Flowchart / The New Harlem Funk - A Little Love A Little Wine / 1983

The Flowchart production deserves special attention because this Bolognese concept was very similar to the productions of Little Macho Music. Flowchart was an obscure Italian studio project, influenced by the international success of the groups instigated by Jacques Fred Petrus, and immitating the modus operandi of Little Macho Music.

Their album The New Harlem Funk was released in 1983 on the small Italian label Maximus Records. The lead single off the album was "Ask The Boss", a delicious copycat of the Mauro Malavasi production sound. After hearing the songs "Ask The Boss", "R.U. Single" and "I Saw Him Make Eyes Atchoo", many dance music enthusiasts thought the record was realised by the team of Jacques Fred Petrus and Mauro Malavasi. But this wasn't the case. The album was executively produced by Raffaele Ottavio and Mario "Don Giorda" Giordani aka Flow G. or Flow Giorda. All the tracks were composed and arranged by keyboardist Flow Giorda, keyboardist Fio Zanotti and guitar player Romano Trevisani. The well-known black American singer and vocal arranger Fonzi Thornton was hired to write the lyrics and oversee the vocal production at Blank Tape Studios in New York City. Several hot R&B acts like Brass Construction, Ashford & Simpson, Phil Fearon & Galaxy, Chaka Khan, Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Shakatak have also recorded at Blank Tape during the early 1980s.
Romano Trevisani (February 20, 1953 - May 6, 2017) already made a slight impact on the disco scene in 1979 and 1980 with the albums Bravo by Bravo (singles "Soul Sacrifice" and "Touch Me Now") and Mesa by Mesa, both on Chic records. In 1982 Trevisani and Fio Zanotti teamed up as Game, writing and producing the LP Gotta Take Your Love, which included the popular boogie single "Gotta Take Your Love".

Davide Romani, who was a friend of Romano Trevisani, played bass guitar on the Flowchart album. However, due to contractual obligations towards Little Macho Music, Romani performed under the pseudonym of Dav. Mandingos.
Even more mystery surrounded the four credited NYC session singers. Names on the cover like Micael Merfi, Dany Jor, Mary Dan and Ullaw Jo more than suggest they were pseudonyms as well. Singer Fonzi Thornton –also a backing singer with Change– was the author of all the songs and may as well be one of the male background singers. It is thought that Ullaw Jo is Ullanda McCullough, a busy N.Y. session singer. Micael Merfi was another familiar name and an alias for the singer of The System, Mic Murphy, who worked at Fred Petrus' office in NYC. Murphy even sang backgrounds and played some additional guitar licks on the first Change album! Murphy thinks that the remaining Flowchart backings were probably the usual suspects Christine Wiltshire, Krystal Davis and Yvonne Lewis. The vocals were taped in NYC at Blank Tape studios and the music was recorded at the Maison Blanche-Umbi Studio in Modena. Additional sessions for the second release happened at the Fonoprint Studios in Bologna where also Change used to record. The percussionist involved was Lele Melotti, yet another musician linked with Little Macho Music.In an attempt to increase the commercial success, Maximus Records put out a remix of "Ask The Boss". That non-album mix also got a British release on the Greyhound Record Productions label and on the French Polydor Records. The German pressing on ZYX Records only featured the original mix. The single "Ask The Boss" created a certain fuss in Europe, but the Italian record company was unable to deliver sufficient album copies whereby the poorly promoted record quickly became a highly sought after item.

Curiously, the famous Italian wine company Giacobazzi from Modena contacted the producers and proposed to finance a re-issue of the album under certain conditions. The project was part of an advertising campaign to promote Giacobazzi’s innovative concept of packaging sparkling wine in hip cans. Hence, the album was aptly re-released in 1983 as A Little Love A Little Wine on the City Record label. Redesigned cover artwork showed Flowchart in bold lettering and a can of "Giacobazzi 8 1/2 Fizzy Red Wine". The son of co-owner Giancarlo Giacobazzi sang lead on the added title track "A Little Love A Little Wine" (written and arranged by Davide Masarati). Also the remix version of "Ask The Boss" was now added to the album track list and called "Orchestra Version". Unfortunately, the sales figures were again very moderate. The new LP was just as scarce as the first copy and never surpassed the status of an original but overlooked marketing gadget.
In 2006, the first pressing received a CD re-issue on the Italian Fonte label as part of a 5CD box of rare Italian funk albums. Also the second version A Little Love A Little Wine came out on the Dutch label PTG Records in 2004.