We're proud to welcome at Soulcom one of the all times best House artists, Jere McAllister, who, with simplicity, give us his own vision about one side of the House music history.

“The music on these tapes was life altering and earth shattering to my young, impressionable, psyche. Most of it would be considered Disco, but it wasn’t the over-commercialized Disco that was being played on the radio and most clubs (which contributed to the “death” of Disco), it was deep soulful music, like the Gamble & Huff/Philly sound, and the music of labels like West End and Salsoul, special remixes (some done by Frankie and some done by his best friend, Larry Levan), and unexpected, non-Disco, but they worked, tracks, that made for a magical experience. Just listening transported you out of the hood, to a world where everybody was artistic, sophisticated, eclectic, and had already risen above the B.S. that our usual world presented. Like the world of the Harlem Renaissance or Paris in the Jazz age. A place where things like race, creed, color, and sexual orientation, didn’t matter, all that mattered was how fabulous you could be. Although this is an exaggeration of what the scene was really like, I believe it was this kind of aesthetic that was the ideal, and inspiration, of a lot of the people who were attracted to it.

I was too young to get into the Warehouse (although I had hung out outside a couple of times), before it closed, and experience it first hand. I would have to experience that scene, later, at the Power Plant. But, my first experience with actually partying to the kind of music that I used to hear on those early mix tapes was to come when I started going to sets given by the Chosen Few, a collective that included House pioneer Jesse Saunders, Jive records’ Wayne Williams, Tony Hatchett and his younger brother Andre, Alan King, and the early queen of the club hostesses, simply known as Disco Toni. Frankie’s club was an extension of his NY underground roots. He, thanks to Robert Williams, was essentially bringing the vibe of clubs like the Continental Baths, David Mancuso’s Loft, the Paradise Garage, etc, to Chicago. But, for kids like me, who were too young to get in, we had the Chosen Few. They brought a similar underground vibe to us high school kids. They would get loft/warehouse spaces or bars/restaurants, and with a pair of turntables, a booming system, and a strobe light, turn them into an underground club for the night. They even called their first party space the Loft, in tribute to the legend of David Mancuso’s club in NY. So those of you that think that the “Rave”/loft party scene didn’t start until the late 80’s in the UK, or until the early 90’s in the US, think again. The same thing was going on in the early 80’s in the South Loop and various locations on the south side of Chicago (but that’s a topic for a whole different discussion). We even had outdoor events and “picnics”, some very spontaneously created, that were pretty similar to the outdoor Rave festivals...

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