Harrison Ridley Jr. (1938-2009)

You probably didn't know of Harrison Ridley Jr. was unless you have been part of the Philadelphia jazz scene. I did because I began listening to "The Historical Approach to the Positive Music," his Sunday night jazz program on WRTI-FM, in 1981 when I would be driving home from work.

Ridley never called jazz just by that term. He would say "this music referred to as jazz," or simply, "the positive music." Whatever he would call it, his knowledge was encyclopedic, his love of the genre palpable, and his radio voice extraordinarily soothing.

Ridley died the other day of complications from a stroke. He was 70 in chronological years but timeless where it mattered most.