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DEzerov View Drop Down
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Points: 340 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 10:43
There was a Manticore artist in the 70's named Junior Hanson who later became Junior Marvin  after joining the Wailers  (after Marley's passing). Jean Roussell (played with Cat Stevens) played with him and both were black. Now Hear This liner notes even thanked Keith Emerson for the use of his mini-moog.

    
                   

The moon is made by some lame cooper and you can see the idiot has no idea about moons at all - Nikolay Gogol
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Points: 758 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 10:48

Originally posted by jackinthegreen jackinthegreen wrote:

Balladen om björnbär och nätmelon...
(Hi, there, I'm a Franzén and a Frasse too).

I only have that song (from Kebnekaise III) on vinyl, but I don't have a vinyl record-player.

(It seems I always meet another Frasse where I hang around. It also seems that if you're called Frasse, you have a good taste of music.)
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Points: 7003 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 11:42

Originally posted by BaldJean BaldJean wrote:

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

You beat me to it again, BaldJean!

Robert Wyatt and Mike Oldfield have both collaborated with African musicians, and of course Peter Gabriel has a long standing friendship and occasional collaboration with Youssou N'Dour.

Captain Beefheart had the best take on the whole issue:

'Everybody's coloured. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to see them.'
'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'

Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom


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Points: 65 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 12:14
Perhaps the most prominent African-American figure in prog, especially jazz-rock fusion, is Stanley Clarke.
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Points: 1230 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 12:27
Originally posted by KEVO KEVO wrote:

Trust me when I tell you that I have a lot more problems with blacks than whites when it comes to the music i listen to. it's an issue for me because as a prog lover I have to deal with people who don't believe that I should be into it.

Well frankly those people are ignorant sacks and don't desrve your time if they think like that. Just love prog for the music, race is no factor.
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lucas View Drop Down
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Points: 8138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 13:29
Originally posted by KEVO KEVO wrote:

Rafe, you are of course KIDDING about the hip hop thing...at least I hope you are.

here are a few of the albums from the 70's.

 

I already suggested to add these albums but there was no echo. The first one is typical jazz-fusion, the blue one is a more mellow album, leaning more towards soul, with vocals by Alex Ligertwood (Santana, Dixie Dregs), the last one is a more diverse album featuring an epic that sounds as if it were written for UK during their 'Danger money' sessions (it features another excellent black artist on the first track, TM Stevens, a bassist who later joined Steve Vai on 'Sex and religion'). This album is one of my favourite jazz-fusion albums. David Sancious is clearly a prog artist, he is fond of classical, blues, and jazz and these influences are all present in his music.

I can cite some liner notes of the "blue" album :

"those who associated Sancious with the E street band were surprised to hear that many of his late 70s recordings had more in common with ELP, Genesis, PF and Yes. But embracing progressive rock made perfect sense to Sancious, an eclectic keyboardist, guitarist and composer..."what I liked about progressive rock was its blend of classical harmonies and modern rhythms" explains Sancious..."

 

That's enough to include him in the archives, no ?
"Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood)
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Points: 4338 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 13:39
How about Stanley Clarke and Lenny White from Return to Forever? George Duke with Zappa, Chester Thompson with Weather Report, Zappa and Genesis? To name a few


"What are you going to do when that damn thing rusts?"
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lucas View Drop Down
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Points: 8138 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 13:41

Originally posted by Garion81 Garion81 wrote:

How about Stanley Clarke and Lenny White from Return to Forever?

There was an incredible come back to jazz-fusion of these two monsters of fusion in the nineties with the release of VERTU, an album that featured also the hard-rock guitarist Ritchie Kotzen.
"Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood)
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Points: 106 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 19:04
Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Anyone heard of 'The Rotary Connection'???

I've liked this band for years. From Chicago, they formed in the late 60's they were a rock/soul fusion band described as having elements of progressive psychedelia on some albums. Their lead singer was Minnie Ripperton. They never achieved the commercial success they deserved, as the black community rejected them for their rock element, and a lot of the rock community couldn't dig their 'soul' side. They had a cult following and I think they deserve a mention.

Read all about it!..

http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/norway/119/rotaryconnectio n.html

BTW: if anyone can find a download of a RC song called 'I am the black gold of the sun' then check mit out. It's f***in' brilliant!


The site wouldn't load for me.

I've learned quite a bit from this thread.
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Points: 12818 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 19:24
Anybody caught the recent  DVD which pairs brass rockers  Chicago and brass funkers Earth Fire & Wind ( Black Americans plus a Russian guitarist!!) together. When the two team up and play each others numbers, a sort of syngerism happens. 
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Points: 16913 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 19:43
Originally posted by Drew Drew wrote:

Originally posted by pogoowner pogoowner wrote:

Doug Pinnick of King's X is the only person I can think of off the top of my head, though some here would argue that King's X is not prog.

Speaking of Prog Bands that have an 'X' Planet X

Guitarist- cant think of his name right now.....anyways- love seeing black dudes in bands- I think it kicks ass. (im white)

Tony McAlpine!

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Garion81 View Drop Down
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Points: 4338 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 19:45

Originally posted by Dick Heath Dick Heath wrote:

Anybody caught the recent  DVD which pairs brass rockers  Chicago and brass funkers Earth Fire & Wind ( Black Americans plus a Russian guitarist!!) together. When the two team up and play each others numbers, a sort of syngerism happens. 

Sounds interesting! Does Dawayne Bailey play guitar for Chicago on this?

 


 

 


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Biggles View Drop Down
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Points: 705 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 20:11
Originally posted by RaphaelT RaphaelT wrote:

 

KEVO, of course I was joking with hiphop and reggae and it was just a stupid stereotype that every black is a rapper or rasta. They are brilliant musicians on every instrument and they are not sparse in progressive world, even among greatest bands (see "A Great Gig In The Sky")

Actually, I believe the singer you're referring to is Claire Torry, who happens to be white. She has the powerful black soul voice, but she's definitely white.

All the renowned super virtuoso and hugely influential saxophonists seem to be black (Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, Cannonball Adderley). The only exception I can think of to this is the great Stan Getz.
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.

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Biggles View Drop Down
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Points: 705 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 20:13
The three most influential guitarists of the 20th century (Robert Johnson, Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix) were also black. Coincidentally, all of them left a massive legacy that would forever change popular music and died soon thereafter at a tragically young age.
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.

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Points: 3323 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 22:39
Herbie Hancocks - Headhunters and Billy Cobhams - Spectrum are two of the best Progressive Rock albums to be made in the 1970's. May not fit the UK definition of Prog, but they had a major influence on many of the lesser musical recordings made during the Canterbury scene in the mid to late 70's.  

Edited by DallasBryan
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Points: 608 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2005 at 22:59
Yeah, those are awesome. Spectrum has Jan Hammer on keyboards, which is reason alone to own it!
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Points: 6 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2005 at 00:22
Originally posted by BaldJean BaldJean wrote:


Malcolm Mooney, the first singer of Can, was black.

JEEZ!!!How the HELL could I have forgotten the great Malcom Mooney??
I would also agree that Hendrix was a progenitor of prog("1983",anyone?)as well as early Mandrill.
As to why more blacks didn't follow Jimi's path,there are a number of reasons.One:There's only ONE Jimi,baby.
Two:Generally speaking,the majority of blacks tend to be musically conservative,and many preferred to "play it safe"and stick to their guns of blues,soul,jazz,&r&b(which ironically,Jimi embodied ALL of),which leads me to
Three:Many blacks at the time felt alienated by Jimi's music- just because it was fulla distortion and wild and tripped-out,they felt his music was too "white".Which is ridiculous,because anyone who digs into his music will agree that his music was blacker than midnight.
Also,it's likely that most black musicians at the time who were inspired by him were discouraged by their fellow blacks.You know,"Whatchu wanna play that WHITE music for?"That attitude carried well on into the 80's.
But for every black musician who was discouraged from following his or her own muse,you had great players like Sonny Sharrock and Pete Cosey...
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Jangoclone666 View Drop Down
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Points: 6 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2005 at 00:28
Ah,I also forgot Dave Brown- Santana's first bassist.
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Points: 319 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2005 at 03:09

Well... imagine this power trio:

Guitarist:Jimi Hendrix

Drums: Billy Cobham

Bass: Victor Wooten
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Points: 727 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2005 at 06:21
Jimi Hendrix influenced a lot of progressive rock musicians in his fast guitar playing, extended solos, experimentation with a variety of instruments, imaginative production and showmanship. I could go on and on.
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