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Jacques Fred Petrus & Mauro Malavasi

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High Fashion

Michael (Mic) Murphy (The System), who was co-running Petrus' Little Macho office in NYC from 1980 until 1982, came up with the name High Fashion. High Fashion was a Chic-like concept fronted by the vocalists Eric McClinton, Meli’sa Morgan and Alyson Williams from New York. The blend of the seasoned experience of the male with the relative youthfulness of the two ladies worked very well. Alyson Williams was a sought-after session vocalist who had worked on a long list of projects including The B.B.&Q. Band, Melba Moore and Unlimited Touch. She was the daughter of bandleader/trumpeter Bobby Booker. Melisa Morgan also began her career as a renowned backing singer on the New York soul scene and had recorded with Kleeer, Weeks & Co., Shades Of Love and Leroy Burgess. Eric McClinton, whose smooth soulful masculine vocals accented High Fashion's sound, first hit the music scene in the mid-sixties as Eric & The Vikings and recorded with his group for various labels until 1973. In the mid-seventies he turned up as a part of the one-time duo Eryke & Arronette. In 1979 he worked together with Mike Theodore, co-producer of High Fashion’s first album, as a singer with his Mike Theodore Orchestra. High Fashion's highly acclaimed first album Feelin’ Lucky was released on Capitol records in 1982. It was co-produced by Kashif, Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey. The brilliant keyboardist Kashif developed a complete new synth-based music style that revolutionized R&B music. Around that same time he was already a very in demand musician, songwriter, arranger and producer who could be heard on releases by Evelyn King, Tavares, Geraldine Hunt, Pleasure, Average White Band, Passion, Howard Johnson and Melba Moore. In 1983 Kashif went on to fame and fortune as a solo artist and remained ubiquitous as a songwriter and producer throughout the '80s and early '90s (George Benson, Kenny G, Meli’sa Morgan, Lillo Thomas, Fonzi Thornton, Nona Hendryx, Stacy Lattisw, Giorge Pettus, Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Johnny Kemp, etc.). Feelin’ Lucky offered sublime dancefloor material steeped in the quality tradition of '80s groove with flair, finesse, panache and Soul. Killer track was the irresistible feel good single “Feelin’ Lucky Lately” (# 32 Billboard R&B Charts). This awesome synth-laden disco hit, written by Malavasi and Davide Romani, perfectly illustrates the elegant and sophisticated dance music of the Italians. Kashif composed three songs, among which the infectious “Hold On” and “Next To You”. Meli’sa Morgan co-wrote the track “You’re The Winner”. The soulful gems “When The Lover Strikes” and “I Want To Be Your Everything” - another Kashif song - made the album complete. High Fashion released a second album Make Up Your Mind  in 1983 without Meli’sa Morgan, featuring the single “Break Up”, the fat groove “Pump On The Pipe”, “A Little More Time”, “You Satisfy My Needs” and “Show Me”, co-written by Mtume’s Tawatha Agee. But none of the songs matched the outstanding quality of the previous release. Background singer Marcella Allen replaced Mel’isa Morgan. This production was backed up by the members of the B.B.&Q. Band. The sales of the latter were embarrassing and the group ceased. 

After the High Fashion projects Meli’sa Morgan (picture left) and Alyson Williams (picture right) enjoyed personal success as solo artists. Meli’sa Morgan released her co-written debut Do Me Baby in 1986 on Capitol records. A remake of Prince's "Do Me Baby" yielded a number one R&B hit. Morgan notched two more Top Ten R&B singles: "Do You Still Love Me?" and "If You Can Do It, I Can Too" before moving on to Arista Records in 1987 and hitting with a duet with Kashif ("Love Changes") that reached the number two spot on the R&B charts. After Arista she went with Pendulum Records. Alyson Williams fronted the act The Affair feat. Alyson after her time with High Fashion, a session group which included Gwen Guthrie, and issued "Please Don't Break My Heart" on Easy Street in 1985. In 1989 she signed with Def Jam and delivered Raw including "Sleep Talk" (#3 Billboard R&B Charts). But her solo career ran out of gas in the late '90s. On the Def Jam label, in addition to solo work, she paired with Chuck Stanley on "Make You Mine Tonight" and Oran "Juice" Jones on "How to Love Again." Eric McClinton contributed backing vocals to other Little Macho Music projects, including the B.B.&Q. Band's Six Million Times record and Change's This Is Your Time set. After High Fashion split he turned up twice on Atlantic, in the incarnations of Ze-Brass ("Feels So Good") in 1983 and Deep in 1985. Both projects were produced by Nicky Kalliongis who had worked as an engineer at the Media Sound studios on several Change and B.B.&Q. Band recording sessions. 

Zinc

Zinc was yet another fine studio creation launched by Petrus when he was staying in New York. This project was his last production in 1982. The rare Street Level album was published in 1982 by Jive Records, a label known for its alternative releases and particular products. Jive is a division of Zomba, the highest-ranked independent company in the world. With the Zinc concept, Petrus attempted to infiltrate the white Pop market with a sound abandoning warm melodic Soul and flirting colder Rock music. The musical climate at that time was radically changing. Pop music took the gravity center of radio programming and DJ culture, at the expense of black dance music. Several tracks in the Zinc record demonstrated the impact of New Wave music in those days. The studio group was composed of  American and Italian session musicians led by the inevitable Mauro Malavasi. The production abilities of Malavasi and the great musicianship of Davide Romani and Rudy Trevisi once again shone through on this record. Street Level featured the lead vocals of the white session singer Gordon Grody (picture) and Steve Daniels. Gordon Grody is a renown backing vocalist who has recorded with many soul and pop artists (Jeff Tyzik, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Steely Dan, Patti Austin, Peabo Bryson, George Benson, Luther Vandross, Talking Heads, Phyllis Hyman, Yoko Ono, Change, High Fashion, The B.B.&Q. Band, etc.). He also provided the lead vocals for several other Petrus projects: Macho’s second Roll album and the two Silence albums. Steve Daniels formerly appeared as a vocalist on the Revanche and Rudy projects in 1979 and also did backgrounds for Change. Despite the suitable Jive label and a very well realized product, the Zinc undertaking was not a commercial peak and showed that the Pop market didn't belong to Petrus and his musicians. Highlights on Zinc’s Street Level were the inspired Kashif song “Street Level” and the chilly “Punkulation” written by Romani. Other tasteful selections included the naughty uptempo "I'll Never Stop", the energetic “I’ll Take My Chances” flavoured with licks of Rock guitar and polyrhythmic percussion, the Chic-influenced "This Is Where The Love Is" which would have perfectly fit any Change album, and “Amazon” with its intriguing instrumental airs and chants. In 1983 a last single “I’m Livin' A Life Of Love”, composed by Malavasi, was issued on Jive Records but no album followed. The reasons why this single reached the market were contractual stipulations that forced the musicians of Little Macho Music to publish something for Zinc. The song was a leftover from previous B.B.&Q. Band recordings and recalled the arrangement of "Searching" by Change. 

The Ritchie Family

Famous Disco producers Jacques Morali & Henri Belolo (Ritchie Family, The Village People, Patrick Juvet) submitted their artists to the successful sound of Little Macho Music in 1982. Jacques Fred Petrus produced The Ritchie Family's excellent album I’ll Do My Best for Morali/Belolo's company Can’t Stop Productions on the RCA label. Mauro Malavasi supervised the project and the Italian arranger Giuliano Salerni took care of the artistic production. Salerni had previously composed and produced the album You’ll Never Know for Disco act Hi-Gloss. This group comprised incidentally Timmy Allen on bass and Kae Williams on keyboards. Salerni also successfully arranged and mixed for Geraldine Hunt ("Can't Fake The Feeling") and France Joli (Album: Now!). The Ritchie Family consisted of the former Discodiva trio Vera Brown, Jacqueline Smith-Lee and Theodosia ‘Dodie’ Draher. Vera Brown formerly sang in the group of Philadelphia soul singer David Simmons and recorded with producer Butch Ingram. The first single was the brilliant title track “I’ll Do My Best (For You Baby)” (# 27 Billboard R&B Charts). The song was co-written by Malavasi and Salerni and carried the recognizable Malavasi signature. "I'll Do My Best (For You Baby)" was the first time The Ritchie Family enjoyed airplay and clubplay simultaneously in several years. The other tracks were "This Love's On Me", the very melodious “One And Only”, the sweet ballad "You Can Always Count On Me", the smooth, laid-back “Walk With Me”, the irresistible floorshaker “Alright On The Night”, "Tonight I Need To Have Your Love" and "You've Got Me Dancin'". Besides “I’ll Do My Best (For You Baby)”, none of the songs were written by inside components of Little Macho Music. Just four tracks were published by Little Macho Music, three of which were composed by the American guitar player Herb Smith who also wrote "The Very Best In You" together with Malavasi for Change. Petrus' musicians only carried out the songs, providing them with the characteristic, elegant style of the Little Macho Music productions.

Studios And Artists

From 1978 until 1981 the material for the studio groups was generally recorded at the Fonoprint Studios in Bologna, Italy.  In 1983 and 1984 several productions were recorded in Modena at the Umbi Studios. The 1985 recordings took place in Milan at the Morning Studios and in Modena at the Umbi Studios. In 1982 New York was the place of action for the entire recording process. All the vocals of Petrus' various projects and the 1982 sessions were recorded and mixed in New York at the infamous Sigma Sound, Media Sound, Power Station, Sterling Sound and Sorcerer Sound Studios. The vocals for Change’s Change Of Heart set were exceptionally recorded at Jam & Lewis’ Creation Audio Studio in Minneapolis in 1984. The main recording engineers involved were Maurizio Biancani and the ubiquitous American Michael H. Brauer. 

1982 was a very busy and productive year for the Italians who recorded five outstanding albums in New York. The Goody Music Production stable used the services of the cream of America's studio musicians and songwriters. Steady contributors at that time were Timmy Allen (bass, vocals, songwriting), Michael Campbell (guitar), Kevin Robinson (guitar, vocals, songwriting), Kashif (keyboards, synthesizers, songwriting), Steve Robin (keyboards, synthesizers), Jeff Bova (keyboards, synthesizers), Ira Siegel (guitar), Kae Williams (keyboards, synthesizers, songwriting), Alfonso ‘Fonzi’ Thornton (vocal-arranger, songwriter) (picture), Terry Silverlight (drums), Yogi Horton (drums), Buddy Williams (drums), Barry Eastmond (keyboards, synthesizers), Herb Smith (guitar, songwriting) and Hiram Bullock (guitar). The hired musicians/singers did their jobs but had no idea of how the material was going to be used. They were in total darkness playing their small, but important role within certain directions by Petrus, Malavasi and Romani who always had the last word about the final result. Only they saw the whole picture. It was several months later that the artists would hear their contributions when the songs finally hit the stores and dancefloors on different albums.

The soulful background harmonies for the Petrus & Malavasi productions were performed by a trusty crew of the finest New York session singers including Norma Jean Wright (picture left), Jocelyn Brown, Luther Vandross, Diva Gray, Robin Clark, Bobby Douglas, Gordon Grody, Tawatha Agee (picture right), Ullanda McCullough, Michelle Cobbs, Eric McClinton, Alfonso ‘Fonzi’ Thornton, Johnny Kemp and Leroy Burgess. Many of them also happened to be core background vocalists on numerous Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers productions and some achieved remarkable solo careers.

First-class productions require great songs. Driving force Mauro Malavasi took the lion’s share of the composing credits. The number of disco gems he realised is amazing and encompasses all the projects he instigated together with Petrus. Goody Music/Little Macho Music staff musician, writer and arranger Davide Romani also provided most valuable contributions as composer (Change, High Fashion, B.B.&Q. Band, Zinc, Peter Jacques Band). Other credited composers were Rudy Trevisi (Rudy, Change, B.B.&Q. Band, Zinc, High Fashion), Paolo Gianolio (Rudy, Change, Zinc), Marco Tansini (Midnight Gang, B.B.&Q. Band, The Jumpers, Silence 2, Tato, Peter Jacques Band), Celso Valli (Silence 2, Macho, Change), Jacques Fred Petrus (Change, High Fashion, Revanche, Peter Jacques Band), Kashif (High Fashion, Zinc) (picture), Kevin Robinson (B.B.&Q. Band, High Fashion), Herb Smith (Change, Ritchie Family), Kae Williams (B.B.&Q. Band, Change), Len Boone & Larry La Falce (Change), Chieli Minucci (High Fashion, Change), Timmy Allen (Change, B.B.&Q. Band, High Fashion) and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (Change). 

The lyrics were provided by talented American songwriters as Alan Taylor (Rudy, Revanche, Macho, Peter Jacques Band), Wayne Garfield (Change), F. Floyd (Peter Jacques Band, Macho), Paul Slade (Peter Jacques Band, B.B.&Q. Band, Change, High Fashion, Silence 2, Macho), Timmy Allen (Change, High Fashion), Tanyayette Willoughby (B.B.&Q. Band, Zinc, Change), Alfonso ‘Fonzi’ Thornton (Zinc, Change, High Fashion), Johnny Kemp (B.B.&Q. Band, Change) and Leroy Burgess (Change).