Music: Late Microsoft co-founder leaves Treasure Trove of Records purchased from Alpha

-Re-posted from Foundation Ska

Sis Mary Ignatius

When I heard the news on NPR this morning that Paul Allen had died, my mind immediately went to

Paul Allen

Sister Ignatius. I had long heard rumors that Allen, co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates and billionaire businessman and philanthropist, purchased Sister Ignatius's record collection and so I inquired and confirmed this fact in December 2015 with the director of curatorial affairs for the Experience Music Project, the museum that Allen founded in Seattle. Today the museum is called the Museum of Pop Culture and one year after it opened in 2000 it housed an exhibit called, "Island Revolution: Jamaican Rhythm From Ska To Reggae, 1956-1981." It was then, for this exhibit and for their permanent vaults, that the museum purchased a number of artifacts from Alpha Boys' School, including instruments (one of Don Drummond's trombones), the iconic Alpha sign (which was loaned out to the Jamaica! Jamaica! exhibit in Paris in 2017), and Sister Ignatius's own turntable.

Sister Ignatius's Gerard turntable, in the Museum of Pup Culture collection

But it is Sister Ignatius's record collection that is in Allen's private collection. These are the records that Iggy used to instruct the boys, shaping their musical education by illustrating the sounds of all genres of music. Here is an excerpt from my chapter on Sister Ignatius in Alpha Boys' School: Cradle of Jamaican Music that illustrates how important this record collection was to her boys:

"It was because of her passion for all kinds of music that the band program prospered. It is quite a sight to imagine 'Bones' in her full habit, spinning records at a DJs turntables, music pumping from the huge speakers for the boys who danced to the hits, but that’s exactly what Sister Ignatius did on many occasions at Alpha Boys School. Sparrow Martin recalls his days as a student when they all listened to her tunes. 'So she would come on Saturdays and she would have a whole lot of record, you name it, classical, jazz record, pop record, all kind, Latin, American, European music, Cuban music, and mento music, and she would say, "Okay today we are going to listen to classical music," and she would take out Beethoven, Bach, and she says, especially to the band boys, "Listen to your classical music." Then she’d say, "Okay, I’m going to play jazz for you today," and she’d play jazz music. Then she’d play Cuban music. Now we don’t speak Spanish but she would take Spanish music from Cuba and she’d say, "Listen to the drums, listen to the bass, listen to how they play saxophone." She would sit down with you so you have the interest,' says Martin ... Tony Greene remembers her spinning records for the boys and said she had a fine ear for popular music. 'She know everything that was going on outside on the street. She could tell you what song was number one what song was number two, anywhere in the world. She used to amaze us! We’d say, "How she know that? How she interested in that?"'

So what will happen to Sister Ignatius's record collection? One would assume that it will become part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Pop Culture, but this is likely a matter for the lawyers and estates. I do know that I asked the curator of the museum to donate the Alpha Sign back to Alpha Institute or to the Jamaica Museum Museum since it is part of Jamaica's cultural and historical heritage and is not even on display in Seattle and sitting in the vaults. I was told that it is available for loan, if the institutions in Jamaica wanted to borrow it. Though I know that Sister Ignatius had the best intentions of her boys at heart, selling these items to acquire essential funds for the school that have deeply benefited the education and care and well being of these children who now will go on to lead productive and healthy lives, thanks to this sale; I still cannot help but feel that it is somehow wrong for a wealthy American businessman to essentially exploit and harvest the fruits of the rich cultural heritage of Jamaica. If the items were on display (and I know that a large percentage of museums have their valuable collections in vaults and not on display), that might be different since the public would be able to view, enjoy, learn from, and be inspired by these artifacts. But when they are in storage, and worse yet, in a private collection, that just feels like the spoils of wealth. I don't doubt for a second that Paul Allen deeply loved and cherished these records and that he was a worthy vanguard but this seems different than just a record collection--these are historical artifacts