JACQUES MORALI

Jacques Morali was the leader of French disco. Jacques started his career in music in a record shop in Orly airport (Paris) and eventually became a writer and right hand for Hervι Vilard, Michθle Torr and Cristophe. By meeting Liz Taylor's and Cher's hairdresser he became familiar with Philadelphia International Records and immediately fell in love with disco from the early seventies. So he moved to the States and literally landed at Sigma Studios, where most Philly classics were recorded. There he produced hits like "Brazil" (1975), "The Best Disco In Town" (1976), "Life Is Music" (1977), "African Queens"(1977), "Quiet Village" (1977) and "American Generation" (1978) for Ritchie Family, a studio session trio. This was also the beginning of the cooperation with Henri Belolo, owner of the Scorpio label in Paris.

After spending some time in the American gay scene, he created Village People, a group that impersonated gay clichιs. At the beginning Belolo was not involved in this project, but when he saw that Morali succedeed in signing a licensing deal for Casablanca (one of the most famous disco labels), Belolo decided to become a partner in it. Village People recorded "San Francisco" (1977), "YMCA" (1978), "Macho Man" (1978), "In The Navy" (1979), "Go West" (1979), "Do You Wanna Spend the Night" (1981) and "5 o'clock in the Morning" (1982).

Jacques Morali used to work with professional musicians and was too fascinated by their skills to get into the computer sound. His music was characterized by simple arrangements and catchy melodies that could easily be remembered by everybody. He became a recording studio die-hard and between 1974 and 1982 he recorded something like 65 albums. Sigma Studios even reserved a room just for him. During the disco backlash everyboby seemed to have forgotten him until he stroke back in 1984 with Break Machine and Eartha Kitt.

Jacques Morali died of AIDS in the early nineties.