Balearic Breakfast | Episode 201 | Prendila Cosi... (To Giancarlo Bianchi)

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 201st episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on November 19th 2024.

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About this episode. – Following her stay in New-York, where she met her close friend François Kevorkian with whom she played back to back at Subculture NYC’s inaugural party (not forgetting the great show they did on election day dedicated to Quincy Jones!), Colleen came back to London and, on a snowy morning, retook the con, embarking the Balearic Breakfast Family on the most moving show of the year as she paid tribute to her late and great friend Giancarlo Bianchi who recently passed away. A heartbreaking moment, this episode will for sure stay in our hearts for a very long time...

This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud at https://shorturl.at/kLWiV. In the first 30 minutes I catch up with some new tunes and the remaining 90 minutes are a tribute to my late friend, Giancarlo Bianchi.

Giancarlo was also a friend of David Mancuso and was the founder of the Last Note parties in Italy. After caring for his mother for years, he tragically passed away last month, only a few weeks after his mother’s passing. His generosity, passion, humour and friendship are sorely missed and today’s show is a very emotional tribute to him by myself and the Last Note family (who are also part of the Balearic Breakfast family). I hope you will be able to understand what a wonderful man and what a profoundly loyal person he was. Thank you Giancarlo for bringing so much joy into our lives and for connecting so many people through music, dancing and love. L’amore salva la giornata. Grazie mille alla mia famiglia italiana. Grazie per l’ascolto.

Listen back to the 201st episode of Balearic Breakfast:

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PLAYLIST

(1983) Jon and Vangelis – Italian Song

(2024) Maarten Goetheer – Hymn of the Heart

(2024) Kyle Shepherd – Teardrop

(2024) Dream Baby Dream – Banana Trance (Calm's Mellow Mellow Dub)

(2024) Alfonso Lovo – Terremoto (Brian Jackson Retouch)

(1978) Lucio Battisti – Prendila Cosi

(1978) Angela Bofill – Under the Moon and Over the Sky

(1999) Andreas Vollenweider – Stella

(1978) Paz – Kandeen Love Song

(1997) Bob Marley – Exodus (Bill Laswell Remix)

(1976) Gabor Szabo – Keep Smiling

(2012) Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra – San Diego (Phil Mison Remix)

(1988) Womack & Womack – Teardrops

(1969) Santana – Jingo

(1977) George Benson – I Always Knew I Had It in Me

(1976) Charles Earland – Drifting

(1982) Vasco Rossi – Una Splendida Giornata

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WINTERISH WANDERINGS...

(To Giancarlo Bianchi)

Isn't it strange, dear Giancarlo, that on the day Colleen was about to pay tribute to you snow started to fall? I was so surprised when I saw Colleen's video on Instagram that I went to check if what I saw was true and indeed, the weather report website said: "Yesterday saw the first snowflakes of the season fall on London". As you know, I don't believe very much in "coincidences" although it seems I had a lot of them since I started runing this blog. This one though is the most beautiful of 2024, and I thank you for that...

Today's show was a two-hour tribute dedicated to you. We all know the first half hour of the show was also all about you, and Colleen transcribed so well the sadness we all felt following your departure. The first two songs, Italian Song and Hymn of the Heart (one of the longest tracks played during the show, mind you 6min42), felt like we were all invisibly walking close to Colleen, under the falling snow... These two tracks were introspective musical moments, blending nostalgic, lost, questioning yet, and at the same time, hopeful moments allowing us all to think about you. In a perfect mix, Colleen brought tears to our eyes when she openned her wings with Kyle Shepherd's Teardrop...

We're here together, dealing with your absence the best we can and carrying your soul's message deep within our hearts. Fly dear Giancarlo, we'll meet again soon, you can count on that... On the chat, the ambience was sad, we all could feel it, a lot of your close friends were there, sending messages to Colleen and to you. One of them, written by Ouarrique, was splendid: "May We all be remembered by those who we love. Beautiful tribute Colleen".

Colleen kept the flying effect alive and well by playing Banana Trance (Calm's Mellow Mellow Dub), sending messages to the other world, where you'll now hear them... Ending this musical introduction with Brian Jackson's Retouch mix of Alfonso Lovo's Terremoto, composed after the devastating earthquake that struck Managua on December 23, 1972, Colleen sent us a message of hope despite the painful times she and the Last Note Family are facing. There will be better days and, of course, you'll be right here, with us...

In the show's second hour, Colleen shared memories of you and everyone joined her by saying how much you were a loyal friend and how much they all loved you. Although we never met, I know you feel the love I send you Giancarlo... Prendila Cosi...

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BALEARIC BREAKFAST'S TRIBUTE TO GIANCARLO BIANCHI

I met Giancarlo through another dear mutual friend, David Mancuso, back in 2003 when we started our loft parties together in London and Giancarlo was a trusted friend and advocate of David as Giancarlo helped David in Italy, and Giancarlo and his friends Ivano and Sara and a bunch of others came along to nearly all of our parties at the Light Bar with David, and Giancarlo would also stay in the same hotel as David and they would hang out and Giancarlo would have some great stories such as the time he saw the same toothbrush from David's bathroom in his hotel being used to clean a stylus, the precious kouetsu at our loft party in London. And Giancarlo is so inspired by David especially his approach to sound and he learned as much as he could from the maestro and meticulously put together his own loft sound system so that David could come back to his ancestral home of Italy and musically host parties in the true loft style.

But by the time Giancarlo is ready in 2013, David had stopped traveling so David asked me to go in his place and this is when my friendship with Giancarlo went to the next level. Together with a wonderful group of people from all over Italy, many of whom you will hear from today, over the last 11 years we've put on 30 to 40 Last Note parties on Roma and Perugia, and it's been an incredible journey of friendship, music, dance, and of course since it's Italy, food. And I would also say that Last Note was also Giancarlo's life work.

Music, sound, and loft parties were Giancarlo's passion and mission, and for nearly 20 years he was a taxi driver in Rome, but after the passing of his father he left his job to become a full-time carer for his mother, which is what he did for several several years. He was an incredibly devoted son who put his mother's well-being above his own health and she sadly passed away this past summer and Giancarlo was finally able to go for a much-needed surgery but, alas, fate had other ideas. He had just turned 50 this year and he was definitely taken from us too soon.

Giancarlo was one of the most generous people I've ever known. Just looking around my record room I see so many gifts from him, from records to the handcrafted Cosmodelica isolator right in front of me which has Love Saves the Day inscripted upon it. He and Ivano always sent me home to London with a bag full of guanciale and pecorino as a side for music.

Food is also a focal point as it always is in any Italian relationship. He hosted the Last Note party for the love, and not for financial reasons, always saying he would rather have less people but the right people, and he did all of this without any monetary gain purely for the love, and the right people felt it. He was an incredible loyal and trustworthy friend who had your back in your absence, and he did not waste his time by suffering fools and his passing has really taught me to spend time, my time on this planet, with people I truly trust and love and who love me back.

Time and true friendship is so very precious. Giancarlo is also ridiculously funny with a dry ironic and very Roman sense of humor and I could still hear him telling a story, I could hear his laugh, and I still can't believe he's gone, but he's still in my heart and he's still in the heart of his sister Christina, and in the hearts of our Last Note Family, and today we'll pay tribute to him through some of his favorite songs. I chose this song as it brings back some beautiful memories of listening to music together while he drove around Rome. We drove so much in his car, and when he first played this song to me it was a beautiful sunny spring day with a big blue sky over Rome and I asked him to play it again and again and again. Lucio Battisti with Prendila Così.

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I’m still trying to process the loss of my dear friend Giancarlo Bianchi. It doesn’t seem real as I can see him right in front of me; I can hear his laugh. Amidst the deluge of tears I break out in laughter remembering one of his turns of phrase or a hilarious story that only he could tell with his dry Roman humour. I smile reliving the many car rides we had driving around Italy and Roma (where he was a taxi driver for nearly two decades) listening to Lucio Battisti ‘Prendila Cosi’ or endless tapes of the legendary DJ Miki of CIAK or a preview of one of my new remixes - he would listen quietly all the way through and was a true source of support. In true Italian style we enjoyed many, many amazing meals together including at our own home where he loved my husband Adam’s cooking and had a chance to venture into non-Italian food. Our fridge is always stocked with guanciale and pecorino from our dear Roman friends Ivano and Giancarlo.

I met Giancarlo just over 2 decades ago when he religiously attended our Loft parties at The Light with David Mancuso. Giancarlo struck up a friendship with David when our friend traveled to Perugia to play at the legendary Red Zone club, a place where I had the honour of playing, as well. For many years, Giancarlo drove from Roma to Perugia and was part of one of the most energised club scenes in Italy throughout the 90’s and early 00’s.

He and David struck up a deep friendship as David knew he could trust him - Giancarlo often advocated for him in Italy. Davids passion for sounds was instilled in Giancarlo and David guided Giancarlo as he meticulously put together his sound system to inaugurate a party in Italy with David. Once he was ready, David had stopped travelling and asked that I go in his place. I was lucky as over the 11+ years of our Last Note parties my friendship with Giancarlo deepened.

Giancarlo was a true friend in the most profound sense. He didn’t suffer fools, but if he was your friend he had your back. I’m truly devastated but find solace remembering the times we shared. I love you Giancarlo and rest in paradise.

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Colleen will be playing these next coming dates:

• Saturday 23rd November: Tresor Meets Surgeon (Berlin – tickets here);

• Wednesday 27th November: Dance For Ashley (tickets here);

• Sunday 8th December: London Loft Party (http://www.loftparty.org/ – contact Colleen directly on her instagram DM);

• Wednesday 11th December: CAS with Alina Bzhezhinska (tickets);

• Tuesday 31st December: Fever105's Midnight Funk (tickets here).