Rick Gianatos

[mixtape]

what kind of dj was Rick Gianatos if any one knows?

[Forrrce]

I've always liked his sound, mix-wise - truly 'round' - though some of his AVI material was stodgy and treble-light (maybe he didn't like hi-hats much!). Great, whacking bass and snare drums. Anyway...

I actually asked the great Ian Levine about him a few months ago, as he worked a lot with him. He didn't really have much to say - I don't even know if he's still around. The Airwave/Altair mystery was cleared up, though. I think Gianatos is a true unsung hero of the disco mix and never seems to get any credit (obviously not a name to dropped with the new-schoolers...yet). The revival starts here!

[hotdiscomix]

Rick Gianatos has started one of the first Remix Services "Disco Queen"
Here can you find more informations: http://home.wanadoo.nl/discopatrick/dancing.htm

And he has produced some remixes for Disconet, e.g.
SCHERRIE PAYNE: "Girl You're In Love / I'm Not In Love"
Mix by Will Crocker & Rick Gianatos

LOVE TWINS: "Miami Heat Wave" (Extended Remix)
Mix by Rick Gianatos, Steven Smith & Michael Shayne

[rgianatos]

This is a bit of a late reponse to this thread, but I am probably one of the DJs from the old school that goes waaaaaaaay back. When I started, my first club, The Gold Bug, in the Village in NYC, didn't have a mixer, but two live turntables. I managed to flow fairly well from one track to the next. Highlights of DJing back then included The Trammps "Zing" on 45, vocal and instrumental, and later, Eddie Kendricks w/Girl, "You Need a Change of Mind." I managed to learn the ropes pretty quickly and when I finally got a mixer, boy ... I liked to work breaks really hard, and do thematic groupings of songs, but for the most part back then I did not do a lot of long cross-mixes, but more quick cuts. When I started doing my own acetates on DiscoQueen, I had a lot of fun because of the special edits I could do and work the songs better. Fun times before things went mainstream .... pre-Saturday Night Fever, buying those great surprise obscure B-sided 45s at the back of Colony Records on Broadway, discovering stuff and breaking it, like "I'll Be Around" by the Spinners, their debut on Atlantic, which had everyone at the record company scratching their heads at first wondering where sales where coming from when the ballad they were pushing on the radio (the original A side) stiffed and they were getting sales anyway. Patti Jo, "Ain't No Love Lost," and "Make Me Believe in You," Sisters Love, "Give Me Your Love," and Brenda & the Tabulations, "A Little Bit of Love." We had to be really creative back then. Nobody spoon fed us special mixes with long intros and outros. We had to make our own by making the 8 bar breakdown into the intro, coming out the breakdown into the chorus of a song and mixing that into the first verse, then getting to the breakdown again and that became the outro. I miss that era in music, a truly creative tie with the classic R&B of the past and the future of dance music.

[rgianatos]

After the first couple of things I did while at AVI, Ray Harris, president of the label, got it in his head to do his own mastering. At Producer's Workshop, AVI's recording studio, they set up mastering with some sort of direct to disk setup WITHOUT ANY EQ BEYOND WHAT HAD BEEN DONE ON THE MIXING BOARD!!!. That was why a lot of what you are hearing doesn't have high end, etc. The earlier projects (James Wells, My Claim to Fame, got mastered at A&M and were much better than later things like Seventh Avenue, Evelyn Thomas, L.J. Johnson, and remixes of El Coco etc.)

Once I left AVI though, I started mastering with Brian Gardner, who is still now my mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman's. Scherrie Payne, "I'm Not in Love," Love Twins, "Miami Heatwave" [compare the AVI mastering to my Altair 12" which was mastered by Bernie!], all my remixes of Gap Band, Yarbrough & Peoples, "Second Time Around" by Shalamar, etc. Those were slamming.

[Disco Funk]

After the first couple of things I did while at AVI, Ray Harris, president of the label, got it in his head to do his own mastering. That was why a lot of what you are hearing doesn't have high end, etc. The earlier projects (James Wells, My Claim to Fame, got mastered at A&M and were much better than later things like Seventh Avenue, Evelyn Thomas, L.J. Johnson, and remixes of El Coco etc.)

Once I left AVI though, I started mastering with Brian Gardner, who is still now my mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman's. Scherrie Payne, "I'm Not in Love," Love Twins, "Miami Heatwave" [compare the AVI mastering to my Altair 12" which was mastered by Bernie!], all my remixes of Gap Band, Yarbrough & Peoples, "Second Time Around" by Shalamar, etc. Those were slamming.

Cool! We have a real live DJ remixer from back in the day amongst us!

My favorite remixes that you did were the ones of the Davis Import records - DJ Devilish and How My Love Goes. I know you weren't the producer for that group, but did they have an album release? And when you did the 12" remix, was there a non-Rick Giantos mix released by AVI? I haven't checked out the 7inches.

Did you have a favorite fellow remixer, outside of the godfather of remixes, Tom Moulton? And did you guys ever trade notes or work together, or was it very competitive with DJs trying to out-remix each other?

Disco Funk

[QUINNY]

Rick,

Great to see you posting here.

I'd love to know how your remix of Gene Chandler's Get Down came about. It must be the only 12" record I ever heard with a mix out point just a couple of minutes into the track and yes, even though I absolutely loved the track, I did sometimes mix out of it that early, to keep things fresh and the punters guessing.

[ashley_k]

After the first couple of things I did while at AVI, Ray Harris, president of the label, got it in his head to do his own mastering. That was why a lot of what you are hearing doesn't have high end, etc.

Well that explains why the AVI 12 inches sound like your playing an LP rather than a fatter sounding 12 inch.
Although not mixed by Rick I’d always wondered why a track like David Williams “Change of Pace” had such a low mastering volume for a 12 inch and in house mastering probably explains why.

Davis Import “How My Love Goes” 12 inch is also my favourite AVI track that Rick mixed such a great tune.

Over the years I’ve thought that Ricks work had gone a little unnoticed, I have when possible always tried to check out all the 12 inches that I’ve come across with Rick’s mixes on.

Nice to have you around here Rick.

ashley_k

Posted with Q-Post®

[rgianatos]

GENE CHANDLER -- Get Down -- It was something I put in to be unpredictable, and initially had to battle with Carl Davis to keep it in. I suppose it was awkward, but it was the kind of edit I would have done unexpectedly live, so I tried to incorporate that into the mix. Fortunately, I won out on that one!

I really enjoyed working with all those wonderful old school music people ... Eugene Record, Carl and George Davis, Tom Tom 84, etc. I miss all that Chicago sound. .... :-(

[rgianatos]

Dave Williams' stuff -- I never got my hands on his material. Would have loved to ....

David Import was what brought me to Hollywood. George Davis's sons were that group, and for whatever reason, they weren't going to be on Chi-Sound [maybe Carl didn't like their stuff, I don't know]. So, I did it on spec, and sold it to AVI. It was selling that project that sealed my relationship with Ray Harris/AVI, and I moved to LA with a master sold and an A&R job!

[rgianatos]

FELLOW DJs/Remixers -- I loved Walter Gibbons. We were friendly as DJs and when he started doing all of his crazy remixes, I ate it up. His most outrageous, to me, was Bettye Lavette, "Doin' the Best That I Can."

And TM may be godfather and all that, and he paved the way, etc., but I'm going to dare to issue my true feelings about how I felt in those days about his work.

Here goes.

I absolutely detested his mixes when I was a DJ. They were so PREDICTABLE, the opposite of Walter. In those days, TM had two mix structures. Tell me if I'm wrong:

1. Mix starts with standard song intro, verse, chorus, verse chorus as in the basic 45 [or album] mix, then break with 45 mix for instrumental verse, instrumental chorus,verse with BGs, chorus with BGs, then back to 45 mix where we left off, chorus, vamp and out. EXAMPLE: Gloria Gaynor "Never Can Say Good-bye."

OR

2. Mix starts with intro of song as usual, but this time we have instrumental verse, instrumental chorus, then we go into vocal of song as is on the original, go through complete track, and then go back to instrumental choruses and out. Example: "I'll Be Holding On" by Al Downing.

Now, I'm sure there are slight variations, but basically, all the mixes were structured the same. Of course, the material was SO STRONG that it didn't matter. Also, mind you, I'm referring to structure, not the balance or EQs of the tracks. That was always top notch.

My feeling, however, was structure and balance of the track should be developed by the feel of the track, and that there should be a few more variations than the two I've outlined above. That is the way I approached every mix project. I didn't try to fit the song into a preset formula/structure.

[disco-disc]

[quote=rgianatos;97842]At Producer's Workshop, AVI's recording studio, they set up mastering with some sort of direct to disk setup WITHOUT ANY EQ BEYOND WHAT HAD BEEN DONE ON THE MIXING BOARD!!!. That was why a lot of what you are hearing doesn't have high end, etc. The earlier projects (James Wells, My Claim to Fame, got mastered at A&M and were much better than later things like Seventh Avenue, Evelyn Thomas, L.J. Johnson, and remixes of El Coco etc.)

Hi Rick, Great to see you on-board here.
Very interesting comments on TM mixes...I tend to agree it is very formulaic.
However, I recently got my hands on the 12" Promo of James Wells My Claim to fame / TRUE LOVE IS MY DESTINY- the label states that it was mastered with 'Q- MIX' - could you explain what this was please, and how it alters the sound ??? - I actuallly heard the track on a CD copy of a Tom Savarese mix for a party in late 1978 - and INSTANTLY fell in love with True love is my destiny, it is SUCH a beautiful sounding track....THANKS for giving it to us !!

[Disco Funk]

GENE CHANDLER -- Get Down -- It was something I put in to be unpredictable, and initially had to battle with Carl Davis to keep it in. I suppose it was awkward, but it was the kind of edit I would have done unexpectedly live, so I tried to incorporate that into the mix. Fortunately, I won out on that one!

Cool cut. I think it probably inspired that remix of Walking Into Sunshine by Central Line.

absolutely detested his mixes when I was a DJ. They were so PREDICTABLE, the opposite of Walter. In those days, TM had two mix structures. Tell me if I'm wrong:

1. Mix starts with standard song intro, verse, chorus, verse chorus as in the basic 45 [or album] mix, then break with 45 mix for instrumental verse, instrumental chorus,verse with BGs, chorus with BGs, then back to 45 mix where we left off, chorus, vamp and out. EXAMPLE: Gloria Gaynor "Never Can Say Good-bye."

OR

2. Mix starts with intro of song as usual, but this time we have instrumental verse, instrumental chorus, then we go into vocal of song as is on the original, go through complete track, and then go back to instrumental choruses and out. Example: "I'll Be Holding On" by Al Downing.

Now, I'm sure there are slight variations, but basically, all the mixes were structured the same. Of course, the material was SO STRONG that it didn't matter. Also, mind you, I'm referring to structure, not the balance or EQs of the tracks. That was always top notch.

My feeling, however, was structure and balance of the track should be developed by the feel of the track, and that there should be a few more variations than the two I've outlined above. That is the way I approached every mix project. I didn't try to fit the song into a preset formula/structure.

I hear ya about Tom's mixes. Actually I kind of emulate his style when I do re-edits for my own pleasure when I come across 45s where there's an instrumental and vocal version on either side. I think I read somewhere that Tom preferred to make his mixes musical rather than DJ mixing oriented, which would explain why he rarely mixed down tracks into pure drum or percussion breaks.

I do know at least one track where he remixed the instrumental version to be quite different from the vocal - Moment Of Truth's 'So Much For Love'. On the instrumental side, he starts the song off with a drum and bass breakdown, which he didn't do on the vocal side.

I agree with your comment on his balance and EQ. The guy did some awesome sounding mixes. Then again, didn't he have access to one of the best studios of the disco era, if not THE best - Sigma Sound?

Walter Gibbons was a deconstructor, the way I see it. He stripped down everything to the bone, tossed it up in the air, and then put the pieces back together randomly. I'm thinking mainly of the stuff on the Disco Madness record. I wasn't too crazy about a few of his remixes, like Let No Man Put Asunder which I think had no bass; and Love Committee's 'Law and Order', which was all kick drum until toward the end of the track. Other than that, his remixes were awesome.

Another guy I like for his stripped down mixes was someone over at RCA named David Todd. Are you familiar with his work? I don't know if he came up the DJ route or was a studio guy who emulated the DJs. He did some really great stripped down remixes of tracks like NYCC's 'Express Yourself', and 'Life Goes On' and 'You're My Peace of Mind' by Faith Hope & Charity. He really loved to bring out the drums. I love how he rounds out 'Gradually' by Faith Hope & Charity by having the last 2 minutes of his remix be only drums and loud congas.

Disco Funk

[Paulo]

I recently got my hands on the 12" Promo of James Wells My Claim to fame / TRUE LOVE IS MY DESTINY- the label states that it was mastered with 'Q- MIX' - could you explain what this was please, and how it alters the sound ???...

It is great to hear from you. Thank you Rick.
I have some AVI 12 inches with this 'Q-Mixs'...
If you don't mind, could you explain what it is exactly??

[rgianatos]

DAVID TODD -- Great remixer and person. We hung out in the RCA offices and went to concerts together. His most memorable revelatory mix for me was "Shame," which I heard on the original LP first, and he turned totally around on the 12" by breaking it down to the rhythm. To tell you the truth, I can't remember whether he ever DJ'd. I only knew him as RCA dance promo ....

Q-Mix -- Q Mix was basically mastering and putting a groove separation at important points in the mix such as breakdowns. Tom DePierro at Motown started that with Disco Eye-Q, which was the same thing [on Bonnie Pointer's 12" I think] .... :o

[markydefad]

David Todd was a DJ at a bar called Adam's Apple in NYC before he got the gig at RCA--this was in Moulton's column...I typed an interview with David Todd from Billboard in the 1976 disco compilation consensus chart thread...about a month ago.;-)

[Disco Funk]

Thanks for the insight into David Todd guys. He's one guy who doesn't get mentioned when people discuss the top remixers of the 70s. Though I don't think everything he touched turned to gold. I absolutely hate his remix of Buffalo Smoke's 'Stubborn Kind of Fella'. He mixed out the snappy snare, really made the song a downer, whereas the original 12" mix featured tight drums going at a breakneck speed.

Disco Funk

[Giovanni]

Great to see Rick here, we r waiting for Tom now.....

As to Moulton, Gibbons and the likes, we must remember that Moulton very rarely did remixes, he did the mixes. They became probably conventional after he did them for the first time, but some of the earliest TM mixes are absolutely revelatory (Don Downing, BT Express) of a completely new way of mixing music. I agree with everyone here about the genius of W Gibbons.

As to Rick Gianatos, I do really like his mix of "Overdose of love" by Lawrell, a great track with a great soulful groove and a continuosly growing tension

[Bernie]

Hi Rick,
It is nice to hear from you again and that you are doing well. Would be great if you could post a discography of music that you were involved with (mixing, production...) over the years.

It seems that many may not be fully aware of how much great music you were involved with. I know you once told me about your role in "Love Insurance" by Front Page, but it would be great if you could rehash that story for the forum members here. Thanks again.

[Energyguy]

Hey rick
Great to see you on the board !
I have a remix you did in the late 80`s for Ian levine`s HI-NRG label - "Goodbye Goodridance " by Midnight Sunrise, Its a cool mix.

[rgianatos]

Hi, all. My web guy has put lots of info on my website, www.rickgianatos.com. I still have to sift through it and organize it better, but it has lots of my info there.

www.nuandimprovedrecords.com -- the label website

more to come.

Don't have time for Love Insurance memories, now, but will do this later. Busy working on my latest project:

DREAMGIRLS DANCE PROJECT, featuring real Dream Girls who inspired the show performing selected material from it in dance format. Included is a 2006 update of my original master of Scherrie Payne's 1984 hit 12" version of "One Night Only" and the remastered original. Stars on the project include Hodges, James, & Smith, The Honey Cone, Charlotte Crossley, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and many more!!!

[Salsoul1975]

FELLOW DJs/Remixers -- I loved Walter Gibbons. We were friendly as DJs and when he started doing all of his crazy remixes, I ate it up. His most outrageous, to me, was Bettye Lavette, "Doin' the Best That I Can."

And TM may be godfather and all that, and he paved the way, etc., but I'm going to dare to issue my true feelings about how I felt in those days about his work.

Here goes.

I absolutely detested his mixes when I was a DJ. They were so PREDICTABLE, the opposite of Walter. In those days, TM had two mix structures. Tell me if I'm wrong:

1. Mix starts with standard song intro, verse, chorus, verse chorus as in the basic 45 [or album] mix, then break with 45 mix for instrumental verse, instrumental chorus,verse with BGs, chorus with BGs, then back to 45 mix where we left off, chorus, vamp and out. EXAMPLE: Gloria Gaynor "Never Can Say Good-bye."

OR

2. Mix starts with intro of song as usual, but this time we have instrumental verse, instrumental chorus, then we go into vocal of song as is on the original, go through complete track, and then go back to instrumental choruses and out. Example: "I'll Be Holding On" by Al Downing.

Now, I'm sure there are slight variations, but basically, all the mixes were structured the same. Of course, the material was SO STRONG that it didn't matter. Also, mind you, I'm referring to structure, not the balance or EQs of the tracks. That was always top notch.

My feeling, however, was structure and balance of the track should be developed by the feel of the track, and that there should be a few more variations than the two I've outlined above. That is the way I approached every mix project. I didn't try to fit the song into a preset formula/structure.

I agree with what Gianatos says about Moulton's mixes. As much as I like the songs that Moulton worked on, his mixes were very formulaic. After a few songs you can tell exactly how they will sound.

Gibbons had some fine mixes, but then there were some that weren't so fine; in fact, some were hard to listen all the way through. Some projects were downright strange (Robin Hooker Band), but I think one of his best projects was the obscurish "Super Queen" by Cellophane (1978).

[rgianatos]

Thank you for complimenting this mix. I didn't think anyone heard that one! At that time, I was trying to license some of Ian's projects here. I felt that among the many he produced there were some gems, that being one of them!!! :grin:

[Energyguy]

Thank you for complimenting this mix. I didn't think anyone heard that one! At that time, I was trying to license some of Ian's projects here. I felt that among the many he produced there were some gems, that being one of them!!! :grin:

Hi Rick... yeah. this particular release seemed to come and go very quickly which was unfortunate as it was one of the stronger releases on ian`s Nightmare label.... Its very hard to track doen nowadays and you never see it on e-bay etc...Luckily i bought it on its initial release. Les Cokell used to play it quite often here in Manchester.