PRO MOTION founder, Brad LeBeau, was a junior at Brandeis University (Massachusetts) when he first met Joey Carvello, Billboard Magazine’s Disco DJ of the year in 1978.
Born Joseph James Carvello in 1953, the tall thin Italian kid was raised in East Cambridge, where R+B and Rock n’ Roll was the musical fabric of his youth – an art form that would later consume his adult life.
One of the first music industry professionals LeBeau encountered, Carvello was one of the most influential and popular club deejay ‘personalities’ in Boston during the hey day of Disco and someone who rose in the ranks from club culture spinner to Boston Record Pool director to radio programmer at WXKS (KISS 108).
Pictured here is Boston Billboard reporting DJ’s ‘Captain’ Wendell Edmunds, Progressive Platter Record Pool founder, Cosmo Wyatt, Carvello, and Danae Jacovidis.
A born salesman, Carvello now in his mid-20′s was hired by legendary Disco music entrepreneur, Ray Caviano, to be the Boston local promotion representative for RFC/Warner Bros. Records (the very first custom dance label within a major record company) responsible for classic club/pop hits like ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ by Rod Stewart, ‘Dancer’ by Gino Soccio, Elton John, and several singles by Change (featuring a, then, up and coming singer named Luther Vandross). From RFC Records, Joe was named Sr. Director Dance Music (1989-93) for Atlantic Records – where he signed and marketed a series of essential acts like Little Louis Vega featuring Marc Anthony (yes, that Marc Anthony, who’s gone on to sell millions of records), Robin S. and En Vogue – followed by stints at Priority + TVT labels.
A man whose life literally revolves around the music he still spins, Joe Carvello has recently completed “That’s Disco Before Travolta” a memoir manuscript based on his life and times in and around the Disco music arena. Founder and curator for the facebook page of the same name, the online platform features a melange of historic disco music and lifestyle images from 1972 to 1982. And, to hear the classic club music Joe Carvello lives and breathes you can catch him DJ ‘live” during his Mobile Monday nights at Bowery Electric in Manhattan where only 45 rpm vinyl is played!
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