Professor Eddy

Picture: Susan Meiselas I started working on this mix when I heard ‘Midnight train’ on ‘Avonmore’ from Bryan Ferry: “This is Ferry's prime, a moment when his legacy was intact but yet to be preserved in amber. Avonmore consciously evokes this distinct period, sometimes sighing into the exquisite ennui of Avalon but usually favoring the fine tailoring of Boys & Girls, a record where every sequenced rhythm, keyboard, and guitar line blended into an alluring urbane pulse. Ferry isn't so much racing to revive a younger edition of himself as much as laying claim to this particular strand of sophisticated pop, one that happens to feel a shade richer now when it's delivered by an artist whose world-weariness has settled into his marrow but is yet to sadden him.” (Quote: Allmusic.com ) Earth, Wind & Fire One of the biggest disco hits of all time, 'Boogie Wonderland', took Earth, Wind & Fire to the Top Ten on both the pop and R&B charts in 1979. For ...

Joan Smalls on Instagram It's hard to describe my dj-style, but I often call it 'funky chill'. I play relaxed dance music with its foundation in the 1970s and early 1980s. It's a combination of soul, disco, funk, jazz, folk, soft rock, AOR and all the genres in between. It's music I'd like to hear when I'd drive along the Dutch coast on a sunny day. But I don't have a car, I live far away from the sea and it's raining most of the time in Holland, so I don't think that is a very good description... Perhaps I should say: this is the music that makes me happy, a collection of chilled out tunes for fellows over 40. These are songs for girls and guys who like to nod their heads to the beat in stead of nervously moving their legs... On Wax Poetics singer Ed Motta has this to say about 'Let's be friends' by Marilyn Scott: "Yellow Jacket’s Russell Ferrante wrote and arranged this classy AOR soul in a Norman Connors vein for the g...

Errol Brown (photo by Chris Capstick/ Shutterstock ) Last week charismatic singer Errol Brown of the legendary band Hot Chocolate died, which was a very sad thing to read. It was one of the first bands I liked when I started to listen to the radio and I never stopped enjoying their music. They made such wonderful singles in the 1970s. Not many people know that Hot Chocolate was discovered by John Lennon. When he heard their version of 'Give peace a chance' he immediately signed them for the Apple label that was owned by The Beatles. But the Fab Four split and Mickie Most contracted Hot Chocolate to RAK a little later He also produced their biggest hits. They were at their best around the mid-seventies when Errol Brown sang passionately about his love life, supported by the distinctive guitar sound of Harvey Hinsley. They were not just another disco band (they even made anti-disco songs like ‘Mindless boogie’). Hot Chocolate made a unique cocktail of soul, rock, pop and a ti...

Ben E. King in the park Last week Ben E. King passed away. He was mainly known as the lead singer of the Drifters and his solo classic ‘Stand by me’, which was covered by almost everyone in the music industry, from John Lennon to Maurice White. After his success period Ben E. King struggled to get into the right musical direction. In 1970 King was forced to make a living touring the oldies circuit. In 1975, Atlantic president Ahmet Ertegun caught King's act in a Miami lounge and invited him to re-sign with the label. King scored an unlikely comeback smash with the (early) disco track ‘Supernatural Thing, Part I,’ penned by then background singer Gwen Guthrie. The song returned him to #1 on the R&B and Disco charts and it reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. He then went to the Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia to record a Philly soul album. Although ‘I had a love’ was made with the best musicians and songwriters of the time, it failed to chart. This is a mystery to me, bec...

Arnie & Donna having fun For this mix I used the fictitious character of Mr. Mellow again. He likes to combine all kinds of mellow music and in this one he tries to wipe away the boundaries of mellow soul and mellow (yacht) rock. The outcome is a kind of mellow disco. It's Mr. Mellow's view that the (mellow) FM radio sound started around the mid-seventies and ended in the early eighties. Around 1982 daytime soft rock radio for a large audience disappeared and radio for target audiences began to take over. The influence of MTV became bigger and this kind of music wasn't made for television. The artists looked like civil servants instead of good looking playboys, like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. Adult oriented rock (AOR) radio eventually became ‘classic rock’ by the end of the decade, playing 'big hair' bands like Bon Jovi and Van Halen. But this mix isn’t about ‘classic rock’ at all. It’s more a ‘slick and groovy FM rock sound’. It’s the sound that Michae...