Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Vince Aletti's Disco Files

UPDATE (02/10/09): Pre-order information added. Disco nerds take note. The primo disco archivists at DJHistory are on the verge of releasing their first book under the djhistory.com banner (the first of many more apparently), a 500 page volume of writer Vince Aletti's "Disco Files" columns for Record World magazine. The Disco Files were evidently inspired by a limited edition 400 page collection of Vince's Record World columns put together by artist and curator Matthew Higgs which accompanied an exhibition of Aletti's portrait collection entitled "Male" held last March at New York's White Columns and last summer at Vancouver's Presentation House Gallery. Aletti's Record World columns evidently ran weekly and included Top Ten playlists from disco DJ's across the US (among them notable names like Larry Levan, Lary Sanders, Walter Gibbons, Tee Scott, Nicky Siano to name a few). The book will is set to include all of them plus other disco-related pieces he had written in the 1970's. While Aletti would go on to become a senior editor at The Village Voice for nearly 20 years, and is currently the photography critic for The New Yorker, Aletti has a certain distinction in disco history for being the first writer to draw attention to the emerging disco phenomenon in the US in an article he wrote for Rolling Stone in September 1973. In the late 70's, Aletti would also go on to become the A&R man for Ray Caviano's RFC Records, the label which launched acts/artists like Change and Gino Soccio in the US. Judging from the subject matter and the preview they've put up, it looks to be a pretty phenomenal project, not to mention one of the most substantial disco publications to come out in some time. Certainly one that I'm very excited for. The release of book is set for April and unfortunately isn't open for pre-orders yet is now available for pre-orders (with a nice little bonus included). In the meantime however, take a gander at DJHistory's interview with the man himself on their website and their PDF preview of the book, which looks every bit as detailed and exciting as it sounds. LINKS: JAHSONIC - VINCE ALETTI WIKIPEDIA - VINCE ALETTI DJHISTORY BLOG - THE DISCO FILES BY VINCE ALETTI (THURSDAY JANUARY 29, 2009) DJHISTORY INTERVIEW - VINCE ALETTI THE VILLAGE VOICE - VINCE ALETTI THE NEW YORKER - VINCE ALETTI DJHISTORY FORUMS: VINCE ALETTI - DISCO FILE WHITE COLUMNS : 'MALE' - WORK FROM THE COLLECTION OF VINCE ALETTI PRESENTATION HOUSE GALLERY: 'MALE' - WORK FROM THE COLLECTION OF VINCE ALETTI (PDF FILE) CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: DISCO MUSIC - WHAT WERE WE THINKING? (BY KIM CAMPBELL) (FEBRUARY 18, 2005) (WITH QUOTES FROM VINCE ALETTI) INTERVIEW MAGAZINE - COLLECTING THE MALE: INTERVIEW WITH VINCE ALETTI (BY ALEX GARTENFELD) (DECEMBER 8. 2008) STYLE.COM Q&A: VINCE ALETTI ON WIERD'S SCIENCE (JANUARY 16, 2009) CATEGORIES: DISCO NEWS

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds very interesting. thanks for the heads up!

Tommy said...

No problem! :)

M.E. Grant said...

I too must thank you, Tommy. Just say "New York" and "disco" and I'm on board. I look forward to the book.

Tommy said...

No problem, M.E. Grant! Those two words are enough to get me on board, as well haha

Brad said...

Thank you so much for the heads up on this.

Pre-ordering ASAP!

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