Is Latin-America becoming the new prog leader?

 

It might be me ... or where I live ...

 

I always thought that other countries were always better than America when it comes to Prog of any kind ... and most of it has to do with the way arts are run in America ... by money ... and most of them are not art ... they are just "products" ...

 

Europe has a much more extensive musical history and thus, hearing something different and more experimental is not exactly out of the ordinary ... and is often times acceptable. And there are a lot of way out there zones in there ... I mean some of the jazz improv stuff in Paris is hard to even label ... likewise the likes of Heldon, Pierre Henri and many others did the same thing with an electric guitar ....

 

America, because it has no neighbors (other than Mexico -- and it shows in the LA area!!!), in many ways is immune to hearing anything else but a different version of the same country song and dance. And that limits the cross cultural talents and abilities that usually come with the majority of prgo bands.

 

When I was in Brazil, this was the 60's, there was always an explosion of experimental and vibrant music that was (often) not in the pop idiom ... and in there at least they recognized some of it ... however, I find it really bizarre that even Brazil does not usually mention Egberto Gismonti ... and he is by far one of the most experimental and "out there" composers that can sound like Stravinsky one minute, Villa Lobos the next and Jazz the next and Bossa Nova the next ... all mixed ... and because we are "ear tuned" to top ten, it's hard for anyone to accept and understand a lot of music that defies description ... but at least in some places there is some respect for the musicality and artistry of it ... something that does not happen in America where the likes of Frank Zappa are still bums from LA ... as far as most music industries and bs are concerned.

 

Places that have a wider, and larger, body of history in the arts (not just music) will usually have a lot of things going on ... and it is just a matter of us looking at it or not ... specially nowadays, where the Internet is breaking down the barriers ... which is the best thing to all the xenophobic ears out there ...