NEW YORK TIMES: Her collaborations with the producer Giorgio Moroder in the 1970s broke new ground for dance music and have been influencing the genre ever since. Few vocalists could match the sensuous eroticism she brought to some of her best recordings, which for many fans came to define the disco era. Born and raised in Boston, Ms. Summer learned to sing in church in a gospel choir and as a teenager performed in a short-lived psychedelic rock group called the Crow. After high school, she moved to New York and soon landed a role in a German production of “Hair.” It was in Europe, while she was working as a studio vocalist, that she met the Mr. Moroder and Pete Bellotte, another producer. Collaborating with them, she recorded “Love to Love You Baby,” the 17-minute long single released in 1975 that became a major disco hit and by year’s end had crossed over to the pop and R&B charts as well. The song, on which she moaned and sang in a breathy, seductive voice, skyrocketed her career. MORE