Me and Frank Sinatra

I was watching a documentary on Frank Sinatra on HBO the other night and the doc triggered and jogged my recollections of another reason why my influences regarding dance music are embedded in my psyche. Sinatra was always talking about the fact that his career was based solely on his experience as a song and dance man, with his start and his rise coming from bars, saloons, clubs and dance halls. Usually, when I watch these historical docs with AM, I feel like I need to give her some background and comments (teaching moments). Most of the time when I speak to her, it’s because I have lived and experienced it in some way that led to my own musical and life development, toward a career in the music business as a singer (front man and MC with bands), a musician (piano and trumpet), a DJ (playing records at clubs,parties and sock hops) and a producer (recording and making my own tapes to study and pitch).

Sinatra was always one of my favorite singers to draw from. When I got my first real production and record deal with Jimmy Bowen and Baker Knight in LA, I was thrilled of course. I found out later that Jimmy had been the youngest producer of Sinatra, on Frank’s new label, Reprise. Frank felt his career was going down because of the new music at the time (Beatles, Stones, etc.). I was told that Frank wanted to hire a young producer to get a young sound. So, Jimmy was hired. The album that was cut had a hit single called “Strangers in the Night”. That song won a Grammy and Jimmy formed his production company (Amos Productions, named after his dad).

Sinatra was back on top again. I thought it was cool to be signed by Frank’s young producer. Jimmy once told me the reason he signed me and my band was because of the natural “radio edge” I had in my voice. Jimmy paired me with Baker Knight (The Wonder of You and other big hits) to write the songs I would sing on the records. Jimmy was also producing Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr as a staff producer for Reprise. I can go in depth about all this, but the stories I used to hear about Frank and his studio techniques and how it related to me (a green kid from KY thrown into the big time)...what a way to learn...from the best, and as the intro to my dream-come-true record deal.

Our Parallel Universe – Part 2

The parallel universe of Giorgio Moroder (GM) & Freddie May (FM) in pop music, and the electronic world of music, has evolved through the years only with the help of cosmic interaction. The synchronicity of time, beatz and locked-in universal rhythm and “go with the flow”, creates a dance. A dance for eternal life (Dance For Life by Tiesto) in our parallel universes of GM & FM. Since the cosmos has always embraced symphonic sounds through the ages, we evolve technologically from the first harpsichord to the synth. Stephen Foster wrote his songs using his Uncle “Judge” Rowan’s harpsichord (in Bardstown, KY, circa 1850’s) to become America’s first commercial pop songwriter. In Europe, the symphonic composers of the day, with the latest in instrument technology, were blazing the cosmic trail with out-there music to the people of Europe and the universe. Stephen Foster and Mozart? FM & GM? Pop/EDM/ Trance/Symphonic? Is it possible that in two different parts of the world, 2 music artists are trying to make their mark in the universal scheme of things?

My grandmother wanted me to be a singing preacher. What did GM’s grandmother say to him about getting the message out? Once it’s out there, it goes on forever through infinity. The infinitesimal projection of light and sound to the time traveler in space is circling back around. In the cosmic cycle for all of us to latch on, is for another trip of perfection. “EYES PERFECT!”, telepathically sent from AMFM. “74 is the new 24”, Giorgio Moroder states from another cosmic PopEDM pulpit. Cinematic duties require the full circle of eternal life triangle. It is “Mind, Body and Spirit”, the balance it creates from our planet Earth to the cosmos and stars of the far out galaxies of our parallel universes. We (FM & GM) are connected just like Donna Summer and Anne Marie (AM) are connected as singers with the pop/dance songs sent out to the universe for positive reception.

Are you in touch? Yes we are cosmically. FM’s opinion is that GM is the greatest electronic pop musician/DJ/producer or pop electronic producer, as well as songwriters using electronic instruments. All owe it to GM for their success in the world of Pop/EDM.

Our Parallel Universe – Part 1

History of EDM from Freddie's experiences

•Top left, cover of Giorgio Moroder’s first gold single, 1969
•Top right, back of recent AMFM album, Freddie May in Malibu, 1970
•Bottom left, Freddie in his home studio in Hollywood, 1972
•Bottom right, Giorgio in his studio, probably Germany, early 1970’s

Giorgio Moroder and Freddie May started their careers in different parts of the world (Austria/Germany and Hollywood) doing the same thing (singing and making pop records and combining electronics in production).

This is fascinating to me. Parallel music careers in a closely related pattern without knowing about each other. I still don’t know GM personally but I did start to hear about him during the disco period as a DJ in Palm Springs, CA.

He was producing Donna Summer from Europe and FM the DJ was spinning their records. When “Love to Love You, Baby” and “I Feel Love” became hot pop/dance hits in the club, I noticed that the combination of pop singing and synth backing tracks with strong consistent beats had a trancy and mesmerizing effect on the dancers. I could pack the floor by matching these clear sounding electronic instrument arrangements with the beautiful melodic singing of a female singer known as “Donna Summer”. I thought, “This is genius”! This is proof for me that the future is here now, in my club in Palm Springs.

I had been experimenting; recording and producing pop/dance tracks and playing them in the club. I was using bands with male singers, because I just could not find the right chick singer. I started a record company (Starpath Records) and played and sold my records in the club.

At the same time, I was also pitching the product in Hollywood. I got close to deals, but America just wasn’t ready to specifically sign pop/dance recording acts with electronic influences. Perhaps if I had been in New York, it might have flown. NY was more accepting of club DJ’s with their own, independent dance records. They weren’t genred as pop. Most of the pop/dance records in this country came from the R&B departments of the major labels. Studio 54 was a mainstream disco template, but Paradise Garage, in my opinion, was really doing it, playing all types of music to dance to.

“The Future is Now and Now is the Future”

So, what’s that all about?

“Forget Rules, It’s Time to Experiment” has been my practice from a music and art perspective since my days in Hollywood and Palm Springs (60s, 70s and 80s). I have always been into dance music, from childhood and through the present. I collected jazz and big band records and studied them. Classical, blues and RnB too, anything that had a beat. When Rock n Roll came into play, I’d dance to Bill Haley and Elvis. Before that, I was dancing to Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. All the way back to the 20s, 30s and 40s I studied and learned to appreciate the genres.

I won’t get into the political, religious and cultural ramifications right now. That’s a whole story within itself growing up in KY and the south, but, in my mind it all relates. All I cared about deep down was spreading the gospel of this spectrum to the universe. My grandmother wanted me to be a singing preacher.  So I decided that the universal pulpit of music you could feel good about (move and groove, feel and dance to) would help get the message out. The triangle (mind, body, spirit) was and still is, with me. What does that have to do with “Electronic Dance Music (EDM)”? Isn’t there electricity in the air? ZAZU ZAZU! Let’s talk about the French in WWII regarding discotheque. What did that mean then and now? Was it the politics of freedom or ecstasy? Why does freedom make you want to get into “the universal flow”? What was Cab Calloway up to? Let’s shake that thing while feelin’ it in your soul. A thank you to Glenn Miller.

Boy, those “Speak Easys” kept the spirit alive. DANCEDANCEDANCE!!! The evolvement of expressing happiness in the soul has been universal since the beginning of time. The multiverse is alive and well, onward and upward, to infinity and beyond. This is where FM comes into play meeting AM. Oh, by the way, “radio” has been important, and still is, for spreading the good word (music/art). The multiverse is multimedia in the “Big Dance” scheme of things.

More to come with Freddie May and AMFM as we speak to the world of “Cosmic Consciousness”.