Arthur Baker Presents Dance Masters: John Luongo

Following Dance Masters: Shep Pettibone and Dance Masters: Arthur Baker, the third Dance Masters anthology spotlights John Luongo, unwitting mentor to series presenter Baker and a lower-profile dance music legend on several fronts. A DJ first, the Bostonian taught himself to mix using a risky method of essentially bolting records together -- extending some with two copies -- and drew predominantly Black crowds from the whole of New England at the previously white Rhinoceros club. He organized one of the first DJ record pools, published a magazine (Nightfall) that launched the National Disco Awards, and in 1978 became known as a remixer. As recounted in the generous liners of this four-disc set, Luongo started in his apartment with a tape machine, kitchen utensils, and handclaps before manifesting his creativity in studios with engineers and session musicians. He lays claim to being the first remixer to add original instrumentation to existing tracks, pointing to Melba Moores voluptuous remake of the Bee Gees "You Stepped into My Life," the Side One, Track One of Melba and a number five Billboard disco hit. Extra musical layers and other sonic whims -- a shaken whirly tube picked up on the way to the studio, the remixers own background vocals, etc. -- are on each one of his commissions. Another constant was experimentation with song structure. Luongos placement of an extended instrumental break at the front of Jackie Moores cool yet impassioned "This Time Baby" resulted in his first trip to the top of the disco chart, followed shortly thereafter by his elasticized progressive remix of Dan Hartmans towering "Vertigo/Relight My Fire." Everything was done with concern for what wouldnt fly in a club and what artists wouldnt want done to their songs. Luongo recalls that he "saw the iceberg" from aboard the disco ship and branched out in the 80s. Materials "Im the One" (the seven-minute version previously unavailable on compact disc) is the dancefloor funk sound of him and Chics Nile Rodgers and Tony Thompson adapting and sliding through a new era. Just ahead of that, Luongo had added space and friction to Visages "Fade to Grey," and he continued to work with an assortment of other U.K. acts -- Bananarama, Cabaret Voltaire, Shakin Stevens -- without regard for an aesthetic throughline. At the same time, he was behind otherwise unlikely number one dance hits for unhip American rockers Greg Kihn and Huey Lewis & the News, adding heft and a slight sense of otherness to "Jeopardy" and "I Want a New Drug." In a sense, this package is a major expansion of Can You Feel the Force?, a two-disc 2017 set focusing on Luongos CBS/Sony work. The overlap isnt substantial, and this boasts an additional chart-topper released on Luongos CBS subsidiary, Pavillion, Fantasys boogie gem "Youre Too Late" (with the unmistakable voice of Fonda Rae). It also goes later into the 80s with the CBS output, including Gladys Knight & the Pips popping "Save the Overtime (For Me)," instead of duplicating, say, the Jacksons "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)." ~ Andy Kellman