Harmony can never go out of style. The harmony, to me, it is more like a togetherness; people come together as a unit, to have a sound, where it brings peace into the ears, you know? One man can sound good, but harmony [has] more melody, more substance to it.
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Thursday March 31, 2022
REDEF
Mighty Diamonds lead singer Donald "Tabby" Shaw at the Hackney Empire, London, Aug. 18, 1988.
(David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
quote of the day
Harmony can never go out of style. The harmony, to me, it is more like a togetherness; people come together as a unit, to have a sound, where it brings peace into the ears, you know? One man can sound good, but harmony [has] more melody, more substance to it.
- Donald "Tabby" Shaw, 1955 – 2022
rantnrave://
Rock, Not With You

One of the producers who shared in the ACADEMY AWARD for QUESTLOVE's documentary SUMMER OF SOUL returned home to New York two days later, "saw the ceremony on my DVR and didn't have the stomach to watch it. I probably never will. Thank you, CHRIS—you absolute f***ing dick."

That's the collateral damage of not one but two Hollywood stars being unable to act like grownups in front of an international audience on live TV. Producer JOSEPH PATEL, who's a friend, posted his thoughts about Chris Rock, WILL SMITH and the OSCARS Wednesday on Twitter and quickly deleted them because Twitter is Twitter and the comments became almost as hard to stomach as those few minutes of chaos on his DVR. "I said what I needed to say and feel at peace with it," Patel tweeted afterward.

But in short, the producer, who made clear he was speaking only for himself, unloaded on "selfish" Will Smith for robbing a major life moment from the crews of all the nominated documentaries, whose category Chris Rock was there to present. "It robbed 'Summer of Soul' and our team of our moment. Of a loud, enthusiastic cheer for a celebrated film.” Hear, hear. Questlove, as Patel noted, gathered himself and made a powerful, emotional acceptance speech. But that doesn't absolve this year's Best Actor, who's also a rapper, of doing his best to take the moment away from the director of this year's Best Documentary, who's also the drummer in a hip-hop band, and his crew.

And then, after the slapicuffs, there was Rock's unrelated quip, upon opening the envelope, that the winners were Questlove "and four white guys." It wasn't a spontaneous quip. Rock had tried out the same joke at the ROOTS' pre-Oscars jam session at the EL REY THEATRE the night before. Patel isn't white. "The reason that makes me SO SO VERY ANGRY," he tweeted, "is because I was so proud to be one of a handful of South Asians to have ever won an Oscar." Two other South Asians, RIZ AHMED and ANEIL KARIA, won earlier Sunday night for Best Live Action Short. "It's meaningful! It’s history!," Patel wrote.

I'm sharing this because there's another major awards show this Sunday night, to be hosted by a comedian who's recently feuded with a musician (the comedian, I should note, has been a mature adult through all this), and there will be other people in the room with baggage, and there will be jokes, and there will be 86 categories of nominees—including "Summer of Soul" producers Questlove, Joseph Patel, DAVID DINERSTEIN and ROBERT FYVOLENT (category no. 86: Best Music Film)—who deserve a night that’s about them and not about somebody else's baggage. I assume category 86 will be awarded quietly before the telecast starts, as most Grammys are, but that doesn't change the importance of the moment for the creatives who made those films or any of the other art that will be celebrated that night.

So, please, tell your jokes, laugh a little, enjoy the performances and try your hardest not to ruin anyone else's night. How hard can that be?

Rest in Peace

DONALD "TABBY" SHAW, who spent more than 50 years as lead singer of roots reggae harmony greats the Mighty Diamonds, beloved for songs like "Pass the Kouchie," "Stand Up to Your Judgement" and "Right Time." He was killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday in St. Andrew, Jamaica... Singer TOM PARKER of British/Irish boy band the Wanted. He had second careers on reality TV and as a dance music producer. He succumbed to brain cancer at 33... Longtime rock and jazz critic JOHN SWENSON, who wrote for Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy and several other magazines starting in the 1960s (and never stopping). He also wrote several biographies and co-edited the crucial first edition of "The Rolling Stone Record Guide," the first serious roadmap I ever owned to the wonderful, wild and mysterious world of popular (and not so popular) music.

- Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
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Music of the day
“Have Mercy”
Mighty Diamonds
From their classic 1976 debut album, "Right Time."
Video of the day
“Rockers”
Theodoros Bafaloukos
Greek photographer and filmmaker Theodoros Bafaloukos set out to make a documentary about the reggae scene in Kingston, Jamaica, in the late 1970s and wound up instead with this classic feature film starring Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace.
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