Blacks In PROG? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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KEVO

Forum Newbie

Joined: September 15 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 8

Posted: September 15 2005 at 23:42

Samhob you are sharp cookie!

Claim YOUR Victory!

Jangoclone666 View Drop Down

Forum Newbie

Joined: September 15 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 6

Posted: September 15 2005 at 23:57

Hey,Kevo- Thanks for the leads.I'm gonna look for this stuff.
As for where you can strut your proggy stuff,I'm not too sure.Maybe Myspace Music...

Ah!I forgot- there was Carley Coma,who used to vocalize for Candiria.And then there was ex-Traffic bassist Rosko Gee,who played with Can for a short while(along with percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah- check out their Saw Delight album).

Phil Lynott fronting a prog band woulda been CRAZY outasight(not that I don't love Thin Lizzy).

Switchblade stings in one tenth of a moment
Better get back to the car

Odysseus

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 10 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 346

Posted: September 16 2005 at 00:05

The africans created a genre which helped define prog and is also the genre (besides prog) I play the most on my guitar

. Yeah, I'm talking about Jazz.

dropForge

Forum Senior Member

Joined: April 24 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 608

Posted: September 16 2005 at 00:17

KEVO wrote:

I am of African descent (by way of Pennsylvania!) and was surprised to see that David Sancious and Tone were not included in the A - Z list of prog acts.

I was wondering about that, myself. Forest Of Feelings, Just As I Thought and Transformation–The Speed Of Love are fantastic albums. True Stories took it down a couple of notches, unfortunately, but those three albums ably demonstrate Sancious for the virtuoso he is.

KEVO wrote:

I am the first to admit that there doesn't seem to be a lot of black prog acts around. I dunno why. I grew up listening to Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis and me and my other proggy black friends would listen to and discuss how great these bands were. Yes is still my all time favorite band.

Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Doug Pinnick of King's X (two of my favorite bands, right there, in hard rock or any genre) have already been referenced. The Wooten brothers have been mentioned. Additionally, the one act I've read of that was considered a black prog act, down to the Mellotron and requisite side-length epic, is Mandrill. Mandrill went much more commercial after just a few years, but I understand the first several albums are straight-up prog (certainly the first, with the epic).

Littlewashu5 View Drop Down

Forum Groupie

Joined: March 26 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 84

Posted: September 16 2005 at 00:18

One of the members of Mars Volta is black....

dropForge

Forum Senior Member

Joined: April 24 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 608

Posted: September 16 2005 at 00:21

Oh: one of my favorite guitar players, Mike Henderson of Djam Karet! They have another spectacular new album, Recollection Harvest; street date is next Tuesday, but Cuneiform's already shipping!

http://www.djamkaret.com

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com

Six clips from the new album:

http://www.djamkaret.com/index3.php

Check 'em out!

SlipperFink View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: September 12 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 230

Posted: September 16 2005 at 02:31

Alphonse Mouzon. The drumming on Patrick Moraz's "I" is so friggin'
brutal it's a joke... Too bad the mix is a unmitigated disaster.

It's funny...

"Da Kullad Kidz" never made a big dent in Prog.

I always found it bizzare and inexplicable.

I remember having a conversation with Anthony Jackson back in the early
80's and finding out Genesis was one of his favorite bands!!!!

Anyhoo.

I played in a local prog band back in the mid-seventies with a young
black guitarist named Mike Robinson. He was astounding. His dad was a
church organist and minister and had about 3 different Hammonds
kicking around the various rooms of his house.... Basically... All the
models we couldn't afford... An old "A", a B3 and a C3 with a full
pedalboard. We had an M3, which was the same basic tone generation as
the big ones... But the manuals ran out before ya got to the 'money" low
keys... So, being the teenage knuckleheads we were... We used to wait
until his parents split to visit the relatives for a day or two... set up the
band in his living room and wildly flail on all the classic ELP and
Triumvirat stuff till the neighbors called the cops.

Ahh me.

The folly of WhaddYaCallit.

SM.

Edited by SlipperFink

the icon of sin View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: July 29 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 588

Posted: September 16 2005 at 02:41

Planet X's Tony MacAlpine (who plays anything, and well) and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta. And it's good to see people liking King's X - i think they're really underrated.

Eetu Pellonpaa View Drop Down

Special Collaborator

Honorary Collaborator

Joined: June 17 2005
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 4828

Posted: September 16 2005 at 03:17

paulindigo View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 24 2005
Location: Italy
Status: Offline
Points: 490

Posted: September 16 2005 at 03:40

Jimmy Jackson, who played keyboards with German bands Embryo
and Amon Düül II and Noel McCalla, the vocalist on Rutherford's
Smallcreep's Day

Edited by paulindigo

Cluster One View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: February 03 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 780

Posted: September 16 2005 at 03:47

I was just gonna say WHAT ABOUT JIMI?!?? (But then Eetu came through with a pic of the master on the last post!)

Miles Davis (Bitches Brew) deserves a mention as a Jazz/prog masterpiece (more jazz than prog?). Miles as a musician is without peer.

I think the fact that Prog is/was born in the UK and flourished/flourishes predominantly in Europe in more modern times means/meant that not many black (i.e. American) artists explore(d) the genre. A similar thing can be said as to why jazz is predominantly a black American creation and so few others outside of the US were influential in its initial heyday. All the very best Jazz artists hail predominantly from the US! (Big generalizations here I know, but in essence they are true)

Ironically Jazz and Prog have much in common with their weird time sigs, elite musicianship and improvisationism!

Marmalade...I like marmalade.

BaldJean

Prog Reviewer

Joined: May 28 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 10387

Posted: September 16 2005 at 03:58

Malcolm Mooney, the first singer of Can, was black.
Andy Anderson (drums), Joe Blocker (drums), and Curtis Robertson (bass), who all played with Steve Hillage, are black.
also of course the Yoruba Dun-Dun Orchestra, who play on a few records of Embryo.
those are ones that immediately come to my mind

Edited by BaldJean

A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta

paulindigo View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 24 2005
Location: Italy
Status: Offline
Points: 490

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:02

I don't know if it counts, Ritchie Havens sang on two tracks of Steve
Hackett's Please Don't Touch.
On the fusion side, Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra)

BaldFriede View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: June 02 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 10261

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:08

Gerald Luciano Hartwig of Karthago, Guru Guru, Embryo and the Roman Bunka Band, seems to have a black parent (I suppose father; it was not uncommon in post-war time in Germany). he seems to be a brother of 70s soccer player Jimmy Hartwig too; they look quite similar and have the same name

BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.

krauthead

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 30 2005
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 509

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:21

The drummer of German band Exmagma: Fred Braceful, he's a very talented musician too and Exmagma is a very good band... I've said before that when I'm going to start reviewing albums here I'll start with the both albums of Exmagma.

*Dancing madly backwards on a sea of air* - Captain Beyond

Nazgul

Forum Senior Member

Joined: August 30 2005
Location: Poland
Status: Offline
Points: 148

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:21

blacks can't play prog, and white can't play basketball

krauthead

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 30 2005
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 509

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:23

Nazgul wrote:

blacks can't play prog, and white can't play basketball

So Wrong

*Dancing madly backwards on a sea of air* - Captain Beyond

Nazgul

Forum Senior Member

Joined: August 30 2005
Location: Poland
Status: Offline
Points: 148

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:28

krauthead wrote:

Nazgul wrote:

blacks can't play prog, and white can't play basketball

So Wrong

Yes a few white can play basketball
Oh... come on dont be so serious

Lindsay Lohan View Drop Down

Forum Senior Member

Joined: May 25 2005
Location: Norway
Status: Offline
Points: 3254

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:30

Nazgul wrote:

krauthead wrote:

Nazgul wrote:

blacks can't play prog, and white can't play basketball

So Wrong

Yes a few white can play basketball
Oh... come on dont be so serious

there seem to be alot of great black bassplayers tho...but i cant think of a black composer wich i like

and isiah owens is a great black mellotronist btw

[IMG">http://imagegen.last.fm/sideRed/recenttracks/Fjuffe.gif">

Bob Greece View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Greece
Status: Offline
Points: 1823

Posted: September 16 2005 at 04:32

Kevo - I am really pleased to hear that there are black people interested in prog. Good on you and I hope that there become more.

I would also suggest Jimi Hendrix. He is not prog but he was surely at the roots of prog as well as the roots of heavy metal. He is a hero. In fact, he is the only artist from the 1960's that I can bear to listen to. It amazes me to think that it was a black guy that started it all so why didn't many blacks follow his lead in rock?