Remembering Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks was a legendary renaissance man. He was a photographer, moviemaker, producer, director, painter, publisher (a founder of Essence magazine), and a fascinating bon vivant. In 1971, when his landmark movie,?Shaft, hit movie screens, it revolutionized the depiction of Black folks. Never before was a Black man portrayed as an action figure and hero in a mainstream movie.??

That same year, 1971, I was part of a social club called The Best of Friends. We started promoting after-work discotheques at the Ginza in midtown Manhattan. I will never forget the night Danny Berry, our DJ partner, used two copies of "Theme From Shaft," to extend the bridge for about ten minutes. It drove dancers into a frenzy. The sights and sounds of so many people dancing the Penguin to the hot cymbal riffs of "Theme From Shaft," will never be forgotten.

I realized that night that we experienced something new and exciting. It was a few years before I heard the phrase "disco craze," but that is what it was. Word of mouth extended quickly across the country within Black communities. It took another four years before it went mainstream, around 1975.?

In 2002, at Gordon Park's 90th birthday party, I was honored to offer him a toast. Afterward, I asked Mr. Parks if he was aware of the impact of his movie soundtrack on the disco craze of the 1970s. He said he was, but in my mind, you had to be in the room to appreciate the powerful emotion that it generated.?

Read more about the colorful 1970s in my book?After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party. It's available on Amazon and in bookstores.

#disco #musicbusiness #nightclubs #Leviticus