LA BAIA DEGLI ANGELI exclusive USA premiere this saturday at pink,powered by italianjobsf
(events » nightlife)
Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 10:00 PM
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saturday 29 marchEXCLUSIVE PREMIERE @ PINK italianjobsf present
REMEMBER"LABAIA DEGLI ANGELI"
SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2008
PINK & ITALIANJOB
present
EXCLUSIVE USA PREMIERE
LA BAIA DEGLI ANGELI
compiled by daniele baldelli
cinedelic.com
on the mix
ROBNOBORDER
CORRADO
FRANKY BOISSY
www.pinksf.com
guestlist@italianjobsf.com
www.cinedelic.com
$ 15.00 at the door
$ 10.00 guestlist all night long
Remember (forever) Baia Degli Angeli
The Baia Degli Angeli. It's not exaggerate to say everything started there.
The golden age of disco, clubbing, glamour: just everything. I'm not
saying 'discoteques' were a novelty (although in Italy were still
called nightclubs, or 'balere'). There was the Piper, in 1965, which
instilled a little bit of 'swingin' London inside the ancient walls of
the 'the eternal city', Roma. There was the Altro Mondo Studios, built
up as a kind of spaceship or galactic island, which in '67 was making
believe young riminesi (not only them, anyways) that Future with
capital 'F', the one of Urania and the first sci-fi tv series, was
just a question of weeks, or a couple of months at the most. But from
the start the Baia was another story. Another world, too. It started
in1974, on the edge of the still big '68 revolutionary excitement and
also on the grandeur of his creator, Giancarlo Tirotti, a little local
tycoon, well introduced in roman cinema's jet-set and a taste and
elegance definitely 'international' and - for those days - absolutely
new. Let's say it once for all: the New York's Studio 54 hasn't
invented anything.
Mixing 'stars' and normal people in a beautiful place, in a way that
simply 'being there' was already an experience, it was a bright
intuition of Tirotti three years in advance of Steve Rubell and Ian
Schrager.
At the Baia you could meet Hollywood's movie stars transiting in Italy,
and by the way - before the conversion into disco, it was a
sporting-club for the rich - with those totally white walls, the
indoor and outdoor pools, the terrace where one could get a
breathtaking view of Gabicce, it looked just like a Californian
resort. Music - another news - was loud, really loud, and there was no
rule of 'three slows & three shakes', something still in vigour in all
the other clubs. And it was open till 6 a.m., you could watch the dawn
at the Baia... listening to the new Philly Sound, played by Bob Day
and Tom Sison the two dj's Tirotti brought from New York. Punctually,
all the other djs from Rimini and Riccione would come at the Baia to
listen what Bob & Tom were doing, and it was always a shock! Firstly
for the records, which both of them were getting right from USA, and
the tecnique, too... In those days, putting a piece of paper between
the record and the turntable, in order to get a faster start and a
better mixing, was just a revolutionary strike... The day Bob & Tom
decided to go back to America, they themselves - like a Star Wars saga
- had to designate a substitute for the Baia's consolle.
It is 1977, and the chosen one is a young local dj already well known
to the nightflies of the italian East Coast: Daniele Baldelli.
In the meantime discomusic was spreading everywhere in Italy. The Baia
- like a Fiorucci's dream come true - displays plexiglass dancefloors
and a crazy dj-booth inside a lift that goes up and down all the night
long... the people is dancing on the 4 floors, look around and feel
like being in a very 'transgressive' tv show, like the famous Strix on
sunday nights. Rivers of champagne and a lot of very suspicious little
powders are flowing... Actors, intellectuals and starlets of the
little screen are usual presence on the dance floors and sofas.
Grace Jones is so often a guest to become practically part of the environment.
How beautiful was the Baia! Always completely white. Not a minute
wrong detail, nor a hint of bad taste to ruin the elegant skyline.
Only light, bright light... A battery of lights effects on a
mechanical arm was moving
and spreading around very sexy showers of lights and shadows. The
little neon-light angel, sort of good-luck symbol who became the
Baia's logo and occasionally some exploit a-la-Warhol (like the
Marylin Monroe's icon deliriously librated in the air with stripes &
ballons). The 'golden age' of the Baia Degli Angeli lasted only two
seasons. In '78, after repeated breaks by the Police is the definitive
closing. Too much fuss, too much intimidations from the sleepy
establishment of the adriatic riviera. Too many 'joyous powders', for
the Authority.
A press document of the time (just a laughing matter today) states
that the Baia «with is mere existence is promoting drugs between young
people».
The little air-balloon who gave birth to the glittering dream of the
Baia was finally blown up... and the legend begins. And, as always
goes when legends are born (think about NewYork's Loft or Paradise
Garage, or Chicago's Warehouse), everybody started saying «I've been
there», when actually just very few people stepped at the Baia, and
danced to the music of Baldelli and his associate, the 'generous'
Claudio 'Mozart' Rispoli.
Those were other days... days were one wasn't trotting up and down
Italy with the same easyness of today: but if the wheels of the 128's
and the 500's would not reach everywhere, the 'mixtapes' with the
recordings of those legendary nights would. The popping out of a
'mixtape' from the Baia Degli Angeli in a provincial italian city was
an event able to change the course of History. A lot of dj's (today
superstars) , one name for all: Claudio Coccoluto, have seen the Light
listening to the 'mixtapes' of Baldelli & Mozart, which were just
doing incredible
things back then, mixing Kraftwerk, War & Jean Luc Ponty, with the
smooth and comfort of someone who understood that music is a big
treasure box from where one can track down shining gems. The Baia is
the place who gave birth to the italian 'dj culture', and where
'garage' was invented, three years in advance from the Paradise Garage
and 'ambient' ten years before ambient, mixing styles and genres with
the absolutely open 'attitude' that Baldelli would bring out as a real
trade mark of his own, starting from the
subsequent adventure of the 'Cosmic', on the lake of Garda, the place
where the so-called 'afro' phenomenon was born.
But that's another story...
...Artists such as: Arthur Conley, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett, James
Brown, Rufus Thomas, Lyn Collins ... Getting this material was not
always so easy.
Usually the DJ would go to the same and only little musical store in
his own town. Daniele Baldelli, instead would get on a train and run
to Lugano (there was a store there called Radio Columbia) and
sometimes would go to Paris where he could find imported albums.
Another particularity of the disco nights in the 70's was that the
fast music that you would dance to like "shake" would be alternated to
slow songs. It was usually five shakes and five slows, then as the
years went on it would be 30 minutes of shake and then slows.
In 1974-75 the Baia Degli Angeli opens. this starts the history of
disco's in Italy. Situated on the hills of Gabicce (Pesaro), looking
over the sea, it had different floors all connected between them. it
was totally white with a breathtaking view, the console of the DJ was
made from a lift with glass walls that gave the possibility to go from
the first to the second floor and have a complete view of the dance
floors both inside and out. Plus there was a mechanical arm with all
the light effects that could move on all the different dance floors as
well. there was an indoor and outdoor pool (with dance floor),
avantgarde graphics, amazing closing hours (5 or 6 am) and
no "slows", just great american music never heard before.
The music selection was by two american dee-jays: Tom Sison and Bob Day.
They all had mixers-earphones-listening monitors, but probably no one
knew the best ways to use them.
The fact that Daniele Baldelli was living so close to the Baia degli
Angeli surely
gave a good influence on his technical evolution. he saw for the first
time, from the two americans how to make an actual mix. You would take
off the rubber covering the plate and put on it a 45 with it's paper
cover and on this you would put the album and spin it. this way you
could slow or increase with your hands the speed of the
record and have a perfect mix. it was a great surprise and happiness
for Daniele Baldelli
when bob and Tom spotted him at the TABU CLUB one afternoon and made
him great compliments. they later suggested him to the baia's owners
as a good substitute
at the end of their contract, leaving him a copy he so
much longed for of LOLEATTA HOLLOWAY's 'hit and run' with their
autograph on it !!!
just around the same time Claudio Rispoli (a.k.a. MOZART) was hired.
They worked together in this great adventure from 1977 to 78'...
The rest is history .......
