Disco pioneers Jacques Fred Petrus & Mauro Malavasi were probably the most successful Italian production team. They will always be remembered for their refined, melodious, funky and soulful Italian disco sound. Many of their studio concepts were amalgamations of Italian and US top studio musicians and first-class NY session vocalists. The partnership scored international hits with productions for Peter Jacques Band, Macho, High Fashion, The B.B.&Q. Band and especially Change.
PRELUDE TO A DISCO ROLLER COASTER
Jacques Fred Petrus (February 22th 1948 - June 8th 1987) was one of the more enigmatic figures in early '80s black music whose rise and fall has intrigued many devotees of disco, soul and funk music up to this day.
He was of French origin, though lived the greater part of his life in Italy where he established an international career in the music industry. Fred Petrus was born in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), an archipelago located in the eastern Carribbean Sea. In Sainte-Anne on Grande-Terre Island he spent a happy childhood surrounded by four brothers and one sister. From an early age he developed a fascination with R&B and soul records, a musical passion that would determine his future. After he finished technical school, Petrus worked as a qualified diesel-engine mechanic on a cargo ship for a while. In 1967 he emerged in Paris where he pursued his dream of becoming a celebrated deejay.
One of his first significant gigs was at the legendary Club Saint-Hilaire ran by François-Patrice, a chic venue situated in Rue de Rennes. The club was frequented by the rich and famous of that time like Aristoteles Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and many French stars and starlets. His next stop in the Paris nightlife was the White Chapel club at Place Mabillon. During summertime in 1969 and 1970 he performed as a deejay in Spain in discotheques like Club Pilote or Tiffany’s in Marbella, alternating with Paris according to the season.
Paris was only home for a short spell however, and before long Petrus was drawn to Italy permanently. In 1971 Fred was hired by a discotheque in Messina, Sicily (Italy) where he acquired contacts that led to new opportunities in Rome during wintertime. In Rome Fred Petrus handled the turntables at the Staco Matto jet set club. Later he would also play at the Good Mood in Milan. The prosperous city of Milan with its sophisticated fashion appeal and exuberant nightlife was the ideal place for Petrus to settle down and spread his wings. To earn extra money he worked as a shop assistant in a Fiorucci fashion store in Milan during the daytime.
Fred Petrus achieved an established reputation as a DJ and eventually began to import music from the U.S. as he quickly understood how to respond to the needs of his Milanese fellow DJ’s. He also realised he couldn’t keep on doing the job of a DJ for the rest of his life. The entrepreneur in Jacques Fred Petrus awoke!
In the early days Petrus used to order a couple of boxes of vinyl every week because the demand as well as his funds were limited. He mainly sold records to his deejay friends and to a few discotheques like the Nepentha and the Charly Max in Milan and Rome's Bella Blu, Jackie O and Number One. His “commerce” gradually increased as also snobbish club-goers got interested in buying expensive and exclusive dance records that only a few DJs knew.
At one of the high society venues where Petrus was deejaying he found a wealthy maecenas who helped him start up his first record shop Goody Music in 1973. The import store in Milan was a so called Italian division of the American leading music retailer Sam Goody. But this wasn't the case at all. Just a pinch of 'Petrus crookedness' to magnify his trade. Besides Carù in Milan and Ronchini in Parma, Goody Music was the only U.S. importer in Italy. His business thrived because just Petrus specialised in soul and disco import. The disco market was a very specific and dynamic branch that required a constant awareness of the trends and the demands. In a short time he owned the monopoly and supplied records to radio stations and discotheques all over Italy.
Early 1975, his company was doing so well that he needed assistance. Petrus asked his cousin Claude Petrus to join him in Milan. Unfortunately the mutual understanding between the two quickly deteriorated as Claude couldn't cope with Petrus' sometimes very violent nature. After a couple of months Claude Petrus shut the door of the Goody Music store behind him for good and flew back home. Hence Fred called up his three brothers consecutively. But he seemed impossible to collaborate with and one by one they also quit. Only Alex Petrus succeeded in working together with "Little Macho". They had a good brother relationship, got along well and apparently shared the same business instinct and the same music feeling. Alex would remain one of the few confidants in Fred's life until his tragic death in 1987.
When private radio stations were legalized in 1975, Goody Music sponsored a radio program on the first private station: Radio Milano International, which is called 101 Network today. Soon every private station was hosting a disco show and disco music became really huge by 1976. It appears that Petrus was even one of the first radio DJ's of Radio Milano International but he was fired after a dispute with the head of the radio station.
The success of Goody Music allowed him to set up a second import music store in Rome. Former Little Macho Music staff member Steve Bogen recalls: "I met Freddie in the '70s when he had the Goody Music record stores in Italy. I was the buyer for a major one stop in N.Y.C. and he would regularly fly to the US and come in to see me at Record Haven. I would sit with him, play him the newest hottest disco songs, he would buy them and I would then ship the LP's to him in Italy. I started working directly with Fred Petrus in like 1981 until 1984, sometime before I was running the record label RPM Assoc., an indie promotion company specializing in American rock ‘n’ roll bands that was pretty well known."
Fred Petrus deejaying in Spain at Club Pilote in 1969
GOODY MUSIC PRODUCTION & LITTLE MACHO MUSIC
About 1978 the shrewd entrepreneur lifted his company to a higher level. Instead of importing music from the States, he dreamed of exporting Italy-made music worldwide. His ultimate goal was putting his name to music of his own. Petrus attracted talented musicians from the region of Emilia-Romagna (Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Rimini, …) who orbited Bologna's mythical Fonoprint Studios, and began producing music himself with partner Mauro Malavasi. They already met a few years earlier. The story goes that Petrus had a crucial meeting with Mauro Malavasi at the Music Conservatory of Bologna (Conservatorio di Musica Giovan Battista Martini di Bologna) (see photo) in 1975 when Mauro was actually still studying music. They quickly realized that they were on the same wavelength. As a result it seems that Jacques Fred Petrus even decided to help his young friend graduate at the conservatory through some financial backing.
Jacques Fred Petrus would order a song from Malavasi every three months. Petrus was excited that the young professor of trumpet composed the songs so effortless, and started making big plans. The two associates extended Goody Music into a production company and record label with the aim of becoming the Italian Gamble and Huff. They saw in each other the opportunity to realise their ambitions to become major players in the dance and disco scenes of Europe and America. Their vision was to create a sound that was melodic and decidedly smooth in delivery that would appeal to both markets. They became experts at packaging studio concepts that paired American vocalists and lyricists with Italian musicians and arrangers.
It was a well-considered move that Petrus had been preparing for quite some time. He wasn’t interested in cheap success, limited to Italy only. Petrus provided his producer Malavasi with the very best means to reach this goal, regardless of the expense. He hired Celso Valli's sidekick Alan Taylor to write disco song lyrics, enlisted the best studio engineers in Italy and brought American top studio singers on board. The mixing and (vocal) recordings occured in the best disco music studios in the world: Sigma Sound studios, Power Station studios and Media Sound studios in New York City. The mastering of the recordings was done at Sterling Sound studios, “THE” mastering studio in New York.
Fred Petrus also had an eye for good album artwork and engaged the best art directors and designers available. Throughout his career he showed that the packaging of his products was as stylish as the music inside the record sleeves. He was acquainted with Milano chic and fashion, so he cherished the look of his concepts for a very good reason.
The Goody Music Production firm was based in Milan, Via Friuli 51 and later moved to Via Pietro Mascagni 15.
Managing director of the new label was Franco Donato, a Calabrian entrepreneur highly respected in the Italian record business (he would later be elected president of the Italian Phonographic Association AFI). The younger brother of Franco, Claudio Donato, often frequented the offices of Goody Music, fascinated with the world of disco music production. But the commercial liaison between Petrus and Donato didn't last long. Professional ruptures would become a familiar pattern in the career of Jacques Fred Petrus. When the megalomaniac conduct of Fred Petrus began undermining the Goody Music company in 1980, Franco Donato quit his job and founded the legendary Italian dance label Full Time Records together with Claudio. In the following years the Donato brothers would produce and/or release a string of immortal Italo dance classics (Selection, Tom Hooker, Peter Richard, Ago, Vin zee, Orlando Johnson, Jimmy Ross, George Aaron, Kano, Rainbow Team, Dr. Felix, Electric Mind, Jago, …).
Jacques Fred "Little Macho" Petrus
Following in the footsteps of the legendary French disco producers Henri Belolo & Jacques Morali (Village People, Patrick Juvet, Ritchie Family, Break Machine) and French music impresario Christian Michel Carbaza (Space, M'Bamina, Geraldine Hunt, Machel Montano, Tabou Combo, Candela), Petrus went to New York in the late seventies, forging music business connections, signing his acts and brokering record deals with people like Ray Francis Caviano of RFC Records. Ray Caviano's label would hit early gold with Change's monster debut LP The Glow Of Love.
As an A&R executive Christian Carbaza had a lot of contacts in the entertainment industry worldwide. He was owner of the NY disco label Red Rock Records and the Afro-Funk label Carbaza Records, and became famous as a successfull promoter of Trinidad & Tobago's Soca music and Caribbean fashion modeling. Carbaza very likely introduced Petrus to the NY disco music scene and the music industry personalities behind it. Both Fred Petrus and Christian Carbaza originated from the Caribbeans, had been living in Paris and Italy and were making the same kind of electro synth disco with live instrument overdubs during that era. Mic Murphy (of The System) worked for Little Macho Music during the early 80's. He remembered that he first met Jacques Fred Petrus at a hotel lobby in NYC -now the Sofitel Hotel- in 1979 where Petrus was in the presence of Christian Carbaza. At that time Fred Petrus was enjoying an international disco hit with Peter Jacques Band. It's also very possible that Petrus benefited from Carbaza's connections in the fashion world to enlist international models for his disco projects.
Legendary entertainment executive Christian Carbaza with Nadine Kanhai of Elite Model
The very first original (non-licensed) artists that Petrus published on his Goody Music label in 1978 were Bob Eaven, Random, Silvio and the French singer Elvin Shaad. None of this music was musically produced by Goody Music Production yet. The Elvin Shaad mini album Live For Love was produced by Shaad and Florida for Goody Music Production, Shaad and Fred Petrus being the executive producers of the project. The LP was recorded at the Florida Studio in Paris where parts of the first Macho record would be recorded as well. The mixing and remixing was carried out in London and New York. Hot NYC deejay Tom Savarese mixed the record at Sigma Sound.
The next production on Goody Music Records was the crucial Macho project, recorded in Italy with his in-house musician staff and remixed by Tom Savarese in New York.
Davide Romani (bass) and Amos Amaranti (guitar) during Macho-gig in 1979
The instant success of the Macho record provided direct inspiration for a new business name, Little Macho Music, Fred's great brand of quality dance music. Little Macho Music became Fred Petrus' production label and international publishing company from 1979 onwards. Soon the activities of Little Macho Music outclassed the domestic Goody Music Production enterprise as Jacques Fred Petrus relocated his main business activities to the
headquarters in New York City. The small office of Little Macho Music was situated on 1775 Broadway, NYC. Former staff member Steve Bogen recalls: "Yes, that was the building (see photo), 1775 Broadway. We had office space there on the 7th Floor, we rented the space from Bert Padell. Bert was our accounting firm, Padell, Nadell, Fine & Wineburg. Padell moved out of that building a number of years ago. There were lots of music biz types that rented space. For example Michael Lang, one of the guys that did Woodstock had an office on the floor. We had two offices, a small one I used, and Freddie had a large corner office. We also had a desk I sometimes used just outside the door to Fred's office, nice Italian office furniture, but then again that was Freddie. There were three of us in the office, Fred's friend Claude Ismael, Mic Murphy and me. However, Claude and Freddy had a falling out...but then he did that with most of us who worked for him!"
Since Petrus managed to fix very profitable deals with major American record companies (Atlantic, Capitol-EMI, Warner Bros.), that guaranteed worldwide distribution of his music, he felt no longer the need to maintain his own Italian record labels Goody Music and the sublabels Avangarde and Nocedicoco. Accordingly all activities of Goody Music Records ceased in 1981 and the name of Goody Music Production was dropped as well. Only the small Petrus-owned record label Memory Records that published some of his music in Italy since 1980 (Surf Riders, Gianni Indino, Zinc, Change, Silence) remained until 1983.
During six years executive producer Petrus and fellow producer Malavasi would represent the perfect symbiosis between project manager and sound architect until the power duo split up in 1983 due to severe economical troubles and an unbearable professional relationship between the two partners.
Billboard Magazine August 1978
Jacques Fred Petrus, the bright Guadeloupe-born, Italy-based entrepreneur, was the archetype of the successful and recklessly ambitious record producer. He mainly concentrated on the business aspects of the company such as masterminding and financing the numerous discoprojects and shopping around for gainful record deals. Petrus who was usually called Fred Petrus or just Freddie by his friends was a reserved but driven character whose passionate, ambitious nature sometimes conflicted with associates. He has been described as a generous individual with a propensity to be ruthless to those who crossed him. Or as drummer Terry Silverlight recalled: "You wouldn't want to mess with him. If you didn't know him, he could be very intimidating at first meeting." Change keyboardist Jeff Bova put it this way: "Freddie was all about power...macho was his running theme."
Cousin Claude Petrus recollected: "After my bad experience in 1975 at his record commerce in Milan I tried to avoid him. But I must admit that Fred was very charismatic. He also had great capacities for foreign languages. He spoke Italian, French, English and Spanish, even if the vocabulary and the pronunciation were sometimes horrible. But then again, this could have been one of his powerful charming and seducing instruments...businesswise as well."
But don't be fooled by his piously sounding name. He was no saint! It was always cristal clear that Jacques Fred Petrus himself was Little Macho Music. Producer Curtis Styles remembered that egomaniacal side of Petrus very well: "I can hear him right now chanting in his thick accent..."I am Change, I am B.B.&Q. Band, I am High Fashion! Remember that!"". Engineer Carl Beatty witnessed the tricky nature of svengali Fred Petrus: "I mixed the Change album Turn On Your Radio for him in 1985...but never got paid!".
What would emerge with the ongoing success of Little Macho Music was the abrasive manner with which Petrus conducted business. It's a fairly unanimously agreed fact that Jacques Petrus treated people like dirt. From borrowing money, to firing people on the spot or ignoring them completely, Petrus ruled with erratic discipline — treating musicians and professionals who were integral to his company as if they were nobodies. Much can be taken from the thoughts of Bobby Douglas, an American vocalist who featured on a string of Petrus productions. When asked about the producer's death, he said: "I know that it was something waiting to happen. Because you can't be that evil, to that many people, and not have your karma affected."
He absolutely was a cosmopolitan with style too, who enjoyed cruising the streets of NYC with his expensive BMW 733i and who liked wearing classy clothing. Producer and musician Randy Muller shared: "I never met Fred, although I recall us crossing paths in a New York studio. He was leaving and I was just coming in to start a session with Brass Construction. I remember him being very well-dressed on that occasion. He came across as a very meticulous man, meaning that in a good way. He wore a silk scarf. His cologne was top-shelf as well."
Jacques Fred Petrus, passport photo 1984
Jacques Fred Petrus was not a musician but he had an excellent musical taste. He definitely had an input into the musical direction and the overall vibe. His deejay experience connected him with the pulse of the disco scene. He had a sixth sense for recruiting promising American vocalists, first-rate Italian musicians and top notch American and British songwriters/lyricists.
He relied heavily on hired studio help to create his music. In Italy Petrus and Malavasi enlisted the musicians Fabbri Giorgino, George Aghedo (see photo black artist below), Gabriele Melotti (see photo drummer),
Celso Valli, Marco Tansini (see B/W photo guitarist below), Paolo Gianolio (see photo guitarist below), Rudy Trevisi (see photo saxophonist), Luca Orioli and foremostly Davide Romani (see photo above) for their composing and arranging skills. Petrus understood the importance and the talent of those young eclectic musicians. Therefore he decided to engage them exclusively, paying them a monthly salary. Together they formed the Goody Music Orchestra and became key contributors to the sound of Goody Music Production.
Many of the early Goody Music productions were accompanied by The Goody Music String Ensemble led by William Righi (first string). Other appreciated session men who played on the Macho, Peter Jacques Band, Revanche and Rudy records were the trombonists Sandro Comini and Marco Pellacani.
Petrus would record all the tracks at first in Italian studios in Bologna, Modena and Milan and then bring the completed tapes to the U.S. along with Mauro Malavasi and later also Davide Romani who would live around the corner from the Little Macho Music office in a rented flat. In New York they looked for the right singers. Petrus and Malavasi frequented the hot clubs in New York City like Brody, The Cellar, Leviticus and Sweetwater where showbands performed, in search of local singing talent. Next they held auditions, booked a recording studio and added the vocal parts to the music. The mixing, post production and mastering took place at the best possible NYC facilities.
Avangarde Records: A Goody Music Rock & Wave Line
Nocedicoco Records: A Goody Music Reggae Line
Goody Music Production also released music from groups and singers that were not produced by the Goody Music staff. Such acts were: Theo Vaness, Caprice, NH3 Band, Geraldine Hunt, Pacific Blue, Akka B, Bob Eaven, San Juan, The Royal Rasses, Sheila Hylton, Blood Sisters, Ras Midas, Elvin Shaad, The Eros, Jo Lemaire & Flouze, Silvio, Bob Eaven, Carlo Lena, Gianni Indino, Anti-Rock and Random. These were often anonymous bands or starlets that only lasted for a single release.
A part of this Goody Music output was exclusively licensed from international labels for distribution on the Italian market. Several acts however were signed by Goody Music. The French and Italian projects of Random (involvement of Fonoprint Productions), Silvio (involvement of French producer Florida), Elvin Shaad (involvement of Florida), Bob Eaven, Gianni Indino, San Juan, The Eros, Carlo Lena and Caprice (produced in France by Candelario Sanchez) were actually financed by executive producer Petrus. Their music was produced exclusively for the label of Petrus without involvement of the Goody Music in-house musician team though. This steady production flow was important in order to put the fresh record label on the map, whether the acts were conceived by Petrus & Malavasi or not.
In 1980 Fred Petrus introduced three parent labels of Goody Music Records to better market some of these (licensed) records. The Avangarde label dealt with Rock and Wave acts like The Jumpers and NH3 Band. The Nocedicoco label dealt with reggae productions like Ras Midas and Sheila Hylton. His third imprint Memory Records released Little Macho Music productions meant for Italian domestic distribution like Change, Gianni Indino, Surf Riders, Zinc and Silence.
Goody Music 7 INCH Singles (except Cube single)
GOODY MUSIC RECORDS (GOM) - ALBUMS
Incl. Nocedicoco Records (NOC) / Avangarde Records (AVA) / Memory Records (PTL)
GOM 30001 ELVIN SHAAD - LIVE FOR LOVE
GOM 30002 MACHO - I’M A MAN
GOM 30003 PETER JACQUES BAND - FIRE NIGHT DANCE
GOM 30004 THEO VANESS - BAD BAD BOY
GOM 30005 REVANCHE - MUSIC MAN
GOM 30006 RUDY - JUST TAKE MY BODY
GOM 30007 MIDNIGHT GANG - LOVE IS MAGIC
GOM 30008 MACHO - ROLL
GOM 30009 PETER JACQUES BAND - WELCOME BACK
GOM 30010 CHANGE - THE GLOW OF LOVE
GOM 30011 CAPRICE - RUSSIA
AVA 30012 NH3 BAND - LET’S HAVE A GOOD TIME
AVA 30013 JO LEMAIRE + FLOUZE - JO LEMAIRE + FLOUZE
NOC 30014 THE ROYAL RASSES - HUMANITY
GOM 30015 NOT ATTRIBUTED
GOM 30016 GOODY MUSIC ORCHESTRA - HITS OF THE WORLD VOL.1
GOM 30017 GERALDINE HUNT - NO WAY
GOM 30018 CHANGE - MIRACLES
PTL 66001 CHANGE - SHARING YOUR LOVE
PTL 66002 SILENCE - GOODTIME BABY
PTL 66003 ZINC - STREET LEVEL
PTL 66004 CHANGE - THIS IS YOUR TIME
Released under license: 004 / 012 / 013 / 014 / 017
Produced for Goody Music Production without involvement of in-house musicians: 001 / 011
GOODY MUSIC RECORDS (GOM) - 12 INCH SINGLES
Incl. Nocedicoco Records (NOC) / Avangarde Records (AVA) / Memory Records (PTX)
GOM 77001 PACIFIC BLUE - ARGENTINA FOREVER
GOM 77002 MACHO - I’M A MAN
GOM 77003 PETER JACQUES BAND - WALKING ON MUSIC
GOM 77004 THEO VANESS - I’M A BAD BAD BOY
GOM 77005 REVANCHE - NEW YORK CITY / MUSIC MAN
GOM 77006 MACHO / PETER JACQUES BAND - MOTHER’S LOVE / IS IT IT?
GOM 77007 ANTI ROCK - D.I.S.C.O.
NOC 77008 THE ROYAL RASSES - UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE
NOC 77009 RAS MIDAS - CAN’T STOP RASTA NOW
NOC 77010 BLOODSISTERS - RING MY BELL
NOC 77011 SHEILA HILTON - DISCO REGGAE BEAT
AVA 77012 THE JUMPERS - COKE AND ROLL
GOM 77013 PETER JACQUES BAND - IS IT IT? / COUNTING ON LOVE
PTX 61 CHANGE - KEEP ON IT
PTX 62 CHANGE - MAGICAL NIGHT
Released under license: 001 / 004 / 008 / 009 / 010 / 011
Produced for Goody Music Production without involvement of in-house musicians: 007
GOODY MUSIC RECORDS (GOM/WN) - 7 INCH SINGLES
Incl. Nocedicoco Records (NOC) / Avangarde Records (AVA) / Memory Records (MM/PTS)
GOM 7001 BOB EAVEN - I LIKE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME / I WAS A FOOL
GOM 7002 LADY BUTTERFLY - MISTER MAN / NIGHT IN THE CITY
GOM 7003 RANDOM - RONDO'M
GOM 7004 AKKA B - QUEENS OF SPACE
GOM 7005 SILVIO - ADESSO / SWING DISCO
GOM 7006 ELVIN SHAAD - LIVE FOR LOVE
GOM 7007 GIANNI INDINO - PER ELISA / PER QUESTO TI AMO
GOM 7008 PACIFIC BLUE - ARGENTINA FOREVER / YOU GOTTA DANCE
GOM 7009 MACHO - IM A MAN / CAUSE THERE’S MUSIC IN THE AIR
GOM 7010 PETER JACQUES BAND - WALKING ON MUSIC / FLY WITH THE WIND
GOM 7011 NO INFO
GOM 7012 THEO VANESS - I'M A BAD BAD BOY / AS LONG AS IT?S LOVE
GOM 7013 REVANCHE - NEW YORK CITY / REVANGE
GOM 7014 REVANCHE - MUSIC MAN / 1979, IT'S DANCING TIME
GOM 7015 RUDY - JUST TAKE MY BODY / WHITE ROOM
GOM 7016 PETER JACQUES BAND - IS IT IT? / EXOTICALLY
GOM 7017 MACHO - NOT TONIGHT / YOU GOT ME RUNNING
GOM 7018 MACHO - MOTHER'S LOVE "MAMA MIA" / MONTREAL
GOM 7019 PETER JACQUES BAND - WELCOME BACK / THE LOUDER
GOM 7020 SAN JUAN - EVERYBODY DO THE ROCK
GOM 7021 ANTI-ROCK - D.I.S.C.O.
GOM 7022 CHANGE - THE GLOW OF LOVE
GOM 7023 NO INFO
GOM 7024 NO INFO
GOM 7025 MIDNIGHT GANG - LOVE IS MAGIC / THE WHOLE WORLD'S SINGIN'
AVA 7026 NH3 BAND - ROCK’ IN CH / NEED YOU
AVA 7027 JO LEMAIRE + FLOUZE - FAT RATS / RUMOURS SAID
GOM 7028 NO INFO
AVA 7029 THE EROS - MAL D’AMORE
GOM 7030 CARLO LENA - LA MANO IL SEGNO, L'AMORE / ITALIA
GOM 7031 NO INFO
GOM 7032 NO INFO
GOM 7033 GIANNI RISO - DISCO SHY / BO?
AVA 7034 THE JUMPERS - ROCK AND ROLL BOOGIE / COKE AND ROLL
NOC 7035 BLOODSISTERS - RING MY BELL
NOC 7036 SHEILA HILTON - DISCO REGGAE BEAT / BREAKFAST IN BED
NOC 7037 RAS MIDAS - CAN’T STOP RASTA NOW / RAIN AND FIRE
GOM 7038 GERALDINE HUNT - CAN'T FAKE THE FEELING / LOOK ALL AROUND 7
GOM 7039 CHANGE - PARADISE / YOUR MOVE
MM 571 GIANNI INDINO - VOGLIO TE / DOMANI SE LO VUOI
MM 572 SURF RIDERS - MAL D'AMORE
PTS 661 CHANGE - MAGICAL NIGHT
WN 331 LIME - YOUR LOVE
Released under license: 002 / 003 / 004 / 008 / 012 / 026 / 027 / 035 / 036 / 037 / 038 / 331
Produced for Goody Music Production without involvement of in-house musicians: 001 / 003 / 005 / 006 / 007 / 020 / 021 / 029 / 030
Davide Romani
Note that Jacques Fred Petrus in most cases wasn’t the actual producer of the music, even though he credited himself in that way on just about every record that was realised by his staff at Little Macho Music. As an executive producer, Petrus primarily took control of the business end of the music. He wasn’t the artistic leader or creative catalyst in the studio. Nor was he a competent arranger and composer like Malavasi and Romani were. Even though he did interfere with the creative process in a directing and supervising way. He would often be present in the studio during recording sessions and provided artistic input such as picking the right artists, songs and deciding about the final cut of each album project. Petrus was blessed with a great vision for disco music and he wanted things to be carried out according to his ideas.
On the other hand the role of the very talented bassist Davide Romani was much more instrumental than assumed. But Romani not quite received the recognition for his undeniable production capacities. Also musician Rudy Trevisi played a bigger part than generally known.
By 1982 Petrus' realm started crumbling off due to an economical malaise within his company and shifting trends in the music industry. He had become quite a controversial if not corrupt business figure. It is known that in this period Jacques Fred Petrus didn’t treat his contracted personnel very fairly. He had a terrible reputation for not paying on time or just not paying at all the singers, musicians, songwriters, lyricists or engineers who worked for him! Recording engineer Michael H. Brauer and Little Macho Music project coordinator Steve Bogen can testify. Brauer: "I was a fan of Fred for many years. It was only when he screwed over my friends and then myself that I felt he was an abuser and a bad person. We were young and he used all of us until we walked away. He offered to settle for a third what he owed me...! I found out he was killed just as we were all leaving Yogi Horton's funeral service somewhere early June 1987. Loved Yogi...Despised Petrus...What a set of conflicting emotions. How he died is unimportant, why he died is important...he finally abused somebody who didn't walk away. My career got off the ground because of my work with Change, so I'm certainly grateful to him for that break." Bogen: "Seems to me a correct assessment...he pissed off a lot of people. At the end he owed out a lot of money. People began showing up at the Little Macho Music office demanding money and threatening. If he didn't have an immediate need for someone at the time...you were toast...a...who are you and what do you want...oh and by the way...take a message I'll call back....yeah...that was nonsense!
Petrus had signed very lucrative contracts with many major record labels and this had made him a very rich man. He was a typical record executive from the Disco period. A tough guy. People respected him, but many actually feared him. He owned many things that the opulent love, including a jetset night club. But all this wealth made him lose the contact with reality, and in a short time his manias of greatness had a serious financial impact on Little Macho Music. The hits slowed down but Petrus' ambition didn't, as revealed the Little Macho Music productional overflow of 1982! He was only thinking about accumulating money for himself, criminally neglecting the merit of his loyal musicians in the process. This mistreatment of those around him began running parallel to a slide further and further into debt. Needless to say that the suffocating situation resulted in a creative crisis of his production team that consequently began to dissolve. In 1983 Petrus' association with his Italian partners was over. A frustrated Paolo Gianolio already left the Little Macho Music production team in 1982. The other Italian co-workers Malavasi, Romani and Trevisi who also got tired of their relationship with Petrus and the economic turmoil, left Little Macho Music as soon as the running projects were rounded off in early 1983. Jacques Fred Petrus carried on alone with variable success until 1985. But for his ex-companion Malavasi this was just the end of the first chapter of an impressive musical career.
Billboard Magazine January 1979
MAURO MALAVASI: ITALO-DISCO'S PRIME ARCHITECT
Mauro Malavasi (photo) was born in Mirandola, near Modena, in 1958. Already at the age of six he attended the music school of Mirandola and joined the local drum band where he played the tambourine. At the age of twelve the talented Malavasi learned to play the trumpet and followed courses at the Conservatory Giovan Battista Martini in Bologna where Alberto Mantovani, who also hailed from Mirandola, was president. Subsequently he simultaneously studied orchestra direction, choir direction, composition, electronic music and successfully graduated at the Conservatory of Bologna in all these disciplines. Malavasi mastered several instruments like the trumpet, flugelhorn and the piano.
With a bunch of friends Malavasi used to play in a jazz band. Bologna has always been very active in the field of jazz music and annually welcomes the important Bologna Jazz Festival since 1938. Mauro Malavasi was one of the musicians on the jazz album Now by clarinettist Henghel Gualdi, released in 1976. His idols were the hard bop jazz musicians Clifford Brown and Bud Powell. Malavasi also loved the music of Miles Davis.
In 1982 he married Elisabetta Paselli, a piano teacher whom he met at the music conservatory when she was 24. Paselli co-wrote several songs amongst which Steve Allen's Italo-hit "Letter From My Heart" and "Love's Taboo" by Cube. Today she runs Clock Music S.a.s. together with Malavasi. Their publishing company and recording studio is situated on the Piazza Della Mercanzia in Bologna.
Producer Mauro Malavasi at Bologna home studio in 1987
Malavasi was the musical genius who created with ease a sensational disco sound assisted by the staff musicians at Goody Music Production/Little Macho Music. He was the actual producer and musical director. The credits on the albumsleeves of