Vinyl is hot again! The once-outmoded recorded music media has taken on new life and new interest among a younger demographic, swimming against the digital current of today. Afropop.org is launching a new series following the adventures of Tasha Goldberg, a globe-trotting vinyl hunter, who will share her treasures with us and take us back to the time when records were round and groovy, and by doing so explore history, music and culture.
Ms Goldberg is a traveling reporter for negotiations on sustainable development for the United Nations, and a consultant of sustainable strategies for international businesses. As a trained herbalist and experienced tarot card reader, she is also drawn to the mystical aspects of culture in addition to the political and social fabric of culture. Her love of music and collection of vinyl has taken her on adventures of discovery, meeting the people and places that tend to the fires of tradition. Traveling the world, she delights in tracing the connections, building bridges.
She explains the source of her passion and the impulse for the "Voices in Vinyl" series on Afropop: "Music is my favorite tour guide, my most trusted compass; as in the way a flute can humbly catch your attention and lead you, like a butterfly, to realms of revelations. Music is and has always been a platform for exchange, where musicians transcend… and take us with them.
"Each place has a soundtrack, a sonic clash of the heartbeat of tradition with the arcing nuances of whatever is now. This pulse is the check-in point of the condition of the heart, the place to press up against, to listen, to feel. Vinyl albums are, in a way, sonic artifacts that document diasporas, that trace the movement of people. Recordings preserve this awareness, recreating, in each play, an authentic experience of the voice of the people.
"Collecting vinyl is just part of my DNA. I still remember my momma’s style of dancing without making a record skip. When I graduated to my own home sound system, my father began passing his treasured vinyl collection over to me. Each album had layers of stories; his story, the story of the sound….and soon my own. Over batches of 10 or 20 at a time, I received these bookmarks of time, space and feeling. Listening sessions expanded my awareness of the world outside myself, and thereby inside myself. I was sonic time-traveling through the jet streams of soul, funk, jazz and of course rock 'n' roll.
"As I travel the world, the sonic blueprints bridge a connection to truth, revealing the liner notes of subcontext. In each place I have visited, music links people together. Building bridges in pulses …. and when it sounds good, it feels good. As a selector, I treasure these links, these pieces of broken histories and want to place them back on the altars. The Cuban revolutionary poet Jose Marti wrote that “music is the soul of nations.” With an ear to the soul of these nations, and a hand over my heart, this is an offering of salutations to the hearts of revolutionaries. Each post features selections of records from my collection, curating culture through the voices of the people, the voices in the vinyl."
buildingbridgeshub@gmail.com
buildingbridgeshub.com
tashagoldberg.com
