The 13-track LP shows off his ability to expertly push the boundaries of a sound he helped define, while delivering songs that are still undeniably "Flume." Flume is an artist that has remained uncompromising in his vision and artistry since the beginning, and Palaces is no exception. And call him my brother.Flume kicks off a new cycle with his highly anticipated third album, Palaces. I shall always be grateful to have his friendship. “His smile was wonderful, as it lit up his face, and his lisp so attractive,” Davis says. ![]() ![]() “He brought that energy of gospel to his music. “When he hit the stage, it was like a church experience,” Calvo says. ![]() At one concert, the soul icon and the disco pioneer even performed it together. “The first time he heard the song ‘You Are My Friend,’ he said, ‘I could do something like this.’” Two years later, Sylvester released a live cover of the song (backed by The Weather Girls) on his Living Proof album the song became a top 30 hit on what’s now called the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and appears on the Disco Heat: The Fantasy Years 1977-1981 anthology. In turn, Sylvester “lifted off his turban to reveal his hidden pink electric hair,” says Calvo.įour years after they first met, Calvo gave Sylvester a preview listen to Patti LaBelle’s self-titled debut album. “Oh, you were the guy at the flea market with the cool haircut,” Sylvester told Calvo when the makeup artist took off his hat to reveal a “short-spiked cockatoo” haircut. Later that night, backstage at the Whisky, both Calvo and Sylvester realized they had been admiring each other’s fashion sense from afar at the flea market. After picking up “a vintage yellow bowling shirt with silver threading woven throughout” to complement his bell-bottoms and platforms, Calvo clocked a striking man with bright pink hair also browsing the selections. The afternoon before Calvo caught Sylvester’s Whisky set in ’73, he had been scouring a flea market in West Hollywood for the perfect outfit to wear to the show. “The way he dressed, he seemed very flamboyant in reality, he was very low-key.”Ĭalvo says he and Sylvester bonded over a shared love for “underground artists like Betty Davis” and a mutual respect for each other’s styles. “He was totally different from the person you saw on stage,” Calvo says. Yet he could be as stubborn as a mule if he didn’t want to do something.” Calvo – who became friends with Sylvester not long after he caught the artist’s 1973 show at the Whisky – recalls him similarly. “He was quiet, softly spoken,” Davis says. “Being bisexual seemed to be the get-out clause at that time,” she opines.ĭespite Sylvester’s flashy threads - and a falsetto that soared so high it scraped heaven - both Davis and Calvo describe him as comparatively reserved in private. music business,” people weren’t fully ready to embrace a gay-gay disco star. “In leisure time, if he was in gay company, he would use the term ‘she’ but in public always referred to himself as ‘he.’” While she admits that the androgynous imagery of glam rockers like Bowie and Marc Bolan helped bring about “a certain tolerance in the U.K. “Sylvester was happy being a man,” Davis explains. His face was painted to perfection, which added to the drama of his androgynous stage persona.”ĭavis – whose book Mighty Real: Sharon Davis Remembers Sylvester is currently being expanded and rewritten now that the film rights have been picked up – says Sylvester casually used feminine and masculine pronouns. “His hair was in a turban, and he was wearing lots and lots of bracelets you could hear clinking in the back of the room. “Sylvester and his posse hit the stage like an 5F tornado,” Calvo raves. ![]() Rudy Calvo, a veteran makeup artist who has worked with everyone from Patti LaBelle to Chaka Khan to Natalie Cole, remembers the first time he saw Sylvester and the Hot Band perform at L.A.’s Whisky a Go Go in 1973. He wore women’s clothing, hit the stage wearing makeup and took gender-bending flamboyance to peaks that even a glam-era David Bowie never dared to scale. Regardless of any brief from the record company, Sylvester was hardly closeted.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |