High Fashion
Feelin' Lucky

It's incredible that on deBaser, a site where underground music is almost deified (as evidenced by the hundreds of names of likely rock bands never heard of), there isn't an album like "Feelin' Lucky." So, since there are many users who enjoy writing about rock bands and similar totally unknown and underground names, I too now have fun. Only, the genre is distinctly different, precisely what we today call R&B, which back then was referred to as "Groove." Because the album in question, the debut of the Italo-American meteor High Fashion, is dated 1982, and at the time saying "Groove" meant having fun, dancing, moving, shaking.

To do justice to past trends, we need to take a moment to reflect on their meaning. So, I would immediately discourage anyone knowledgeable in English from literally translating the word "Groove," because the meaning is different. The Disco music trend began in the early seventies under other names and became a mass phenomenon, effectively moving out of clubs in the second half. There was a period from 1977 to 1980 when Disco music was heard EVERYWHERE! So much so that some started to feel queasy. Thus, in the early eighties, the so-called "Crusade against Disco" began, pushing forward violently with slogans like "Disco sucks!" In Europe, especially in Italy, the phenomenon was more limited, arrived late and in chaos, but had remarkable longevity (in Italy, they would stop talking about Disco music only towards the end of the "Italodisco" phenomenon, so 1988-89). Obviously, European Disco differentiated itself from American Disco, thanks to influences like those of Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, Harold Faltermeyer, and other sacred monsters of electronics, leading to the term "Eurodisco" (Donna Summer, Boney M, Lipps Inc, Patrick Hernandez, Peter Jacques Band, Village People, Amii Stewart, Heather Parisi, Marc Cerrone...), widely used by detractors to define a bland, commercial, idea-less, and mushy musical form. Eurodisco rather quickly transformed into Hi-NRG, becoming the soundtrack of Gay Clubs like the "Saint" in New York and consecrating artists like Sylvester, Patrick Cowley, and Miquel Brown to star status. But Hi-NRG survived only in America, taking the place of its mother Disco.

In Europe, this was instead transforming into Italo disco and something else. The fact was that the market linked to the name "Disco" quickly collapsed, and only those who played decently remained (unfortunately, a lot of trash was released in the last period). Then the New Wave and the electronics of the '80s were about to explode, so the "Disco" market took a low blow even where it had always won: the discos. Only a few brave ones would give life to that genre that was christened "Groove," a natural continuation of the Disco's Black attitudes, a re-approach to the more "noble" sounds of '70s funk and soul, while keeping up with the rapidly changing times. Groove as a musical genre was a niche for most of its duration but indelibly influenced much of the pop music that emerged during that period. Famous artists of this musical trend (in my opinion, the best form of Black music) are the "Shalamar" from Los Angeles with colleagues "The Whispers," jazz pianist George Duke, the "B. B. & Q. Band" (which I have also reviewed), Chaka Khan, the "Shakatak," Ray Parker Jr., Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, the "Change" (of which I have reviewed some work), Jeffrey Osborne, Grover Washington, and many others. Among these are the "High Fashion," one of the many and peculiar projects of the acclaimed Italo-American team Fred Petrus/Mauro Malavasi, who gave life to sacred monsters like "B. B. & Q. Band," "Change," and "Peter Jacques Band." The group's setup was a trio of American singers: two women (Alyson Williams, Melisa Morgan) and a man (Eric McClinton).

The typical mechanism Fred Petrus used to produce an album was as follows: after composing and recording the musical tracks in Italy (Modena/Bologna) through his excellent (and usual) team of Italian musicians (such as Mauro Malavasi on keyboards, Davide Romani and Timmy Allen on bass, Paolo Gianolio and Chieli Minnucci on guitars, Rudy Trevisi on sax, etc...), he took everything to New York for the vocal parts. There he hired the trio of High Fashion, recorded the voices, and the album "Feelin' Lucky" was released after only a year of gestation in the spring of 1982 (the most productive year). The impact with the public was immediately notable, so much so that the title track reached position #32 on the Billboard R&B chart. Many historians define High Fashion as a meteor, but I believe they are much more. Despite the fact that, musically speaking, every track on the album could be easily assimilated to one of the "Change" or the "B. B. & Q. Band," the project, thanks to the good idea of the trio, shone with its own soul. And moreover, it adhered 100% to the canons of "Groove" music (in music, "Groove" is generally a bass or guitar line longer than a riff and endowed with an easily assimilable and repetitive melody, a typical way of creating rhythm. To know something about it, listen to "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" by Indeep, paying attention to the typically "groove" bass line).

An excellent product for an era still little contaminated by pop. After an explosive opening with "Feelin' Lucky Lately" the album continues with an increase in BPM and funk spirit with "You're the Winner." After this intro, Side A continues with two very particular tracks, composed ad hoc by the then rising funk star Kashif: "Hold On" (considered the best on the album after "Feelin' Lucky Lately") and "Next to You" (same acoustic style, fast, minimal, timbrically and rhythmically perfect). In all this delight, the sensual and magical voices of High Fashion float, transporting the listener for minutes and minutes to other dimensions. Side B picks up with explosiveness after the emotional pause of tracks 3 and 4, with "Have You Heard the News" (style close to "Feelin' Lucky Lately") and breaks into sentimentality with the most Disco appeal ballad of the album, "When the Lover Strikes." Kashif's genius gives us new emotions and moments of reflection with track 7, "I Want to Be Everything," the true slow song of the album, which ends with rhythm and frenzy in the funk-oriented "Brainy Children."

Eight tracks of pure splendor, thirty-five minutes of chills, an album of magic, funk in its splendor, disco in its charisma, soul in its delicacy, groove in its rhythm. Everything is in place, and the vocal part deserves more than praise. An album ultimately also carefree and fun, rich and dynamic, recorded with excellent quality and available in digital version (worthy of note are especially tracks 1, 3, and 8). An album that cannot be missing from any music lover's collection.