RIP Dick Griffey

Richard “Dick” Griffey, the founder of Solar Records which stood for Sound of Los Angeles Records passed away on September 24.  Solar Records was the home to many music artists I listened to back in the 70′s and 80′s including Shalamar featuring Jody Watley, Lakeside, the Whispers, Klymaxx and Midnight Star.

Dick Griffey, Founder of Solar Records, Is Dead at 71
By DENNIS HEVESI

Dick Griffey, the founder of the Solar record label — known for bringing a funky, laid back, California sound to soul, R&B and disco in the ’70s and ’80s — died on Sept. 24 in Los Angeles. He was 71.

The cause was complications of quadruple bypass surgery, his daughter Regina Griffey Hughes said.

Solar was an acronym for Sound of Los Angeles Records. It was started by Mr. Griffey in 1977 as a spinoff from Soul Train Records, a company he had founded several years earlier with Don Cornelius, the creator and host of the long-running, dance-driven television variety show “Soul Train.” Mr. Griffey had been the show’s talent coordinator.

Under his aegis, Solar signed groups like Shalamar, the Whispers, Lakeside, Dynasty, Klymaxx, Midnight Star and the Deele. And by 1980, The Los Angeles Times called Mr. Griffey “the most promising new black music executive” in the country.

Shalamar, which included several performers from the “Soul Train” show, went on to score more than a dozen hit singles, among them “The Second Time Around,” which topped the soul music charts and crossed over into the pop market. Other Shalamar hits were “Right in the Socket,” “Make That Move,” “A Night to Remember” and “This Is For the Lover In You.”Also among Solar’s biggest stars were the Whispers, who brought their intricate harmonies to hits like “It’s a Love Thing,” “Chocolate Girl,” “Rock Steady” and — their best known — “And the Beat Goes On,” which Mr. Griffey helped write. Other Solar hits include Lakeside’s “Fantastic Voyage,” Babyface’s “It’s No Crime” and Klymaxx’s “The Men All Pause.”

Solar Records had some great music back in the day.  Check out Lakeside’s Raid.

Mr. Griffey is survived by his wife singer Carrie Lucas, five children and five grandchildren. RIP Mr. Griffey.

White descendants honor black ancestor

The white descendants of the first professionally trained African-American physician recently dedicated a tombstone at his recently unmarked grave in New York City.  Dr. James McCune Smith was born to a black mother and white father.  After being denied admission to several American universities, he was accepted to the University of Glasglow in Scotland where he obtained a bachelor degree, a masters degree and a medical degree.

Descendants of 1st black US doctor mark NYC grave

By KAREN MATTHEWS (AP) – Sep 26, 2010

NEW YORK — White descendants of the nation’s first professionally trained African-American doctor gathered in a cemetery on Sunday to dedicate a tombstone at the unmarked grave where he was buried in 1865.

“Right now I feel so connected in a new way, to actually be here,” said Antoinette Martignoni, the 91-year-old great-granddaughter of James McCune Smith. “I take a deep breath, and I thank God, I really do. I am so glad to have lived this long.”

Smith, born in New York City in 1813, wanted to be a doctor but was denied entry to medical schools in the United States. He earned a degree from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, then returned to New York to practice. Besides being a doctor, he was celebrated in his lifetime as a writer and an anti-slavery leader.

The white descendants including Dr. Smith’s 91 year old great granddaughter just recently found out about their relative after Dr. Smith’s great-great-great granddaughter, Greta Blau took a course on the history of blacks in New York.  She found out that the surviving children of Dr. Smith apparently passed for white.

The story of why Smith was nearly overlooked by history and buried in an unmarked grave is in part due to the centuries-old practice of light-skinned blacks passing as white to escape racial prejudice. Smith’s mother had been a slave; his father was white. Three of his children lived to adulthood, and they all apparently passed as white, scholars say.

Greta Blau, Smith’s great-great-great-granddaughter, made the connection after she took a course at Hunter College on the history of blacks in New York. She did some research and realized that James McCune Smith the trailblazing black doctor was the same James McCune Smith whose name was inscribed in a family Bible belonging to Martignoni, her grandmother.

Her first response was, “But he was black. I’m white.”

Blau, of New Haven, Conn., concluded that after Smith’s death, his surviving children must have passed as white, and their children and grandchildren never knew they had a black forbear, let alone such an illustrious one.

It’s good to read that they’re accepting of their ancestor without feeling embarrassed or ashamed.  According to Joanne Edey-Rhodes, the professor to taught the class about the history of blacks in New York:

Joanne Edey-Rhodes, the professor whose course led Blau to discover her ancestor, said Blau had written about Smith in her paper for the course.

“She was writing about this person and didn’t realize that that was her very own ancestor,” Edey-Rhodes said.

Edey-Rhodes, who’s black, said that to be black in America in Smith’s time “was a horrible condition.”

“Black people were a despised group, and to many we still are a despised group in the world,” she said. “I think that it is so important that at this time in history, that a family that is classified as white can say, ‘I have this African-American ancestor,’ and be able to do it without any shame, without having to hide it.”

Congrats to the Washington Redskins

After my crying fit last week about the Redskins loss to the St. Louis Rams, the Skins defeated Donovan’s McNabb’s old team, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Sunday 17-12.

A return to victory

By Jason Reid
Monday, October 4, 2010; D1

PHILADELPHIA – With his Washington Redskins teammates eagerly requesting more, quarterback Donovan McNabb felt obliged to deliver after their effective performance in support of him.

They chanted for McNabb, who moments before had received the game ball from Coach Mike Shanahan, to say a few words after the Redskins’ 17-12 victory in his first game here since he was traded from the Eagles. McNabb surveyed the locker room and continued to lead.

Instead of focusing first on his personal situation with Eagles management, which spurred the surprising Easter Sunday trade between NFC East rivals, McNabb talked about what the victory could mean for the Redskins. He did, however, save a zinger for the Eagles at the end, making it clear they erred in trading him within the division. And McNabb apparently knows his audience.

“It went over real well,” outside linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said of McNabb’s impromptu comments. “The things Donovan said, that stays in the locker room, but we were all feeling for him what he was feeling for himself deep down. . . . Any time a guy has played in a city for 11 years, and they trade him away like this, he wants to come back to win. We wanted to help him do that.”

On an overcast day, the Redskins helped McNabb leave Lincoln Financial Field with a victory in front of 69,144 people. Washington evened its record at 2-2 after consecutive losses and moved into a first-place tie atop the NFC East.

Eagles fans were very polite when Donovan was first introduced before the game. But after that they were the usual boo birds.

We’re in first place in the NFC East.  So how long will that last