"...for decades, both Harrison and I have always preferred the term African American - or Black - Classical Music for much of what is called jazz."
Dear friends,
It's always sad to learn about the passing of an old friend who you'd been meaning to coniact. Only a few days ago, I decided to stop vacillating and look up an old pal/colleague, using the Internet. His name is Harrison Ridley Jr. As far as I'm aware, there is/was no one with his outstanding wealth of scholarship, regarding both the history of the music idiom known as jazz, and its artists. (BTW, for decades, both Harrison and I have always preferred the term African American - or Black - Classical Music for much of what is called jazz.)
In any case, a tireless music historian and legendary radio personality who liked to be referred to as a “musicologist”, Harrison was a lifelong Philadelphian. Back in the Eighties, along with “Cousin Mary" (the namesake of Coltrane's classic number from the Giant Steps album), as well as the wife of the legendary drummer Philly Joe Jones and two other Philadelphia music notables, Arnold Boyd and saxophonist/teacher Lovette Hines, Harrison and I served as officers in a longtime jazz organization that was known as Trane Stop (founded by Boyd, and, obviously, named after the great John William Coltrane).
To think, I had planned on doing an interview for this blog with him. It would have been an incredible amount of wisdom to share. And while that will never happen now, unfortunately, still, on the link below, is some info about Harrison Ridley Jr.; he was truly a gentle giant, in so many ways. A very wonderful person, I’ll always remember his huge and constant smile.
"Love lives forever!" - Stevie Wonder
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wrti/.artsmain/article/17/208/1472515/WRTI.Spotlight/WRTI.Remembers.Harrison.Ridley,.Jr./
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