Chicago house music pioneering DJ and remixer Ron Hardy is getting a new documentary made about his life. Director Vito Nicholas has set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for I Was There: The Rise of House Music in Chicago. Hardy inspired a new generation of artists with his intense style of playing music that was sped up and many times played backwards on his turntables at the Music Box nightclub during the ’80s. He made sure that disco didn’t die and nurtured its successor, called house, by adding new songs to Chicago’s dancefloors and using rhythm and sound effects as a weapon against the propaganda of Disco Demolition Night.

Frankie Knuckles pioneered the house sound with more professionalism and politeness at the Power Plant and Warehouse Clubs, but Hardy was an avant-garde underground hero with no restrictions on what he did in the DJ Booth. Hardy’s live remixes gave inspiration to legends like Jesse Saunders, Steve “Silk” Hurley, Farley Jackmaster Funk, and more. Unfortunately, Hardy died young, at the age of 33 in 1991, as a victim of the A.I.D.S. epidemic, and he never became as known as other artists from the scene. Nicholas has interviewed house legend Robert Owens and others to uncover Hardy’s legend and reveal the true story of house music. The crowdfunding campaign is scheduled to end in October. 

Dancer, choreographer, and singer Cat Glover died Tuesday at age 62. Her passing was announced on her Facebook page. Glover is known for working with Prince in the ’80s during his Sign o’ the Times and Lovesexy eras. Glover was a Chicago native, and she started dancing when she was 5 years old. It was Prince’s Dirty Mind album that made Glover a fan and gave her the dream to meet him one day. Her first major show of talent happened when she and Patrick Allen competed on the television show Star Search as Pat & Cat. They were the first act on the show to achieve a four-star perfect score. The feat happened again, and despite winning seven times on the show, they did not win in the finals and the $100,000 prize. They lost the contest, but Glover achieved her dream of meeting Prince. A Star Search searcher who was dating Prince introduced him to Glover, and she auditioned for him one night at a club. She joined Prince’s band in 1986 after turning down David Bowie. Prince fans first saw Glover on one of the inner sleeves from the Sign o’ the Times album holding a guitar. She appeared in the concert film for the album and videos for “U Got The Look” and “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man.” 

Prince and Glover had kinetic energy on the stage, and their dance routines were one of the major components of his highly praised and well-attended concerts. She did her Cat Scat dance, which became her trademarked move. Glover famously rapped on “Alphabet Street” from Lovesexy and she also rapped on “Cindy C” from The Black Album. In 1989, she left the band and released her Catwoman album. She continued to work as a choreographer, and after Prince died in 2016, she vowed to keep his memory alive. Fans can only hope that Cat and Prince are dancing together again. 

Taana Gardner’s “Heartbeat” was a quirky dance record that was broken on the dancefloor of the Paradise Garage. DJ Larry Levan introduced the song to a crowd that initially rejected the song because of its slower tempo and Gardner’s exasperated delivery. Levan continued to play “Heartbeat,” and it became a staple of his playlist and a new dance classic. Kenton Nix wrote “Heartbeat,” and he previously worked with Gardner on another popular dance track, “Work That Body.” “Heartbeat” became a Top Ten hit on the R&B and Dance charts, pulling Gardner’s voice out from the underground and into the ears of radio listeners. Gardner, who is a native of Newark, New Jersey, left the music industry in the ’90s and last appeared on Mistura’s 2002 single “Sweet Magic.” “Heartbeat” has been sampled through the years by De La Soul, The Treacherous Three, DMX, Yasiin Bey, Alicia Keys, and many others. The singer is scheduled to appear at DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic Live! on November 8, 2024, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. 

Sérgio Mendes, who brought Brazilian music to mainstream listeners, died Thursday at age 83 from long COVID. Mendes became a force in pop during the ’60s when he debuted his Brasil ’66 band. The single “Mas Que Nada” written by Jorge Ben, made him known and was the start of his sound fertile, with bossa nova rhythms, jazz, and funk entering the landscape of popular music. Antonio Carlos Jobim, another legendary musician from Brazil, served as his mentor, and Herb Alpert signed him to the A&M record label, which was then brand-new. The reception to his eighth studio album, Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, was so warm that the album achieved platinum status. Mendes re-recorded “Mas Que Nada” with The Black Eyed Peas in 2006 for his Timeless album, which had collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Q-Tip, John Legend, Erykah Badu, and India.Arie, and more. BEP founder will.i.am produced the Timeless album.

Mendes became popular with R&B audiences when he recorded the Stevie Wonder-penned “The Real Thing” for his 1977 album, Sergio Mendes and the New Brasil ’77. Vanessa Williams also recorded “The Real Thing” for her album of the same name. Mendes recorded 55 albums over his career and he won a Grammy in 1992 for Best World Music for the album Brasileiro. In 2005, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammys. HBO released the documentary, Sergio Mendes in the Key of Joy, in 2020, the same year his last album, In the Key of Joy, came out. His last performances were in 2023 for audiences in Barcelona, Paris, and London.