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Terence Blanchard Feat. The E-Collective: Tiny Desk Concert : NPR

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August 10, 2015 / No Comments / More

Brampton man’s passion for jazz music fuels his hobby for collecting records

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http://www.mississauga.com/whatson-story/5788819-brampton-man-s-passion-for-jazz-music-fuels-his-hobby-for-collecting-records/

** Brampton man’s passion for jazz music fuels his hobby for collecting records
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BRAMPTON—When it comes to music, Brampton’s Ken McPherson would rather be stuck in the ‘20s.
McPherson, 60, is a collector of 78 rpm (revolutions per minute) records, mainly from jazz and dance bands from early ‘20s to late ‘30s, and says the organic sound a vintage record produces has to be heard with the heart, not merely through the ears.
“It’s the preservation of music that makes me want to be its keeper,” he said. “The hiss and pop that you hear in the records to me add character because that’s the way they sounded then and that’s how they’re meant to sound now.”
He demonstrates by playing a recording by American jazz musician Clarence Williams from 1929, where Williams can be heard scat singing. The vocals punctuate the air with astounding clarity.
On most days, after clocking in an eight-hour shift in the customer service department of a GTA municipality, McPherson unwinds by soaking in the acoustic recordings of jazz masters such as Jack Teagarden, Fletcher Henderson, Williams, James Johnson and others.
“To me, collecting these jazz records is a passion,” he said. “This type of music is timeless.”
But whatever you do, don’t call them vinyl. From their introduction in 1898 to the late ‘50s, 78s were made with a shellac-based material known commercially as Bakelite. The vinyl records didn’t come on the scene until the ‘60s.
Unlike LP (long playing) records, 78s have just one track of music recorded on each side, so there’s a lot of switching back and forth, which he said doesn’t bother him. The antique records, he said, are also surprisingly compatible with his modern
record player – an Audio-Technica turntable armed with a ceramic stylus.
The Brampton man reckons his collection of more than 3,000 jazz and dance band records is worth thousands of dollars.
The records, neatly categorized and tucked inside beige sleeves, are housed in McPherson’s basement man cave, aptly named St. Louis Blues Ave. The shelves of the room are dotted with statues of jazz musicians.
He says the 78s are pretty resilient and don’t require any special storage conditions.
In addition to his jazz collection, which isn’t for sale, McPherson is also a record dealer of 78s and 45s. The more than 50,000 discs stacked in every available corner of his tool shed, sell for anywhere $1 per disc to $400 for an entire collection of a particular genre.
McPherson began collecting jazz records some three decades ago, when he lived in a rented apartment in Toronto. The man who lived in the unit above him would blast jazz songs through his record player and the sounds grew McPherson. He soon struck up a friendship with the upstairs neighbor, who introduced him to jazz and blues.
McPherson wants schools to teach the evolution of music, with records as part of the curriculum, before the timeless melodies and their medium fade into oblivion.
“Digital sound filters out all the noise–the hisses and the pops of the records – whereas the original records play the way they were meant to be played,” he said. “If anybody wants to hear the music of these jazz giants, I would strongly recommend they hear it the original way.”
Correction: August 10, 2015

An earlier version of this article misstated the year of Clarence Williams’ record. The record was from 1929.

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Brampton man’s passion for jazz music fuels his hobby for collecting records

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http://www.mississauga.com/whatson-story/5788819-brampton-man-s-passion-for-jazz-music-fuels-his-hobby-for-collecting-records/

An earlier version of this article misstated the year of Clarence Williams’ record. The record was from 1929.

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A Duo, in Jazz and in Love – The New York Times

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** Before Motown: A History of Jazz and Blues in Detroit
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August 7, 2015
By Ashley Zlatopolsky (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/author/ashley-zlatopolsky)

When I got to Detroit, Hastings Street was the best street in town.

Blind Blake, “Hastings Street”

Blind Blake – Hastings Street

Young Berry Gordy’s favorite hangout no longer exists. Old Hastings Street was the lively epicenter of Black Bottom, a Detroit cultural community with a storied music legacy now buried beneath the concrete and asphalt of the I-375 Chrysler Freeway. At its height, Old Hastings was longer than Bourbon Street in New Orleans, with jazz and blues drifting from every corner. But the road was razed between 1950 and 1952, and paved several years later. Only a small stretch was spared, and it’s presently dotted with mostly vacant industrial sites. Busted out windows and shuttered doors line the desolate road, their lingering presence all that’s left of the soul of the Motor City’s black culture from the first half of the 20th century.

Like most 20th century Detroit stories, it all started with cars. Detroit’s booming auto industry inspired thousands of African Americans to migrate north in the 1900s, bluesman John Lee Hooker included. Because of racially discriminatory housing, their options were limited to neighborhoods like the lower east side’s Black Bottom, its name arising from the area’s rich, dark soil. As Black Bottom’s population skyrocketed, two parallel streets – Hastings and St. Antoine – emerged as cultural hubs.

Hastings and St. Antoine led north to Paradise Valley, often called Detroit’s Las Vegas for its extravagant nightlife. It was one of the first neighborhoods in Detroit to facilitate the integration of blacks and whites. In the 1930s and 1940s, Detroiters of all racial and social backgrounds gathered in its nightclubs, cabarets, restaurants and gambling joints, turning Paradise Valley into the city’s primary home for “black and tan” venues (places where black artists performed for both black and white audiences, and where both black and white people could patronize).

“It wasn’t very uncommon to see wealthy or upper middle class whites from [the affluent neighborhood of] Grosse Pointe partying in Paradise Valley on a Saturday night,” says Ken Coleman, author of Million Dollars Worth of Nerve and an expert on the region. Black musicians who played all over Michigan were often brought back to the Valley after their shows, since most cities and neighborhoods refused to accommodate them.

Although Black Bottom and Paradise Valley are often remembered as one large cultural hub, they were actually two separate areas on Hastings Street. Paradise Valley is believed to have been located downtown where I-75, Comerica Park and Ford Field now stand, but its exact boundaries are often debated. The last traces of the Valley disappeared when its three remaining buildings were finally razed in 2001. Only a few clues would indicate that it even existed, most notably the single Michigan Historical Site marker on the former intersection of Adams Avenue and St. Antoine Street.
Club Three SixesCourtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

Adams and St. Antoine were the center of Paradise Valley and housed several clusters of early jazz clubs in the 1920s. By the 1930s, roughly two dozen jazz clubs filled the area. Places such as 606 Horseshoe Lounge and Club Three Sixes featured national acts including Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, the Ink Spots and Sarah Vaughan, plus other jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine and Count Basie.

While the rest of America slowly rebuilt from the Great Depression, black-owned venues like Club Plantation, Brown Bomber Chicken Shack and Club Paradise (a favorite of Fitzgerald’s) helped Paradise Valley grow at exponential rates, despite the high level of crime and poverty. The neighborhood itself might have been poor, but its top-notch nightlife gave it an upper hand: word of popular clubs including the El Sino (formerly the B&C Club owned by Roy H. Lightfoot, official mayor of Paradise Valley), Pendennies and the Congo Room in the basement of the Norwood Hotel spread across America, reeling in both gig-seeking musicians and tourists. Before long, Paradise Valley joined the ranks of Harlem and New Orleans in terms of cultural impact on music.

Slightly outside of the Valley’s traditional borders lay the Paradise Theater1^1Its name and influence were a key trigger for the boundary debate. on Woodward Avenue. It hosted the era’s top black entertainers: Ellington was a regular (and its first booking), along with Holiday, Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Armstrong. Locals could catch up to three shows a day and four on weekends. The Paradise Theater had a successful (albeit short) run from 1941 to 1951 – a changing music industry and competition from venues like the nearby Graystone Ballroom led to smaller and smaller crowds. By 1952, it was sold. Johnny Hodges, the Orioles and Moms Mabley were the final acts that graced its stage under the Paradise Theater name before it became Orchestra Hall.
Marsha Music in the doorway of Joe’s Record Shop circa 1960marshamusic.wordpress.com (http://marshamusic.wordpress.com/)

The Graystone Ballroom, meanwhile, was the city’s cradle of jazz. Opened in 1922, it was once Detroit’s largest and grandest ballroom. In a 1974 interview with The Detroit News, clarinetist Benny Goodman said he drove all night to catch Bix Beiderbecke play at the Graystone, calling it “a great mecca in those days.” During the height of big band jazz, the Graystone often hosted a battle of the bands, with one in particular between Ellington and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers that drew a record-breaking crowd of around 7,000.

Following performances at the Graystone, Ellington, Cab Calloway and the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra would jam until sunrise at the Band Box. Across the street from the Band Box was the Russell House Hotel, where a side basement entrance led to a blind pig after hours called the Night Club. Jess Faithful’s exclusive Rhythm Club, on the other hand, was a second-floor booking agency that required a membership card past curfew, and it was common for late night parties to continue until noon the following day. Wilson “Stutz” Anderson remembers the many nights he spent there in Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit by Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert: “We’d sit around and play cards and bootleg liquor was served. The police didn’t stop us. They’d walk the beat; you give them $2 and they’d walk out.”

Forest Club: Onliest bar, you have to walk in, you get ready to buy a bottle of beer, you have to walk a mile after you get in the joint to get it.

Detroit Count, “Hastings Street Opera”

Detroit Count – Hastings Street Opera

During World War II, entertainment expanded even further into what is now the John R. medical district in present-day Midtown. John R. was known as the “street of music” – often likened to New York City’s 52nd Street – with the perpendicular stretch of Garfield a hotspot for prostitutes and illegal after hours. Some viewed John R. as “North Paradise Valley,” but it was typically recognized as its own separate region. The area surrounding the road was home to several small jazz bars, including Chesterfield Lounge, the Frolic Bar, Café Bohemia and Parrot Lounge, plus Harlem Cave and the Flame Show Bar (another staple for Holiday, Gillespie and Basie). Detroit’s swing generation and emerging bop talent united at these venues, bringing the two sounds together.

Before burning down in a five-alarm fire, the Garfield Hotel was the home to the famous Garfield Lounge, described by The Michigan Chronicle as “glittering behind modern exteriors.” It was a place ahead of its time and luxurious beyond imagination upon opening in 1945: the circular bar was surrounded by 35 chairs and the adjoining Wal-Ha Room (where posh lounges and lavish carpeting greeted patrons) could be entered through accordion doors. At the Mark Twain Hotel – specifically built for musicians – one could find the Swamp Room, which saw the likes of B.B. King and Ray Charles playing well into the night. Also nearby were Club Juana, Club Balfour and The Cozy Corner, where swing, bop and blues drummer J.C. Heard played in the venue’s house band early in his career.

700 E. Forest was the location of the Forest Club, a now non-existent address below the Chrysler Service Drive that allegedly spanned an entire city block. It was managed by one of the valley’s top club proprietors, Sunnie Wilson, who was often regarded as its “unofficial” mayor. “The Forest Club was described as an ‘indoor amusement park,’” says Ken Coleman. “There’s some writing that suggests – in terms of square footage – the club was as big as Madison Square Garden.” It was Bob “Detroit Count” White’s go-to spot: he would raucously play “Hastings Street Opera (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHKuB4NdTSU) ” on the piano for an hour straight, sometimes to the point of being asked to stop.

Detroit’s jazz scene, by this point, reached across the city. The now-vacant Blue Bird Inn on the city’s west side eventually pulled the bebop crowd from the El Sino as blacks migrated west in the 1950s. The Blue Bird was where jazz musician and trumpeter Miles Davis cultivated his career. In his autobiography, Davis writes about moving to Detroit after quitting heroin, where he befriended the club’s owner Clarence Eddins. Eddins gave him a job with The Blue Bird house band, and as Davis’ solo career blossomed, he frequently returned to play at the venue alongside several groups.

The Blue Bird was also where Charlie Parker and drummer Elvin Jones helped push jazz to new heights: the two often played together, with Parker bringing a then largely unknown Jones into the spotlight. Jones would go on to make some of jazz’s most influential music, thanks to his early days at The Blue Bird. At the height of the club’s popularity, bookings included everyone from John Coltrane to Horace Silver.

Meanwhile, about ten miles north of John R. stands Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Detroit’s oldest operating jazz club. Opened in 1933, it continued to expand, and by the ’50s featured major acts like Art Tatum, who played there the last two years of his life (including his final performance in 1956). It’s one of only a few historical jazz clubs left standing in the city alongside Cliff Bell’s on Park Avenue, which was established in 1935 and closed in the 1980s, reopening a little under a decade ago.

When I first came to town, people, I was walkin’ down Hastings Street. Everybody was talkin’ about the Henry Swing Club…

John Lee Hooker, “Boogie Chillen’”

While Detroit’s jazz scene was more widespread, the city’s blues scene was localized to a few specific areas, most notably on Hastings Street. John Lee Hooker made it famous with songs like “Hastings Street Boogie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpDfx9OXCb0) ” and the chart-topping “Boogie Chillen’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4pp02_GN9A) ,” where mean electric blues licks and spoken word meshed the sounds of industrial Detroit with laidback Delta blues. Music critic Cub Koda once said that Hooker’s riff in “Boogie Chillen’” “launched a million songs.”

In a now celebrated picture taken by French music photographer Jacques Demetre, Hooker stands with his Epiphone Les Paul in front of Joe’s Record Shop. The homely record store at 3530 Hastings Street was a key building block for Detroit blues and beyond: owner Joe Von Battle recorded and produced albums in the store’s back room for the likes of Hooker and Jackie Wilson. He was the first to record 14-year-old Aretha Franklin’s voice when she was just a singer in the New Bethel Baptist church choir and subsequently produced her first record.

Von Battle’s daughter Marsha Music recounts nights at her father’s store in Joe Von Battle – Requiem for a Record Shop Man (https://marshamusic.wordpress.com/page-joe-von-battle-requiem-for-a-record-shop-man/) : “Many of his blues recordings were regarded as simple, even crude, done on a basic machine in the back of the storefront, with its simple microphones and an old upright piano. Many a night after church, Ms. Aretha sat playing that piano and having a good time with my older half-brother and three half-sisters, who worked at the shop with my father (in later years, my brother and I surely plunked that old instrument out of tune).”
Joe Von Battle in his record shopmarshamusic.wordpress.com (http://marshamusic.wordpress.com/)

Music also describes how Berry Gordy would come to Joe’s Record Shop and chat about the industry with her father. At the time, Gordy was in the process of developing a company out of his home on West Grand Boulevard – a place that would later become the world-renowned Hitsville. The influence of Detroit blues (and jazz) on the development of Motown is undeniable. Music by the likes of Hooker, Eddie “Guitar” Burns, Bobo Jenkins, Boogie Woogie Red, Doctor Ross and Washboard Willie went on to influence an entire generation of Motown R&B and soul musicians.

Like the jazz scene, Detroit’s blues scene had scenes within itself. Detroit became an important city for the growth of urban blues, a style typically tied to Chicago and the West Coast. Its roots in the Motor City are mostly forgotten, as the music was under-documented before the late 1940s. Hooker may have been the biggest name to emerge from the city, but Big Maceo (Major Merriweather) was equally important. Maceo was considered one of the greatest blues pianists of his time, writing many World War II blues standards. He was one of four major Detroit blues artists who played in the boogie-woogie style.2^2Speckled Red, Charlie Spand and Will Ezell were the other three.

Classic blues also helped define the Detroit blues scene, a style of music that stemmed from traditional vaudeville and was typically sung by women with jazz accompaniment. These acts would often perform as part of a complete vaudeville show at the Koppin Theatre on Gratiot Avenue, at the southern edge of Paradise Valley. Bessie Smith, one of the era’s biggest classic blues singers, was known to pack the Koppin to capacity.

Detroit’s blues scene eventually mimicked the migration patterns of the jazz scene, but on a much smaller scale. Following World War II, the blues scene spread from Hastings to Chene Street in East Detroit. Also like the jazz scene, it’s now mostly non-existent. On the corner of Chene and Farnsworth sits the Raven Lounge and Restaurant, Detroit’s oldest operating blues club. It’s one of the last places in the city to hear live blues, a tiny room lined with old black and white photographs where patrons still dress to impress. It remains unlisted and under the radar, the kind of place a tourist would only know about by word of mouth. In any other major city, the Raven would be a key tourist draw, but its blighted location deep in Detroit keeps audiences small and shows intimate. Opened in the ’50s, the Raven was once part of an entire strip of blues clubs that have since been demolished or gutted.

Instead of making an effort to restore Black Bottom, city officials viewed the slums and dilapidated structures as an excuse to completely clear the area for redevelopment.

A combination of politics, failed urban renewal efforts, racial tension and inner-city housing issues eventually led to the end of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, while the other areas mentioned in this piece were either redeveloped into new districts or left behind for nature to take over.
Brewster-Douglass housing projectsCourtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

Black Bottom served as an escape for its residents, who typically worked grueling factory jobs. But with the party atmosphere came vice, crime and gambling. Pimps, prostitutes and drugs – especially heroin – were rampant, and many city employees were paid off to turn a blind eye. Detroit’s Purple Gang mob members were often spotted at the area’s speakeasies, mostly owned by businessman John R. “Buffalo” James and protected by a confidant within the Detroit Police Department. When Buffalo’s connection passed away in 1947, his businesses were suddenly shut down.

Black Bottom’s rapid population growth led to a housing shortage that resulted in slum-like conditions, especially in the 1940s following World War II. In an effort to alleviate overcrowding, the Brewster-Douglass housing projects were built directly north of the area. Many of Motown’s biggest artists called these projects home, including Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross, but the idea eventually backfired. The exodus left Black Bottom blighted and abandoned, worsening the neighborhood’s already bleak situation. (Up until their recent demolition, the deserted projects stood as a reminder of Detroit’s decline and failed attempt at urban renewal.)
Army soldiers patrolling the streets of Detroit in 1943 after race riotsGordon Coster / Getty Images

Black Bottom sunk even lower when middle-class blacks left the area for new neighborhoods and racial tension within the city increased. In June of 1943 a Belle Isle fight escalated and nearly 10,000 Detroiters rioted in Cadillac Square, outraged by racism, unemployment and the housing crisis. The uprising left many buildings in desperate need of repair, but instead of making an effort to restore Black Bottom, city officials viewed the slums and dilapidated structures as an excuse to completely clear the area for redevelopment.

This decision was the final nail in the coffin for one of America’s most important and influential black communities, its musical heritage obliterated as concrete and asphalt were poured over Hastings Street for I-375. “That really just ripped the guts out of the neighborhood,” said urban planner Ed Hustoles in an interview (http://archive.freep.com/article/20131215/OPINION05/312150060/Black-Bottom-Detroit-I-375-I-75-paradise-valley-removal) with the Detroit Free Press.

Paradise Valley was also hit hard by the construction of I-375. After the construction of the Fisher Freeway on its northern border, the neighborhood was left in a state of isolation. “You had a freeway not only going north and south, but also east and west – it really choked that small community,” says Coleman. In an ironic twist of fate, the one-mile radius of I-375 that cut through the heart of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley is now up for potential demolition because – according to city officials and business planners – it segregates downtown Detroit neighborhoods. Today’s recognition of Detroit’s unsuccessful urban freeway system won’t bring back the history that once was, however. Both the jazz and blues scenes were forced out alongside residents, and left no choice but to find new places to call home.

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A Duo, in Jazz and in Love – The New York Times

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** Before Motown: A History of Jazz and Blues in Detroit
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August 7, 2015
By Ashley Zlatopolsky (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/author/ashley-zlatopolsky)

When I got to Detroit, Hastings Street was the best street in town.

Blind Blake, “Hastings Street”

Blind Blake – Hastings Street

Forest Club: Onliest bar, you have to walk in, you get ready to buy a bottle of beer, you have to walk a mile after you get in the joint to get it.

Detroit Count, “Hastings Street Opera”

Detroit Count – Hastings Street Opera

When I first came to town, people, I was walkin’ down Hastings Street. Everybody was talkin’ about the Henry Swing Club…

John Lee Hooker, “Boogie Chillen’”

Instead of making an effort to restore Black Bottom, city officials viewed the slums and dilapidated structures as an excuse to completely clear the area for redevelopment.

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August 10, 2015 / No Comments / More

Before Motown: A History of Jazz and Blues in Detroit | Red Bull Music Academy Daily

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August 7, 2015
By Ashley Zlatopolsky (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/author/ashley-zlatopolsky)

When I got to Detroit, Hastings Street was the best street in town.

Blind Blake, “Hastings Street”

Blind Blake – Hastings Street

Forest Club: Onliest bar, you have to walk in, you get ready to buy a bottle of beer, you have to walk a mile after you get in the joint to get it.

Detroit Count, “Hastings Street Opera”

Detroit Count – Hastings Street Opera

When I first came to town, people, I was walkin’ down Hastings Street. Everybody was talkin’ about the Henry Swing Club…

John Lee Hooker, “Boogie Chillen’”

Instead of making an effort to restore Black Bottom, city officials viewed the slums and dilapidated structures as an excuse to completely clear the area for redevelopment.

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August 8, 2015 / No Comments / More

Before Motown: A History of Jazz and Blues in Detroit | Red Bull Music Academy Daily

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** Red Bull Music Academy Daily
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** Before Motown: A History of Jazz and Blues in Detroit
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August 7, 2015
By Ashley Zlatopolsky (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/author/ashley-zlatopolsky)

When I got to Detroit, Hastings Street was the best street in town.

Blind Blake, “Hastings Street”

Blind Blake – Hastings Street

Forest Club: Onliest bar, you have to walk in, you get ready to buy a bottle of beer, you have to walk a mile after you get in the joint to get it.

Detroit Count, “Hastings Street Opera”

Detroit Count – Hastings Street Opera

When I first came to town, people, I was walkin’ down Hastings Street. Everybody was talkin’ about the Henry Swing Club…

John Lee Hooker, “Boogie Chillen’”

Instead of making an effort to restore Black Bottom, city officials viewed the slums and dilapidated structures as an excuse to completely clear the area for redevelopment.

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

** On a different note
————————————————————

** Detroit (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/detroit)
————————————————————

** Stories from the Motor City’s vibrant and diverse musical history (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/detroit)
————————————————————

** How Kanye West’s Performances Challenge Us, and Himself (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/06/kanye-west-performance-feature)
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** Red Bull Music Academy Daily
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August 8, 2015 / No Comments / More

Fabulous New Documentary: We Like It Like That – The Story of Latin Boogaloo

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http://www.latinboogaloo.com/sounds/

Latin boogaloo is New York City. It is a product of the melting pot, a colorful expression of 1960s Latino soul, straight from the streets of El Barrio, the South Bronx and Brooklyn.

Starring Latin boogaloo legends like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon and Pete Rodriguez, We Like It Like That explores this lesser-known, but pivotal moment in Latin music history, through original interviews, music recordings, live performances, dancing and rare archival footage and images.

From its origins to its recent resurgence in popularity, We Like It Like That tells the story of a sound that redefined a generation and was too funky to keep down.

Full Cast: Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon, Pete Rodriguez, Ricardo Ray, Joey Pastrana, Harvey Averne, Larry Harlow, Aurora Flores, Felipe Luciano, Jimmy Sabater, Tito Ramos, Bobby Marin, Benny Bonilla, Orlando Marin, Bobby Sanabria, Eliot Rivera, Nicky Marrero, Sandra Maria Esteves, Henry “Pucho” Brown, The Abakua Afro-Latin Dance Company, Oliver Wang, Bobbito Garcia, Carlos “Turmix” Vera, Alex Masucci, Daisy Rivera, and Spanglish Fly

The film had it’s world premiere this spring at SXSW 2015 (http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/events/event_FS18009) . Our New York premiere will be held August 5th at Film Society Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision series at 8:30 p.m. Tickets on sale now! (http://purchase.filmlinc.com/single/SelectSeating.aspx?p=26992) The following day at 7 p.m. Lincoln Center Outdoors will host a concert featuring several of the film’s stars including Joe Bataan, Ricardo Ray and Pete Rodriguez.

Information on more screenings and an offical release to come soon. Click on the icons below to find the film on Facebook and Twitter and follow us to stay up to date on all film happenings and everything Latin boogaloo.

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August 8, 2015 / No Comments / More

Fabulous New Documentary: We Like It Like That – The Story of Latin Boogaloo

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

http://www.latinboogaloo.com/sounds/

Latin boogaloo is New York City. It is a product of the melting pot, a colorful expression of 1960s Latino soul, straight from the streets of El Barrio, the South Bronx and Brooklyn.

From its origins to its recent resurgence in popularity, We Like It Like That tells the story of a sound that redefined a generation and was too funky to keep down.

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August 8, 2015 / No Comments / More

Spoiler Alert: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION Movieguide Review

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http://www.movieguide.org/reviews/mission-impossible-rogue-nation.htm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgjU9C8UUc) l

Reminiscent of the old TV show, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes into a record store and plays a Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane jazz record to be told his mission.
The clerk asks him questions about the record and the drummer Shadow Wilson.

THE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgjU9C8UUc)

**
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** LALO SCHIFRIN – MISSION IMPOSSIBLE theme stills sounds great too! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgjU9C8UUc)
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Spoiler Alert: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION Movieguide Review

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http://www.movieguide.org/reviews/mission-impossible-rogue-nation.htm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgjU9C8UUc) l

THE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgjU9C8UUc)

**
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** LALO SCHIFRIN – MISSION IMPOSSIBLE theme stills sounds great too! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgjU9C8UUc)
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Charlie Parker’s 60th anniversary celebration at Jazz Showcase – Chicago Tribune

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015

** A 60th anniversary celebration of Charlie Parker
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* Charlie Parker (http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/entertainment/music/charlie-parker-PECLB003372-topic.html#navtype=taxonomy-article)
*
* Joe Segal (http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/entertainment/music/joe-segal-PECLB000011353-topic.html#navtype=taxonomy-article)
* Howard Reich (http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/arts-culture/journalism/howard-reich-PECLB00000161260-topic.html#navtype=taxonomy-article)
*
* Entertainment (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/)

A 60th anniversary celebration of Charlie Parker

** Howard Reich (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/chinews-howard-reich-20130507-staff.html#navtype=columnist-module)
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CHICAGO TRIBUNEhreich@chicagotribune.com (mailto:hreich@chicagotribune.com?subject=Regarding%20A%2060th%20anniversary%20celebration%20of%20Charlie%20Parker)

** howardreich (http://www.twitter.com/howardreich) What’s new at the Made in Chicago jazz series? Lots of dance http://t.co/0YdhS8gfJq
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Charlie Parker

Jazz musician Charlie Parker poses for a portrait in the studio in 1945 in New York.
(Michael Ochs Archives /Getty Images)
A 60th anniversary celebration of Charlie Parker at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase

Joe Segal never will forget the day Charlie Parker died.

“It was March 12, 1955, and I was at Roosevelt,” recalls Segal, founder of the Jazz Showcase and at the time a student and self-styled jazz presenter at Roosevelt University.

“It was in the afternoon. I was setting up chairs and all for the concert that night,” continues Segal. “And this guy came running down the hall crying and saying, ‘Man, did you hear Bird died?'”

The news hit Segal hard because he had presented the alto saxophone genius at Roosevelt, having been smitten with the man’s obvious technical brilliance and improvisational wizardry. So Segal stepped outside to clear his head, he says, then returned to introduce the scheduled performers, whose names he has long since forgotten.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-andrea-marcovicci-gershwin-chicago-jazz-davenports-20150728-column.html
Andrea Marcovicci’s poetic look at George Gershwin (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-andrea-marcovicci-gershwin-chicago-jazz-davenports-20150728-column.html)

He does remember, though, that “everybody sort of played like a robot – they were just stunned. And from that day on, I decided March 12 would be a memorial concert” for Parker.

This week, Segal marks the 60th anniversary of an event that long ago morphed into the Showcase’s “August Is Charlie Parker Month” festivities, dedicated to the man whose music very nearly defines the club.

It’s Parker’s beneficent smile, after all, that gazes upon anyone who plays the Showcase, in the form of a larger-than-life, black-and-white portrait that dominates the stage. In other ways, as well, the Jazz Showcase has earned a reputation around the world as a temple of bebop – the jazz idiom Parker codified with Dizzy Gillespie and others – and its off-shoots.
lRelated (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#) http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-occidental-gypsy-review-20150725-column.html

HOWARD REICH (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-occidental-gypsy-review-20150725-column.html)
Review: Occidental Gypsy at the Green Mill (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-occidental-gypsy-review-20150725-column.html)

SEE ALL RELATED (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#)

8 (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#)

And what started as an annual, one-night memorial to Parker turned into a celebration of his birthday – Aug. 29, 1920 – due to the vicissitudes of the jazz life.

Specifically, saxophone titan Dexter Gordon had been scheduled to play Segal’s Parker memorial in the 1960s when he heard some bad news.

“About a week before, (trumpeter) Paul Serrano, who was friendly with Dexter told me, ‘Hey, man, Dexter split town,'” remembers Segal.

“I said, ‘Really?’

“And he said, ‘Yeah, the fuzz told him to leave, or he would be re-incarcerated.'”
cComments (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#)
Got something to say? Start the conversation and be the first to comment. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#)
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Meaning that Gordon was about to be busted again for drug use, a scourge among uncounted musicians of Parker’s generation, many of whom hoped they might play like Bird if they indulged in his vices. The excesses of Parker’s life killed him at age 34, and Gordon’s similar battles with drug addiction were spotlighted in the greatest jazz movie of all, Bertrand Tavernier’s “‘Round Midnight,” in which Gordon played a fictional character whose travails mirror his own and bebop pianist Bud Powell’s.

When Segal lost Gordon as his main attraction for that Parker memorial, “I thought, Oh, boy, that’s the end of the tradition.'”

But a friend suggested Segal bump the event to August and make it a celebration of Parker’s birth, a joyous occasion rather than a mournful one. Segal did just that, and “August Is Charlie Parker Month” caught on, the impresario having presented just about every major figure who worked with Parker or was profoundly influenced by him, including trumpeter Gillespie, drummers Max Roach and Roy Haynes, saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Jackie McLean, trombonist J.J. Johnson, vibraphonist Milt Jackson and bassist Ray Brown.

Does any one of the Parker tributes stand out in memory?

“Probably Sonny Rollins – he did it down on Rush Street,” says Segal, referring to the saxophone colossus who played downstairs space the Showcase held in the 1970s, below the Happy Medium.

“He was so exciting, we were standing up on the chairs, cheering. It was the most exciting thing we’d heard since Charlie Parker.”

But few artists of Parker’s vintage are performing anymore (Haynes being a glorious exception), which means Segal has had to reach out to younger generations for expressions of Parker’s legacy.

Does Segal think he’ll keep the Charlie Parker tributes going into the future?

“I really don’t know,” says Segal, 89. “I’m thinking about my future right now. I’m just trying to make it to 90.”

Following is the complete schedule for “August Is Charlie Parker Month,” with all performances at the Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court; 312-360-0234 or jazzshowcase.com (http://www.jazzshowcase.com/) .

Eric Schneider/Pat Mallinger Quintet: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday.

Charles McPherson Quartet: Thursday through Aug. 9.

Roxy Coss/Sharel Cassity Quintet: Aug. 13 through 16.

Gary Bartz: Aug. 20-23.

Ira Sullivan Quartet: Aug. 27-30.

Also worth hearing

Matt Ulery: The inventive Chicago bassist-bandleader plays music from “In the Ivory,” the welcome follow-up to his breakthrough double album, “By a Little Light” (2012). The large ensemble will include vocalist Grazyna Auguscik, pianist Rob Clearfield, drummer Jon Deitemyer, vibraphonist Matthew Duvall, flutist Nathalie Joachim, clarinetist Michael Maccaferri, violinists Aurelien Pederzoli and Yvonne Lam, violist Dominic Johnson and cellist Katinka Kleijn. 8:30 p.m. Friday at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave.; $12-$15; constellation-chicago.com (http://www.constellation-chicago.com/)

hreich@tribpub.com (mailto:hreich@tribpub.com)

Twitter @howardreich

“Portraits in Jazz”: Howard Reich’s e-book collects his exclusive interviews with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, as well as profiles of early masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get “Portraits in Jazz” at chicagotribune.com/ebooks (https://members.chicagotribune.com/ebooks/) .
Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/)

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August 8, 2015 / No Comments / More

Charlie Parker’s 60th anniversary celebration at Jazz Showcase – Chicago Tribune

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015

A 60th anniversary celebration of Charlie Parker

Joe Segal never will forget the day Charlie Parker died.

“It was March 12, 1955, and I was at Roosevelt,” recalls Segal, founder of the Jazz Showcase and at the time a student and self-styled jazz presenter at Roosevelt University.

He does remember, though, that “everybody sort of played like a robot – they were just stunned. And from that day on, I decided March 12 would be a memorial concert” for Parker.

8 (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#)

And what started as an annual, one-night memorial to Parker turned into a celebration of his birthday – Aug. 29, 1920 – due to the vicissitudes of the jazz life.

Specifically, saxophone titan Dexter Gordon had been scheduled to play Segal’s Parker memorial in the 1960s when he heard some bad news.

“About a week before, (trumpeter) Paul Serrano, who was friendly with Dexter told me, ‘Hey, man, Dexter split town,'” remembers Segal.

“I said, ‘Really?’

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-charlie-parker-month-jazz-showcase-20150730-column.html?utm_source=Aug+2015&utm_campaign=AUG+2015+calendar&utm_medium=email#

When Segal lost Gordon as his main attraction for that Parker memorial, “I thought, Oh, boy, that’s the end of the tradition.'”

Does any one of the Parker tributes stand out in memory?

“Probably Sonny Rollins – he did it down on Rush Street,” says Segal, referring to the saxophone colossus who played downstairs space the Showcase held in the 1970s, below the Happy Medium.

“He was so exciting, we were standing up on the chairs, cheering. It was the most exciting thing we’d heard since Charlie Parker.”

But few artists of Parker’s vintage are performing anymore (Haynes being a glorious exception), which means Segal has had to reach out to younger generations for expressions of Parker’s legacy.

Does Segal think he’ll keep the Charlie Parker tributes going into the future?

“I really don’t know,” says Segal, 89. “I’m thinking about my future right now. I’m just trying to make it to 90.”

Eric Schneider/Pat Mallinger Quintet: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday.

Charles McPherson Quartet: Thursday through Aug. 9.

Roxy Coss/Sharel Cassity Quintet: Aug. 13 through 16.

Gary Bartz: Aug. 20-23.

Ira Sullivan Quartet: Aug. 27-30.

Also worth hearing

hreich@tribpub.com (mailto:hreich@tribpub.com)

Twitter @howardreich

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August 8, 2015 / No Comments / More

A Little Friday Jazz Humor with apologies to bass players everywhere

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A Little Friday Jazz Humor with apologies to bass players everywhere

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Jazz broadcaster and producer Willis Conover on “To Tell the Truth” (April 8, 1963) – YouTube

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QODKfuSTwbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QODKfuSTwbs

** The movement to recognize an American jazz voice unheard at home (http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-05/movement-recognize-american-jazz-voice-unheard-home)
————————————————————

The Takeaway (http://www.pri.org/programs/takeaway)

August 05, 2015 · 8:45 AM EDT
By T.J. Raphael (http://www.pri.org/people/tj-raphael) (follow) (http://www.pri.org/flag/flag/subscribe_person/63223?destination=node/83188&token=5f4c243b27c6fa1b766f9b76349e1afa&has_js=1)

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August 6, 2015 / No Comments / More

Jazz broadcaster and producer Willis Conover on “To Tell the Truth” (April 8, 1963) – YouTube

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QODKfuSTwbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QODKfuSTwbs

The Takeaway (http://www.pri.org/programs/takeaway)

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An Old Songbook Could Put ‘Happy Birthday’ in the Public Domain – The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/business/media/an-old-songbook-could-put-happy-birthday-in-the-public-domain.html?_r=0

** An Old Songbook Could Put ‘Happy Birthday’ in the Public Domain
————————————————————
By BEN SISARIO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/ben_sisario/index.html) AUG. 4, 2015
For plaintiffs, “a proverbial smoking gun”: a 1922 songbook shows the birthday song as the third verse of “Good Morning and Birthday Song.” Credit Wolf Haldenstein

It is one of the most beloved and famous of all songs, belted out at countless gatherings for infant and octogenarian alike. Yet “Happy Birthday to You,” far from being as free as a piece of cake at a party, is actually considered private property.

A federal lawsuit filed by a group of independent artists is trying to change that, and lawyers in the case, in a filing last week, said they had found evidence in the yellowed pages of a nearly century-old songbook that proves the song’s copyright — first issued in 1935 — is no longer valid.

A judge may rule in the case in coming weeks. If the song becomes part of the public domain, it would cost the Warner Music Group, which holds the rights, millions of dollars in lost licensing fees. It would also be a victory for those who see “Happy Birthday to You” as emblematic of the problems with copyright — a song that has long since survived anyone involved in its creation, yet is still owned by a corporation that charges for its use.

“It is one of the few songs that you’ve heard for as long as you’ve lived, and you kind of think of it as a folk song,” said Robert Brauneis, a professor at the George Washington University Law School who in 2010 published a skeptical study of the copyright of “Happy Birthday to You.”

The case also highlights the centrality of copyright claims to media businesses like the music industry, where the question of who owns the rights to a song can be worth millions of dollars. Advocates for rigorous copyright laws point out that they protect musicians as well as the companies that represent them. Still, their interpretation can rattle the industry; that was the case in March, when a jury found that Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” had copied “Got to Give It Up,” a 1977 hit by Marvin Gaye.

Part of the dispute over “Happy Birthday” derives from the song’s byzantine publishing history. Its familiar melody was first published in 1893 as “Good Morning to All,” written by Mildred Hill and her sister Patty, a kindergarten teacher in Kentucky. Birthday-themed variations began to appear in the early 1900s, and soon “Happy Birthday to You” was a phenomenon, popping up in films and hundreds of thousands of singing telegrams in the 1930s.

Its appearance in a scene in Irving Berlin’s show “As Thousands Cheer” in 1933 led to a lawsuit, and in 1935 the copyright for “Happy Birthday to You” was registered by the Clayton F. Summy Company, the Hill sisters’ publisher. The song changed hands over the years, and Warner acquired it in 1988 when buying the song’s owner, Birchtree Ltd., as part of a publishing deal reported at the time to be worth $25 million. According to some estimates, the song now generates about $2 million in licensing income each year, mostly from its use in television and film.
Photo
Mildred Hill, who composed “Happy Birthday to You” with her sister Patty.

Yet while the song is widely performed at private gatherings, its copyright status leads to peculiar workarounds in public settings. Chain restaurants often come up with their own songs to avoid paying licensing fees, according to Mr. Brauneis’s paper. On live television, it is not uncommon for an impromptu performance to be quickly silenced by producers.

Jennifer Nelson, who is making a documentary about the song and first filed the lawsuit against Warner two years ago, said that the company charged her $1,500 to use the song. The case, which has been joined by other artists and seeks class-action status, is being heard in federal court in Los Angeles. Plaintiffs want the song to be declared part of the public domain, and for Warner to return licensing fees dating to at least 2009.

“Our clients want to give ‘Happy Birthday to You’ back to the public, which is what Patty Hill wanted all along,” said Mark C. Rifkin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Photo
Patty Hill, the other composer of the birthday song.

Warner, which declined to comment for this article, contends in court filings that its copyright is valid. The song also generates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for a nonprofit group, the Association for Childhood Education International.

Yet “Happy Birthday to You” has long been a prime target for critics of the laws that regulate copyright. Thanks to an extension made under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 — which was lobbied for heavily by Hollywood — the song remains under protection through 2030.

“The fact that ‘Happy Birthday to You’ is still under copyright is the most symbolic example of how copyright has expanded and overreached beyond its Constitutional purpose,” said Kembrew McLeod, a communications professor at the University of Iowa who has written about the song.
Photo
Jennifer Nelson, who is making a documentary about “Happy Birthday to You,” said Warner Music Group charged her $1,500 to use the song. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Mr. Brauneis contended in his 2010 study that the song’s copyright may not have been properly renewed when its initial term expired, in 1963. But lawyers for the plaintiffs in the “Happy Birthday” suit — for whom Mr. Brauneis said he was working as an unpaid consultant — now say they have proof of deeper problems.

Last week, they submitted evidence that they called “a proverbial smoking gun”: a 1922 songbook containing “Good Morning and Birthday Song,” with the birthday lyrics in the third verse. While other songs in the book are given with copyright notices, “Good Morning and Birthday Song” says only that it appears through “special permission” of the Summy Company. Under the laws of the time, an authorized publication without proper copyright notice would result in forfeiture of the copyright, according to lawyers involved in the case. Furthermore, under the 1998 law, anything published before 1923 is considered part of the public domain.

Warner argued that while earlier versions of the birthday song may have been published, they were not authorized by the sisters themselves. Also, no copyright covered “Happy Birthday,” the label argues, until it was registered in 1935, so there was no copyright to be invalidated in 1922.
Photo
A 1922 songbook that was submitted as evidence by artists claiming that “Happy Birthday to You” is no longer covered by copyright. Credit Wolf Haldenstein

Both sides have asked for summary judgment, and the judge, George H. King of United States District Court in Los Angeles, is expected to rule soon. Judge King could deny both motions and hold a trial — raising the possibility of a strange proceeding in which all principal witnesses are long dead.

As part of the evidence submission last week, the plaintiffs included a paper trail showing how they tracked down the songbook. It started with electronically scanned images from Warner of a 1927 edition of the same book, but with the publisher’s crucial permission line about “Good Morning and Birthday Song” blurred. Lawyers for the plaintiffs searched for other copies of the book and found one at the University of Pittsburgh; a 1922 edition was also located.

In a series of emails about the 1927 edition, a Pittsburgh librarian told Mr. Rifkin that the songbook had been found in a university storage facility.

“Here you go,” she wrote in sending it to him. “Surely the copyright hasn’t lasted this long.”

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August 5, 2015 / No Comments / More

An Old Songbook Could Put ‘Happy Birthday’ in the Public Domain – The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/business/media/an-old-songbook-could-put-happy-birthday-in-the-public-domain.html?_r=0

In a series of emails about the 1927 edition, a Pittsburgh librarian told Mr. Rifkin that the songbook had been found in a university storage facility.

“Here you go,” she wrote in sending it to him. “Surely the copyright hasn’t lasted this long.”

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Vinyl records at Guantánamo: Navy radio station resisted a recall | Miami Herald

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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article29795368.html

BY CAROL ROSENBERG

crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com (mailto:crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com)

** Vinyl records at Guantánamo: Navy radio station resisted a recall
————————————————————

Havana may have its classic American automobiles but, step into a back room of this base radio station, and the U.S. sailors who broadcast here behind a Cuban minefield have a vintage collection trapped in a time warp of its own.

There’s a trove of about 20,000 vinyl records saved from a headquarters recall in the ’90s and sometimes broadcast to base residents when the mostly strict military format allows.

In fact, Radio Gitmo has the U.S. military’s last broadcasting collection of vinyl records — and studios outfitted with turntables.

“We are more or less trusted with this media,” said Petty Officer Jared Collins, 26, a station engineer, standing amid rows of records in paper slipcovers in an obsolete TV studio. “It would be a crime to get rid of them.”

On a recent Friday he set a stylus onto a live recording of Chuck Berry’s My Ding-a-Ling and broadcast it to radio listeners among the 6,000 or so people on this base.

There’s a live Bob Marley concert and Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, John Coltrane recordings and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, part of a collection that for years the DJs wouldn’t discuss for fear that the bosses would order them to destroy them or ship the collection off the island, like other radio stations in the Defense Department broadcasting system.

There’s also Santana’s rendition of Oye Como Va, the Grateful Dead playing Radio City Music Hall in 1980, Led Zeppelin, The Brides of Funkenstein, The Doors — all predigital recordings pressed from the 50s into the 90s.

The Armed Forces Network (http://afrts.dodmedia.osd.mil/page.asp?pg=/gen_info/aboutbc) got out of analog music in the 1990s with a recall order to its outlets, says George A. Smith, chief of affiliate relations at the AFN Broadcast Center in Riverside, California. The Pentagon’s radio and TV network was transitioning to new technology, meaning “our only choices were to keep turntables to occasionally play records, keep the vinyl for historical purposes or dispose of the collection in accordance with our copyright agreements.”

One set went to the Library of Congress, says Smith. Another is kept in the broadcast center’s archive.

At Guantánamo, where the station’s jingle not so long ago was “On an island with no where to go (https://soundcloud.com/miamiherald/radio-gitmo-jingles-circa-2011) ,” it seems, the DJs just never got around to complying.

In fact, the vinyl collection was for years one of Guantánamo’s worst-kept secrets, something everybody seemed to know about but nobody wanted talked about beyond the base. It’s stashed in a room with station souvenirs — Fidel Castro bobble heads, T-shirt, mugs, key chains emblazoned with “Rockin’ in Fidel’s Backyard (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article1939257.html) ,” the station’s motto never uttered on the air.

Sailors assigned to the radio station were worried that, if higher headquarters heard about it, they might insist on its recall. But now, with vinyl making a comeback, the opposite has happened. Headquarters is hailing, not threatening, the unique collection at this unique outpost.

“The fact they still retain the vinyl records is their choice and used for special occasions,” Smith said by email, adding that only the Guantánamo station “is actively maintaining a record library and occasionally airing records on the air.” Their use is occasional, he said, a break in a mostly scripted military format — “merely an augmentation of the other current and relevant AFN services offered.”

So sailors squiring visitors around the station now enthusiastically let reporters look around and marvel at the collection’s database— a card catalog typed up by sailors starting in the ’60s to correlate with the LPs on the shelves.

On a recent visit, station staff offered estimates on the collection’s value, starting at $3 million, then revising it downward to $2 million or $1 million, if the records were sold individually on eBay.

The reality is, it’s priceless. And, frankly, theoretical. The vinyl is copyrighted — resale forbidden under the terms that the U.S. military acquired it — with its use limited to “authorized U.S. military community listeners overseas,” says Smith. So there can be no auction — on eBay or otherwise.

Radio Gitmo broadcasts three stations, much of it canned, in different formats — Top 40 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on one, country in the same time slot on another and a blend of all-talk broadcasts ripped from NPR, FOX, ABC and others, “so everybody can get their fix,” as Collins puts it. Night time brings electronic dance music and classic rock.

That leaves little time for the vinyl beyond Throwback Thursdays when the sailors who serve as DJs and engineers can more freely pluck from the shelves. And once a year the station does a fundraiser, a radio-thon. Callers donate a dollar to get a song played. The next caller donates $2 to get it off the air.

So, says Collins, the DJs get to play from the collection “every once in a while. We still have to comply with what we’re doing. When they want to hear Top 40, they’re going to hear Top 40.”

Follow @CarolRosenberg (http://www.twitter.com/carolrosenberg) on Twitter

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