According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the famed jazz club Yoshi’s in Oakland, Calif., has pulled the release of its 10th anniversary CD, Live at Yoshi’s: Anniversary Compilation, due to the absence of African-American artists on the disc.
Yoshi’s undertook the project in March with a short deadline in May to commemorate the club’s tenth anniversary. As a result, club owner Kaz Kajimura and artistic director Peter Williams hastily assembled the album from recordings of live performances at Yoshi’s.
“We really messed up on the CD,” Kajimura told the Chronicle. “We apologize to anyone who feels slighted by this omission, as that was never our intention.”
Before the disc hit store shelves, about 500 of the 1,000 records were sold online at the club’s Web site. Eventually, complaints started pouring in that the CD lacked racial diversity.
The Yoshi’s incident is now causing Bay Area residents to question the lack of African-American performers at this summer’s Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival.
For more information and to read the Chronicle article in its entirety, visit sfgate.com.
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