My Playlist, If I Were A Guest Jazz Deejay

If I were offered the opportunity to be a guest DJ for one hour on a jazz radio station like WBGO in Newark, New Jersey, the following tunes* (which vary in length) would probably be on my playlist, time permitting:

1. "Take Five"--The Dave Brubeck Quartet (Short version)

2. "The In Crowd"--The Ramsey Lewis Trio (Short Version)

3. "Affirmation"--George Benson

4. "Sunny"--Wes Montgomery

5. "New Rhumba"--Miles Davis/Gil Evans (or "So What?")

6. "Killer Joe"--Quincy Jones

7. "The Girl from Ipanema"--Stan Getz/Astrud Gilberto

8. "Highway 101"--Herb Alpert

9. "Call Me"--Eliane Elias (or "Tangerine"**)

10. "Felicia"--Earl Klugh

11."Roof Garden"--Al Jarreau

12. "Soul Bossa Nova"--Quincy Jones

At the last minute, I would probably substitute the aforementioned recordings with one by Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Natalie Cole, Johnny Hartman, Mel Torme, or Sarah Vaughan.

*If you want to hear these tunes, they are probably available on YouTube.

**I heard Eliane Elias's version of this song on a radio show hosted by the pianist Ramsey Lewis. I think the show, broadcast on public radio stations, was called The Legends of Jazz. I instantly fell in love with her version and have it in my CD collection.

Happy Halloween From Boo York City!!

 Wishing you a safe and enjoyable Halloween night!

New York's Number One Daily Newspaper?

The morning tabloid, amNew York, has been tooting its horn by calling itself "New York's #1 Daily Newspaper." I don't know how that could be when the distribution in Upper Manhattan is terrible. When the paper was owned by Newsday, it was available five days a week and could easily be found in street corner boxes near transit lines at various locations in Harlem and the Upper West Side. Finding the paper these days can be hit or miss. And finding its sibling paper, the Gay City News? Fuhgedaboutit! Finding money on a sidewalk is a whole lot easier. My advice to Schneps Media, which is owned by a mother-and- son team, is that it needs to beef up its distribution system.

A Town For Sale

In 2011, I learned that the State of Nevada isn't the only place in the United States that has ghost towns. There was an online article that said that Scenic, South Dakota, in the state's southwest corner, was up for sale for $800,000.

The town, fifty miles southeast of Rapid City, was (and maybe still is) owned by a Philippines-based church. 

At the time I read the article, a thought came to me--a  group of enterprising (and wealthy) LGBTQ people should consider buying the town and transform it into a thriving LGBTQ resort. And another thought came to me--if such a group approached the church with an offer to buy the town, would the church be willing to sell it?

Three Memorable Headlines

New York Daily News: "Ford To City: Drop Dead."

New York Post: "Headless Body In Topless Bar."

The Black American (New York City), later renamed The New American in the early 1990s: "The White Lady And The Faggot." (This homophobic rant was in response to Diana Ross being kissed on the cheek by New York Mayor Ed Koch at her Central Park concert held either in 1982 or 1983.) For years it was rumored that Koch was gay and closeted.

I wish I had saved that front page. I'm sure the Schomburg Library in Harlem has that issue in its collection. 

According to Google A.I., The Black American used the headline, "The White Lady And The Faggot," to refer to James Baldwin and the white civil rights activist and author Lillian Smith in May of 1963. That may be true, but I remember it referring to Diana Ross and Ed Koch. Carl Offord, the paper's publisher, may have decided to recycle the headline years later.

Richard Wright On The Black Experience In America

President Donald J. Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) right wing followers should seriously ponder the following words whenever they get the urge to disparage and demonize programs that encourage DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion):

"If we [blacks] had been allowed to participate in the vital processes of America's national growth, what would have been the texture of our lives, the pattern of our traditions, the routine of our customs, the state of our arts, the code of our laws, the function of our government? Whatever others may say, we black folk say that America would have been stronger and greater!" --Richard Wright (1908-1960), from his book, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (Viking Press, 1941).

Broadcast Journalist Edward R. Murrow On Heretics

"I've always been on the side of the heretics against those who burned them, because the heretics so often proved to be right. Dead--but right!"--Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), CBS broadcast journalist.