John Morales () | Disco Music.com -
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Published on: 7/25/2008
Last Visited: 7/25/2008
Disco Music > Disco People Index > DJs / Remixers > John Morales
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John Morales
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Interview with John Morales
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New York remixer John Morales in the studio. (Early 1980s)
The following is an interview with 70s/80s Disco Dance DJ and remixer, John Morales who was part of M & M Productions with Sergio Munzibai.
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John Morales and I had been speaking on the phone several times before I was invited to his home to conduct this interview.We would talk about his DJ career, the music and of course the mixes.I was thrilled to be able to meet him in person so on an overcast November day I drove several hours from my home in Maryland to New Jersey.He and his wife, who were only married just last year, were gracious hosts and made me feel very welcome.Morales is a very warm and personable person and has a voice that reminds one of TV star Ray Romano.
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Born and raised in the Bronx, New York (April 14, 1954) in a hard working Puerto Rican household of four, John Morales became interested in music at around the age of twelve.This would have been at around the time the Beatles first broke in the United States although he admits he was not a Beatles fan, but of mainly Top 40 radio and Pop bubble-gum music.
There was a record store called Stan's Record Shop at 3rd Avenue and 156th Street in the Melrose section of the Bronx.Each day Morales would buy one record and after one year the owner asked him if he would like to work in the store.Back then the records were 49¢ a piece and the owner offered to give John ten records each week in exchange for his work.Even though he knew he was underpaid, and underage, he was in heaven because he was getting music which he would love to play.That was his real introduction to music.He liked all kinds of music and didn't care whether it was Rock, Country or R & B. He worked at Stan's till he graduated 8th grade from Immaculate Conception grammar school.
Morales attended Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx after his parents saved up to buy their own home and moved to the Park Chester section.He went to Cardinal Hayes for two years, but failed religion classes and then went to Monroe in the Soundview section.Soon after he went to work for Alexander's department store on 59th Street in Manhattan and was fired for eating pistachios on the job(!).His father was not thrilled and gave him an ultimatum, "either get a job or enlist in the Service--No bums in this house."John signed up for the Air Force in 1970 while he was still under 18.He was there for two years and in the second year became involved with the Armed Forces Radio while stationed in Colorado Springs.He returned home in 1971 after getting hurt and taught himself guitar and tried to emulate Carlos Santana.This culminated with him forming a Rock group with friends called the "F Band."Their first performance in front of an audience was at Saint Raymond's High School, which was a disaster because his amp blew up while on stage.
John Morales editing reel to reel tape the old fashioned way: with a razor and tape.
Birth of the Disco DJ
In 1974 his father bought a bar in Jersey City, New Jersey.It was here that John Morales started to play music for the patrons.No mixing or anything like that, but just playing music on a single turntable.This was the beginning of his career as a Disco DJ as he enjoyed the experience and began buying turntables and a mixer and practiced music selection and mixing.
During this time John lived on 233rd Street near White Plains Road in the Bronx and had a very secure and respectable position working for New York Telephone.It was his girlfriend at the time who inspired him to follow his dreams and pursue a career in music.From that point on music was a 24/7 affair.Every day he would practice at home and do his mixes using Technics SL 1100 turntables, which he bought at Rock and Soul Electronics near Macy's in Manhattan.He used a broken Uri mixer with the rotary knobs, then a Bozak and eventually moved onto a GLI mixer with sliding pots which he bought at Richard Long's AST Sound on West Broadway in lower Manhattan.
After knocking on the doors of several area clubs he landed his first job as a DJ proper at the Stardust Ballroom on Eastchester Road in the Bronx where a young John "Jellybean" Benitez previously had worked.Morales would spin Friday and Saturdays and unlike today where many DJs only play an hour or so, he played Disco and Salsa music from 8PM till 2-3am or later.After leaving Stardust, Morales went to spin at a Latin / Disco club called Epoca 2 on 233rd Street and Gunhill Road right off the New England Thruway.
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John Morales landed the house DJ position for these rinks and was responsible for providing the music and DJs for all the rinks.He got paid $65.00 a night to DJ at the rink and he would pay someone else to play the other rinks.This was seven days a week-day and night.On Saturdays and Sundays there were multiple time slots: 10am-1pm, 1pm-4pm slot for the teens and a 5pm-10pm slot for the adults.John claims he gained a lot of experience from doing this.Although he initially enjoyed the work, he soon found the owners to be less than honorable as there were numerous times he wouldn't be paid and soon had to leave for other clubs like Jumbalaya in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
John Morales with Disco recording artist Sylvester in 1977.
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The two became good friends and Velazquez introduced Morales to Eddie Rivera of the International Disco Record Center (I.D.R.C.). Eddie Rivera had formed the I.D.R.C. record pool to service Hispanic Disco DJs after his departure from David Mancuso's New York Record Pool.
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Now that John Morales was a record pool member he was receiving all the new and hard to get records each week making it even easier to find better work.He later would join one of the first black run record pools out of Harlem called Disco Den on 125th Street and Lexington.
The Deadly Medleys and the Sunshine Sound Acetates
It is during the 1977-79 timeframe that Morales started to create special edits of his favorite songs.These edits later became multi song medleys, which could be the best of a particular artist or label or hit songs of that year.He took a combination of records and packaged them in a condensed form.Morales describes how he would first use an old Sansui cassette deck and repeatedly hit pause trying to time how long it would take to engage pause and record ... and later a reel to reel using razor blades and splicing block.It was tedious and time-consuming, but it was enjoyable for him and proved to be a valuable skill that he needed for his future studio mixing career.Bootleg releases like the famous Hollywood Mixer were based on what John had done with his edits.He created two famous medleys called the Deadly Medley 1 and 2, which was one medley, but cut in half and released as two separate 12 inch records.
John Morales at the mixing board in 1985.
John would take these edits to be pressed at Sunshine Sound, which was located on the twelfth floor of 1650 Broadway in midtown.
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Morales went there often and Sunshine's owner liked John's Deadly Medleys so much that he began selling them to other DJs and giving Morales a cut of the proceeds.These medleys became so poplar with other DJs that Morales almost couldn't keep up making newer varieties.
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Inner Life's "I'm Caught Up" with Jocelyn Brown was the first record mixed by John Morales.
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The session is pretty much over and we're listening to the stuff and Greg introduces me to Patrick and says to him that we're going to get John to mix this record... and I always tell this story to Jocelyn: We're listening to the playback and there is a section where Jocelyn just screams... out of key... and she says to me; Make sure you don't use that on the record!
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John Morales goes on to say how happy he felt when he first heard one of the records he mixed played on the radio.
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John Morales at RPM Studios in 1978.
Inner Life's "I'm Caught Up ... " was initially released on a small label called TCT based in Guttenberg, New Jersey, but soon after the radio exposure a frenzy developed for that record and a number of larger record labels got into a bidding war over who would distribute it with Prelude Records winning out by shelling out a then unheard of $5,000. for the rights.Morales considers himself very fortunate that the first record he worked on became a big record.
I asked John if he would change anything from that mix session and he replied: "You always think you could have done something di
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