware of it?

Let's go back to the start:









That's what they call Disco!

Yea like the Bee Gees, Village People and K.C and the Sunshine Band.

So they used "studio Musicians" so what?

The Monkees had some of the greatest songwriters and muscians playing on their tracks also. Are the Monkees Great?

Are you serious? Do you even think before writing?

Longevity is an extremely accurate gauge of the desirability of a music Product. If people liked it there would be a demand. If there was demand people would be recording it.
Look at jazz. Never as popular, in modern times, as either disco or punk it still has a small but strong demand. So they still crank out Jazz recording for pretensious and tragically hip.
Same with the Blues....But the blues is good music.
There is no demand for disco. Only for old disco songs to be played at wedding and some bars for MILFs and Cougars to Dance to.

BTW As of today there is a "Punk" album on the Billboard top 200 album Charts. Last week it was #1.

When was the last time an original disco Album even charted?

Now that's a lesson in Disco-ology for your eardrums! Had enough?