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| Simon Soussan's Arpeggio |
| Arpeggio was the brainchild of producer Simon Soussan. The vocals were handled by Jason Reed, Jerry Scott, Jessica Williams and Fred Sawyers on their 1978 debut album. When "Let The Music Play" was released, disco was at it's prime and so too was Soussan. He had scored hits with Shalamar and Pattie Brooks previously. The only 12" single released from the album was "Love And Desire." A frenetic percussion track that was the trademark of Soussan set the overall tone for both Simon's later work and Arpeggio's sound. The album peaked at #-75 on the Pop album charts but thanks to cuts like:"Spellbound," "I Wanna Tango," "Runaway" and the title track it reached #-4 on the Club charts. During 1979 Simon went on to other projects, producing tracks for Jessica as a solo artist and creating other studio groups (Charisma-French Kiss-etc.). Jason Reed went on to a solo album, billed as J. Michael Reed for Casablanca Records. Fred, Jessica and Jerry toured the club scene to support their Arpeggio success. By 1980 the finishing touches had been placed on a second album under the banner of Arpeggio, which was now a trio. "Breakout" was another slice of disco magic. Once again only a single 12" was released to promote the album. "Saturday Night/Breakout" was actually released in 1979 prior to the album's release. It did well thanks to the excellent material and group's former success. The album was chocked full of high energy numbers, "You Killed The Magic," "Let's Get Down And Boogie" and the second club favorite "Showdown." The two hits from the album did poorly on the charts, "Saturday Night/Breakout" peaked at #-46 and "Showdown" at #-62. 1980 was the year that disco music shifted, high energy was out and rap and down tempo R&B based dance music was in. This original Arpeggio would have no further new releases. Jessica went on to greater success in the mid-1980's dance scene. And then in 1985 a new trio billed as Arpeggio had a 12" release on Peerless Records . "The Fighter" was good, not great. Vocals were by Quartario and the cover features him and two unknown females. Even though Simon had written and produced this single the magic was missing. Their last release was a 1995 Hot Productions compilation of "The Best of Arpeggio." Luckily the disc contains all of the long versions of their hits. Another group of performers that basically became disco casualties but deserve their recognition here in The DiscoMuseum. |
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