Giving Credit Where It's Due

Todd Boyd in his theroot.com article discussed the demise of Vibe magazine. He called the hip-hop culture publication "the brainchild of Quincy Jones." I have no problem with that but he completely overlooked music journalist Scott Poulson-Bryant, a founding editor of the magazine. Poulson-Bryant, an openly gay man, stated in his book Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America (Doubleday, 2005) that "I named Vibe magazine Vibe." Hip-hop culture is notoriously homophobic and it would have been a good idea to acknowledge that a major publication devoted to it was named by a member of a much-maligned but influential group. Let's give credit where it's due.

Saturday Is Record Store Day

I still cherish the cover art and sound of vinyl records even though it has been many years since I set foot in a store that sold only records and accessories like phonograph needles and spindle adaptors (used to play donut-shaped 45 rpm records). Plus many of the stores in New York that I patronized like Discomat, King Karol, and Colony are long gone. Target is the only store I've been to where I've seen a vinyl record like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On for sale (at double or triple the original price). But no one would consider Target a record store.

That brings me to why I'm writing this blog post. It's to remind you that Saturday, April 18, is Record Store Day. So anyone fortunate to have a record store near them can stop by and buy a vinyl record or more.

Thankfully, I had the good sense to hold on to my LPs and 45s. I'm now able to play them on a portable record player that I bought at a now out-of-business Bed, Bath, & Beyond store in Harlem seven or eight years ago. The record player plays records in all three speeds-- 33, 45, and 78.

A little more than two weeks ago I found on 106th Street, near Columbus Avenue, some discarded records. The albums that interested me the most were the ones by such jazz notables as Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. In that pile of records was a five-disc set called Collector's Classic History of Jazz, as well as Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, one of my favorite classical music compositions. On the record, Stravinsky conducts the orchestra.

Jazz Music's Special Month

Since April is National Jazz Appreciation Month, there are many ways for die-hard jazz lovers  to celebrate this iconic, American-born music's global reach and influence. Among those ways are attending a live performance (in a club or outdoors); financially supporting a jazz radio station like Newark, New Jersey's WBGO; buying a jazz record or CD; watching a jazz-related movie (fictional or documentary); reading a history book on jazz or a biography of a jazz great like Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong; buying a postcard, poster, or artwork with a jazz theme.

Let's help make this month a truly memorable Jazz Appreciation Month.

Don't forget that April 30 is International Jazz Day and is celebrated in various countries around the world. In 2011, that day was declared as such by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).

Happy Jazz Appreciation Month!