This edition of Africa Incorporated took a trip through Disco, Soul, Funk and the road that eventually led toward House music. We started smooth with Hubert Laws & Earl Klugh’s “It’s So Easy Loving You” and The Emotions’ “Best of My Love,” before gradually moving deeper onto the dance floor.

Ecstasy, Passion & Pain’s “Touch and Go,” First Choice’s “Let No Man Put Asunder” and Double Exposure’s “My Love Is Free” brought us directly into the world of extended versions and records designed to give DJs room to work. Two Tons O’ Fun kept that energy going before Inner Life’s eight minute version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” took the journey even deeper.

But this show wasn’t only about playing some great Disco records. I wanted to talk about what was happening around the music.

Disco helped establish a different relationship between the DJ, the records and the dance floor. The DJ wasn’t simply there to play one song after another. The goal became keeping people moving, blending records together, extending the groove, controlling the energy and making the entire night feel like one continuous musical journey. The rise of the 12 inch single and extended mixes gave DJs even more tools to do it.

Then you get to the end of the 1970s. Disco became commercially overexposed and the backlash was real. Chicago even became home to one of the most infamous symbols of that backlash with Disco Demolition Night in 1979.

But here’s where the story means something different to me as a Chicagoan.

They said Disco died. I don’t remember the dancing dying.

The people who loved this music didn’t suddenly stop wanting Soul, Funk, basslines, percussion and long grooves because somebody declared Disco dead. Chicago DJs continued working with those sounds, mixing them with electronic music and imports while manipulating records and creating their own experiences for the dance floor. That culture became part of the environment from which Chicago House would emerge.

So when Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” came through the speakers, followed by Chaka Khan’s “Clouds,” Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions on “Boogie Wonderland,” Gwen McCrae’s “Keep the Fire Burning” and finally Grace Jones with “Pull Up to the Bumper,” we weren’t just jumping between classics.

We were listening to pieces of a musical family tree.

Soul fed Funk. Funk and Soul fed Disco. Disco helped redefine the DJ and the dance floor. And when Disco supposedly died, that musical DNA kept moving forward. In Chicago, we know part of what happened next. HOUSE!

Sometimes music doesn’t die. It just changes its name.

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