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Pal Joey via Keep It Deep Blog
Yesterday, I chatted with Junior Rivero, co-founder of 1200 Trax and one-half of 1200 Warriors, a dynamic duo of boundless urban House music-makers originally from Washington Heights. We'd gotten in touch to discuss business, history, and the future of the House music movement, and he shared several bits of wonderful, insightful knowledge: from trivia about the original Masters At Work, to the history behind The Martinez Brothers, to the days of Studio 54's revival and early Louie Vega sets and the fascinating early spirit of House music in New York--a freer, less genre-encumbered monster of miscegenation, when House DJs played entire sets from opening to closing, allowing them to tell richer stories in their DJ sets and diverge into genres outside House during them. Fascinating talk, the whole bit.
At one point, the topic of Soul-inspired, chopped sample-style production came up, and Junior mentioned that I ought to look into this cat by the name of Pal Joey, because Joey's early sound incorporated that particular aesthetic into the songs he made. Boy, was I in for a treat: classics I had heard here-and-there-and-somewhere before, but didn't know who had made them--until now.
Pal Joey Vinyl Covers
To guys like Junior Rivero, who came up in the spirited, entrepreneurial days of 90s-era House Music, with its explosion of House Music artists, singers, releases, DJs, remixes, dance clubs--indeed, an explosion of culture--Joseph Pal Joey Longo is an absolute hero; a street legend who ducked the spotlight but made some of House's most cherished early anthems: Raw Love (House Music), Hot Music, and Runaway and challenged the ear as much as he inspired it. He created most of his early works painstakingly, utilizing reel-to-reel and razors, making prominent use of drum machines and vocal samples from records across many genres (he worked at the legendary NYC record store Vinyl Mania). Testament to Junior's comment about the unity between the genres at that time, Pal could be seen DJing alongside Afrika Bambatta and putting out Hip-Hop mixtapes with DJ Faze. Similarly, he worked with artists from KRS-One to Lisa Stanfield and Sade. Through his three music labels--Loop d' Loop, Cabaret, and Footstompin' Records--as well as several others, he released dozens of records, and is to this day heralded as one of underground House Music's biggest heroes.
On Discogs, I saw a comment by a user that claims to have heard Joey say once, you gotta push people, gotta challenge them on the dancefloor, a spirit that I think is missing in some aspects of House music culture today. Clearly, Pal Joey embodied that spirit not only as a DJ, but also in the production studio, incorporating elements from Jazz, Funk, Soul, Disco, Acid, and more into his works. Consider Pal Joey and Alfredo Romero's Drum Major Instinct, an adventure through Blues, Jazz, and Soul that isn't House Music as much as it's music. Or the three classics below, which highlight Joey's judicious use of classic sampling techniques:
Classic House tune with a smooth groove and some clever play in the looping patterns and drum sequences. Check out how he loops the beat at 1:46: I wonder if the way Pal Joey chopped that up became a production standard, a style of arrangement which I hear in other genres of House, like French House Duck Sauce-style Disco House. It's certainly the first House record I've heard with that type of 1/4 bar looping.
Pal Joey released this track under the name Soho, on Cabaret Records on New Year's Day, 1990. Not only does that album have more classics per square foot than most, but it also contains Give It Up, a predecessor to the 1993 samba-esque monster track under the same name, by The Good Men...who happen to be none other than Chocolate Puma, one of my favorite House producers!!!!
Good tune, which brings a smile to any House DJ's face. Uses chopped vocal samples from Sister Sledge's Lost In Music.
Amazing! To purchase Pal Joey's tunes, visit Traxsource or iTunes, which actually has several classic Pal Joey mixes available for purchase as well.
For an extra treat, head over to Pal Joey's website's Images section--a visual display of most of his vinyl releases and album covers--as well as his Flyers section--a time capsule into the parties and homebrewed no-nonsense attitude of pre-Photoshop flyer design.
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