By Laura Medina
In PBS' modern music documentary series, "Soundbreaking," tracking down the origins of each individual niche music genre of where it developed then split off into it's own niche category, Giorgio Moroder discussed how he simply discovered how many minutes there are to an human heart beat. From there, he learned to sample and manipulate the human heart beat into musical beats, that he used to make Donna Summer into the Queen of Disco, and Disco music itself which he learn to adapt and jazz up and layer over rock music into electronic dance music. He just recently did that for Haim's "Forever."
That is now today's popular music. What he discovered and played unto a musical instrument itself created a musical genre that is being rediscovered with new fond love and admiration among disc jockeys young enough to be his grandkids, carrying on his work. Fellow seventy-something and fellow Disco beat master, Nile Rogers said continuously collaborating with young people is the secret to the foundation of youth, keeping ya from being ossified, stale, and stagnant.
Here's Giorgio talking about how he became a musician using the human heart beat on the
keyboard. This is where he sat his foot on discovering Disco then becoming and still is a
producer, still laying techno beats and remastering the all-girl, millennial band, Haim.
As with the human heart beat, the start of Disco, which grew into Electronic Dance Music, it is about timing and pacing as it is about the beats.
As much as he made the dance floor of a nightclub, discotheque, in a communal experience by rising and falling the human heart beat, speeding up and slowing down, Giorgio Moroder kindly (and always up to the time of her death) "svengalied" a touring "Jesus Chirst, Superstar" Christian singer then morphed her into the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, with "I Feel Love."
Her and Giorgio definitely felt the love on his birthday when long-time admirers and party/night-club impresarios, Bryan Rabin and Adam Bravin (DJ Adam 12) transformed the Globe Theater, in Downtown Los Angeles, into an one night-only Studio 54 (since Studio 54 was and still is a theater), big enough to blow clouds of smoke, explode confetti, and raining strings...on the beat.
Today's current and hottest DJs paid homage and showed love, admiration, and respect, such as Diplo (yes, James Van Der Beek's real life inspiration in Vice's "What Would Diplo Do?"). Actress Regina King, and Mayer Hawthorne could be seen in the crowd that was filled with a who's who of fashion, music, lifestyle, movers & shakers, it-girls, drag queens, celebutantes and debutantes, recreating Studio 54's party mix vibe, lovingly fitting for the Father of Disco and EDM.
Giorgio return the love, admiration, and respect back by paying homage and love to the very young and sadly dearly departed, Avicii, by sampling and playing his songs.
Jazz-Funkster, Roy Ayers paid tribute to Giorgio, since they're hip Baby Boomers and his jazz-funk fusion paved the way for disco and EDM mixing everything up into multiple delectable dance mixes. "The Godfather of Neo Soul", he is one of the most sampled artists of all time. Roy knows that imitation is a form of flattery and he paid it back to Giorgio.
He played and orchestra-ed his band into playing his classic hits, "Searchin'" and "Everybody Loves the Sunshine," his jazz funk proto-disco hits, setting the pace for disco...then Giorgio.
Actually, the mostly Millennial and Gen-Z crowd were simply wowed by somebody playing the xylophone, live in real life. Bringing musical education back. Folks, this is where rhythm sampling is born.
Giorgio Moroder is being rediscovered and experiencing a renaissance, thanks to these Millennial and Gen-Z techno/rock bands, like Yacht opening up for him and getting the party started. During their opening set, Yacht gleefully mock LA's Avocado Toast & Juice trend and everybody in the crowd got it.
Yacht’s set was equally energetic as lead singer Claire Evans jumped off stage to perform at the center of dancing concert-goers.
Aeroplane played his signature "spacious cosmic disco" tracks getting the crowd moving as the show headed further into the night.
Boy, did he worked hard for his money. His DJ set filled up the majority of the night, for a good couple of hours then Adam Bravin (DJ Adam 12) filled in until the clock strike midnight...
"Happy Birthday, Giorgio," that's when party-throwers and die-hard fans, party/event & night club producers, Bryan Rabin and Adam Bravin (DJ Adam 12) and Giorgio's wife, present him with his birthday cake.
Once blown, Giorgio hit the deck, with the flashing banner of "74 is the New 24."
During his two hour DJ-ing set til 2am in the morning, he opened with him mentioning how he discovered the many minutes to an human heart beat. Then, a sonogram video of the human heart beating, popped up behind him as he DJed thru his dance music archive.
He lovingly paid tribute to those who went before him or way before their time. First, he paid his respect to the too-young, before his time, departed Avicii, "Wake Me Up," Avicii's groundbreaking country-soul mix-up that made Aloe Blacc an hit.
Giorgio wouldn't be where he is, if it weren't for Donna Summer.
He twisted the knobs and spin the decks to the iconic disco hits he produced with her, "On the Radio", “Love to Love You Baby”, “Last Dance”, and “Bad Girls”
He even acknowledged, that yes, he started the disco craze by spinning the Bee Gees.
There ain't nothing like being reborn at Coachella. Quoting the Bee Gees, he's "Stayin' Alive."
It's well-established he's the maestro of dance music and Donna Summer (whom he still produced to the very end with her) and he was also the hottest movie soundtrack composer in the New Wave Eighties.
That's why the crowd hit euphoria when he spun "Flash Dance's" "What A Feeling."
Another key to staying eternally young, Giorgio Moroder segued away seamlessly into the composing "Flashdance" soundtrack, adding another notch on his belt, producing the break-out Eighties hit, "What A Feeling."
But towards the end, he admitted on his birthday, his favorite song he ever produced was with Blondie, "Call Me" for "American Gigolo." https://soundcloud.com/giorgiomoroder/blondie-call-me-2014
Another hit of music trivia, Giorgio produced the soundtrack to "American Gigolo."
That's what happen when you master Disco, like Niles Roger.
If you watched the big screen behind him, they aired snippets from "Neverending Story", another movie he composed. Him and composer, Hans Zimmer are peers and colleagues.
This was his big euphoria, spinning his favorite song.
Right now, he's been revisited, rediscovered, and "renaissanced" by today's hottest DJs, who know they wouldn't be where they are today, at various mega music festival raves, if it weren't for Giorgio Moroder; and he's still rockin', bumpin', and thumping from Coachella to Ibiza.
Showing them youngsters a thing or two, three, then four.
The human heart beat, four on the floor, bump, bump, thump.
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