Captain Bliss wrote: "As a social, cultural, historical phenomenon, certainly."
At a fixed point in time, possibly, I'd agree with that. But nothing stays the same and the social, cultural aspects have changed since the days when let's say jazz, soul, rap & blues were originated...even black blues players growing up today (say in their teens & 20's) are growing up in a world that is very different from when guys like Muddy, Sunnyland Slim, Lightin' Hopkins were growing up. Blues hasn't been the mainstay of black popular American music for 50yrs (it's probably not even the music that their parents listened to), so apart from limited access to the few surviving originators/performers from the time when it was contemporary music, ANY blues player today has to learn from what is going on around them now and from old recordings etc.
In that respect, the "genie is out of the bottle", as it is with reggae, rap, jazz, soul...whilst all these genres are undoubtedly music of black origin, many of us today have grown up listening to them from day 1 & they have been as much the soundtrack to our lives as anyone elses. Music is for the people that love it.
There is no "blues gene", if there was (there wasn't - there was never a time when ALL black people loved the blues), it has disappeared from the vast majority of black perfomers & fans today. Blues & jazz are American art forms, originated in the black communities, most black people in the world are not American & were not part of those communities. They have/had their own roots music, which may/may not have had a common ancestry, but at the end of the day is a different thing.
Nice work 7LimitJI...I can see this one running & running, then getting deleted...bear baiting just not giving you a kick anymore? :-)
I certainly won't delete it. I can't see any reason why the moderators would feel the need to. NOTE TO MODERATORS: please email me before taking any action against this thread.
I'll submit--and thank F. Scott Fitzgerald for the insight--that the true test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two irreconcilable ideas in the mind without an irritable reaching after certainty.
Here are a couple of such ideas:
1) Anybody who tells me that I don't have the "right" to play the blues because I'm white is full of crap.
2) Anybody who glibly repeats the line "No white, no black, just the blues" as though it's the final word on the matter is full of crap.
I find it possible, and useful, to hold both ideas in my mind at the same time. When you do that, you tend to soften that fighting word, "crap," just a little.
The blues themselves are often about two irreconcilable ideas, or feelings, held in tension: I hate to see you go but I love to watch you walk away, etc.
So an adequate understanding of the blues might require that we avoid monological simplifications, blanket "last-word" statements, and try for a little dialectical nuance.
Last Edited by on Jun 15, 2010 5:29 AM
But blues are also about history: about having worked five long years for one woman and then she had the nerve to throw me out.
Any adequate understanding of how race and the blues intersect probably needs to take both the present "racial situation" and the past "racial situation" into account: both the present moment in which the blues (and we) find ourselves, and the long history of the world into which the blues were born.
White people have been playing the blues for a very long time, BTW. Jimmie Rodgers was playing the blues in the 1920s. Sophie Tucker was known as "the last of the red-hot mamas" before that.
"Nice work 7LimitJI...I can see this one running & running, then getting deleted...bear baiting just not giving you a kick anymore? :-)"
I'm not baiting. Provoking, yes. But only because Adams post provoked me into a response.
"Is "Strange Fruit" as powerful when sung by a white artist?" Has a white artist ever covered this? I think not. Though it was originally a poem,written by a white Jew, Abel Meeropol .
My take is that much music from the past depicts hard times and oppression.
Many Scottish and Irish folk songs are about racism and segregation.Far more openly than most blues songs.
Yet, you can be any colour or creed and cover this music without any ill feeling or commentary.
The right to play does not have to earned, you don't have to live it,to play it, or be the correct race or colour.
I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse but I see flashes of color when I play and hear music and blues is almost always a murky yellow or deep orange-ish color.
2 - I think we really have to look at the socio/economic factors that spawned the genres in the past tense today. The roots of certain musical genres (if not most popular music genres) were in the black community, that will never change. However, today, the larger contingent of performers & fans might come from outside that community (which itself may have changed beyond recognition by now)...when the music travels through the airwaves/ether it can only hope to fall on sympathetic ears...that's its target. The record companies & the artists typically want as many people to buy the product as possible. It hasn't always been that way & social/political/regional factors that existed in the past simply don't apply in the same way anymore. Even WC Handy stumbled on the blues by accident.
3 & 4. I often feel that when subjects like this are raised, the tendency is to look at them micro, rather than macro...colour is colour, nationality is nationality, the two might dovetail, but they are not mutually exclusive. In other words, the racial aspect in these threads often only considers "race" as it pertains to black/white Americans. Was blues (as we know it) ever the music of choice for Aboriginal Australians, countries like Senegal, Sudan & Mali, Pacific islanders like those from Vanuatu and other black skinned people the world over?
If we take a venn diagram, one big circle for the world population, then gradually divide things farther, black poplulation, black US population, players & fans of blues (at the time of the 40's/50's), you begin to see that there is nothing specific linking blues to "black people", when considering the wider world population. The blues was a marginal music, of a marginalised people even in it's "heyday". I don't want anyone misrepresenting what I am saying here, I'm not seeking to take anything away from the communities that spawned the genre, I'm not saying that white folk may/would have done it anyway...just that it was the product of a specific environment & socio/economic factors.
Many black American people were in similar situations & facing the same difficulties & hardships, but the blues wasn't necessarily their music of choice. Some people have/had hard lives & some people play/played blues.
"5. the best we might aspire to is a society / history / culture which transcends race and simply loves music" - Society & culture, yes, Amen to that sentiment. For better, or for worse, history has already been written, we can just aspire to learn from it.
I'm 42, I have grown up listening to soul & reggae (well early ska, rocksteady etc), it has been mainstream music for my entire lifetime, it has never been something that I have ever had to travel to a specific area/community to hear, that's what I mean when I say the "genie is out of the bottle". It's the same for fans of rap accross the world today (though it's not my cup of tea these days, it's been mainstream since I had enough pocket money to buy records with it). The originators & defining exponents always will be/have been from the black US communities, but there are kids of all colours, in virtually every corner of the globe inspired by it & emulating it, propogating it, loving it.
It undoubtedly might seem odd to guys who feel they are the "real deal" today, but then what would Broonzy & Tampa Red had thought if it was suggested that their songs were going to be played accross all the major towns in W Europe decades after they would pass?
Last Edited by on Jun 15, 2010 6:11 AM
You guys are to deep. So, does music have a colour, and if so why ?
Keep it simple. Enjoy the day you have,and be thankful for it. I try not to pollute my mental world with complicated issues that I cannot change in any way. Now how can u f up does music have colour. Timbre is also known in psychoacoustics as tone quality or tone color. Fight nice .
Last Edited by on Jun 15, 2010 6:09 AM
"Is "Strange Fruit" as powerful when sung by a white artist?" Has a white artist ever covered this? I think not.
Just from Wikipaedia alone:
Tori Amos Siouxsie Sioux John Martyn Robert Wyatt UB40 Sting The Cocteau Twins Jeff Buckley
I've heard a couple of these, powerful, eerie and provocative they may have been, but nothing like the shiver that goes down my spine when Billie sings it.
True it was written (as a poem) by a white man, but it is the performance of a proud, defiant, successful black woman that makes Holiday's performance definitive.
Art without context loses something.
How would we feel about the poetry of Wilfred Owen if we learned he spent the Great War in a cosy cottage in Norfolk?
What if the diary of Anne Frank was a work of fiction by a 48 year old Englishman?
The blues of the delta in the early 20th century is more than just music it is an oral history.
The same can be said of Protest Song in the 60s, Punk in the 70s and HipHop in the 80s. It stands on its own as music, but with the knowledge of the social/economic/political context in which it was recorded, it leaps out of the speakers and kicks you hard
Last Edited by on Jun 15, 2010 6:39 AM
"The originators & defining exponents [of rap music ] always will be/have been from the black US communities,"
Not completely true. The Beastie Boys are white and were there very early. Cypress Hill are latino guys. There are probably other examples (I'll let Vanilla Ice out of it...).
/It stands on its own as music, but with the knowledge of the social/economic/political context in which it was recorded, it leaps out of the speakers and kicks you hard./
Because (for me, anyway), the fuller the appreciation of the circumstances in which the music was created, the richer and more meaningful the music.
@ VLUN - "Context is important in art. How would we feel about the poetry of Wilfred Owen, if we learned he spent the Great War in a cosy cottage in Norfolk? What if we learned that the Diary of Anne Frank was a work of fiction by a 48 year old Englishman? Would they continue to stand as tall as works of art?"
Let me expand on that - What if we found out that popular European stories of white aristocracy were written by a black man?
I don't disagree entirely re,. context, but I do feel that context & concept are often things that we bring with us to the table & use them to reinforce our own perceptions. If somebody could muster the emotional response that Owen & Frank did, through fiction, are those emotions that you feel any less? Do women only cry when watching factual films, never at fiction? After all, when these things are adapted to screen, or radio, we don't get them first hand, they are transmitted via an actor...it's as much a testament to the actor's ability to convey the situation, as it is the source. If Anne Frank had lived through the war, I'd like to think her diary would still be just as relevant.
You do seem to slightly contradict your own standpoint, first it's the teller of the story (in Billie) that makes it relevant, then it's the situation of the writer (Owen, Frank)?
Many, many definitive versions of well known blues songs (obviously not all) are covers and corruptions of other men's work.
Last Edited by on Jun 15, 2010 7:03 AM
Nasty, PM me if you like & get it off your chest, but if there is a racial slur in my thread I'd be surprised & frankly shocked. I think you at least owe me the opportunity to have it disclosed to me & respond accordingly?
Gloth"Not completely true. The Beastie Boys are white and were there very early. Cypress Hill are latino guys. There are probably other examples (I'll let Vanilla Ice out of it...)." Not early, late. The Beastie Boys weren't rapping in the '30's check out the Golden Gate Quartet "preacher & the bear". In more recent chart times, they were a good 10yrs behind other less known/commercial rap.
You do seem to slightly contradict your own standpoint, first it's the teller of the story (in Billie) that makes it relevant, then it's the situation of the writer (Owen, Frank)?
No. It is the power of combining both. A white man's observations of inhumanity and racism become far more poignant when sung by a black voice - it adds a whole new stark reality. A soldier's observation of the futility of war become more poignant knowing that he died in the trenches.
Why do you think films like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" start with "Based on a true story"? (no matter whether that claim is true). It erodes that layer of disbelief that allows us to disengage ourselves emotionally. Thus it becomes all the more scary.
When I heard Sting sing Strange Fruit, my thoughts were of another white millionaire trying to demonstrate his liberal credentials. Admittedly a value judgement on my part. Billie Holiday suffered, you can hear it. I am left wondering if she actually witnessed a lynching.
As a white, middle class man, I am not saying that you have to be black to sing the blues. Simply that art without context is less powerful than art with a real story behind it.
Nasty, my point is simply that "black people" encompasses more than just African American people. Blues was originated by African Americans, but the assumption that it is, or ever was, the preferred music for all people with black skin the world over is erroneous. The blues today is typically no longer the music of choice even for the majority of African Americans (popular culture can be fast moving & fickle whatever your skin colour), even back in the day it was frowned on by some, as was much secular music.
Nasty, my point is simply that "black people" encompasses more than just African American people. Blues was originated by African Americans, but the assumption that it is, or ever was, the preferred music for all people with black skin the world over is erroneous.
I Savy:) and I'm going to bed Nighty Night:)
Last Edited by on Jun 15, 2010 7:39 AM
The lead singer in our band will often say;"I sang that too white." It always gives me a good chuckle,but it's true. Ever hear Pat Boone's version of "Tutti Frutti"? Could Barry Manilow do a credible version of "Mojo"? I not saying white (wo)men can't sing the blues,but they are certainly emulating black (wo)men when they do.
Race matters when it comes to understanding a type of music's place in history, or understanding how it developed over time. This type of understanding is important for our development as a conscious species.
I don't believe that race matters one bit when it comes to playing or performing that music, or even listening to it and enjoying it as music.
One might as well say that an actor must intimately understand the entire backstory of his/her character's history, race, economic station etc. before he/she can play that role.
I'm reminded of the Anthony Hopkins anecdote, where someone asked him what he was thinking about when performing one of his signature scenes for the camera. His reply: "Probably about lunch."
It's possible to over-analyze things that defy analysis.
Scojo, your Hopkins quote also reminds me of a Sir Lawrence Olivier quote...
“My dear boy, why don't you try acting? (on the set of 'Marathon Man', to Dustin Hoffman, who had announced that he'd gone 3 days without sleep in order to 'become' his character”
There are numerous levels on which I enjoy the blues. You can just dig the groove as a listener, or the groove plus the meaning of the lyrics (due to the universality many of them possess), or the enjoyment of ensemble playing as you sustain the groove...
But one important way of enjoying the blues is to appreciate them in the context of how they arose and why they were written. There are certain songs I will enjoy but would never dare play because I don't feel I have the right to stand in the shoes of the musicians due to their specific temporal, political meaning. I would never sing "I'm a MAN" because it is such a strong civil rights message that it would be a joke for me as a white man, who never had to endure the racism that the song protests, to pretend to be feeling the meaning and import of the song. I'd be disrespecting both people I revere and the suffering of countless millions.
But I'd have no qualms singing a less serious boast song like "Hoochie Coochie Man", which was all about getting the singer laid. And that motive has no color.
As to whether or not I am entitled to sing the blues at all - I stand shoulder to shoulder with Adam's view on that. Music is music and as long as you avoid songs that would be silly for you to sing, then knock yourself out.
It reminds me of Miles Davis' comment when he was criticised by black commentators for hiring Bill Evans to play in his outfit. He said, "Find me a black man who can play better than this cat and I'll hire him."
Let me qualify what I said, slightly... the lyrical content of a song might require a certain amount of race consciousness for one to perform it... much like Ev630's example. But that's lyrical, and even then I'd argue it only applies in very specific cases.
What I object to (and I should note that Adam was NOT suggesting this -- in fact, he specifically repudiated it) is the idea that, somehow, there's a racial or cultural component that one must somehow access in order to "feel" a certain type of music... be it blues, jazz, bluegrass, or whatever.
To me this is complete hogwash. You need to be in tune with the universe to feel music at all. That's it.
Captainbliss, I'm not really disagreeing with you, I don't think. the more context one has, the more honestly one can portray any work of art. I'm talking about a different type of idea that imbues the music with a racial component that is somehow inherent to the style itself.
There's a bigger (for me) topic here, which is this: I think all genre classifications -- jazz, blues, country, rock, whatever -- are mental shortcuts that do far more to serve marketing purposes than they do to describe so-called "types" of music. I'm with Brother Ray: "There's two types of music... good and bad." (Even that might have been pushing it.)
No, we're not disagreeing and your "hogwash" sits very well with kudzurunner's "crap" as a description of any attempt to exclude musical human beings from being musical human beings.
One of my dearest and oldest friends in the whole world is a "man of color". This is a guy with whom I have trusted my life and my back on many occasions. He's like a brother to me (although, when I call him that he's quick to remind me I have to capitalize it since he is a "Brother". We have a running joke between us that he is not a "black" man, but rather more of a "monkey shit brown" man.
I saw your post with that in it and discharged all over my laptop.
I do want to say, though, that I don't really feel I am disagreeing with Adam, for whom I have an enormous amount of professional and personal respect. I am just warning of the danger of injecting too much "race" into the music itself. Having an understanding of the historical and social context of music is never a bad thing.
It's not just color. Gender, nationality, it all gets sucked into how music gets viewed. Eminem has a song,'97 Bonnie & Clyde, where he describes killing an ex over a child custody issue (with the child watching no less). Because he was a man singing it it sounded like he was endorsing violence against women. When Tori Amos covered it seemed like an anti-violence anthem. I had a girlfriend who was an Eminem fan. She loved his version. Tori Amos's version creeped her out.
"'97 Bonnie and Clyde" Eminem
Just the two of us..
[Eminem] Baby your da-da loves you (hey) And I'ma always be here for you (hey) no matter what happens You're all I got in this world I would never give you up for nothin Nobody in this world is ever gonna keep you from me I love you
C'mon Hai-Hai, we goin to the beach Grab a couple of toys and let da-da strap you in the car seat Oh where's mama? She's takin a little nap in the trunk Oh that smell (whew!) da-da musta runned over a skunk Now I know what you're thinkin - it's kind of late to go swimmin But you know your mama, she's one of those type of women that do crazy things, and if she don't get her way, she'll throw a fit Don't play with da-da's toy knife, honey, let go of it (no!) And don't look so upset, why you actin bashful? Don't you wanna help da-da build a sand castle? (yeah!) And mama said she wants to show how far she can float And don't worry about that little boo-boo on her throat It's just a little scratch - it don't hurt, her was eatin dinner while you were sweepin and spilled ketchup on her shirt Mama's messy isn't she? We'll let her wash off in the water and me and you can pway by ourselves, can't we?
Just the two of us.. And when we ride! Just the two of us.. Just you and I!
See honey.. there's a place called heaven and a place called hell A place called prison and a place called jail And da-da's probably on his way to all of em except one Cause mama's got a new husband and a stepson And you don't want a brother do ya? (Nah) Maybe when you're old enough to understand a little better I'll explain it to ya But for now we'll just say mama was real real bad She was bein mean to dad and made him real real mad But I still feel sad that I put her on time-out Sit back in your chair honey, quit tryin to climb out (WAHH!) I told you it's okay HaiHai, wanna ba-ba? Take a night-night? Nan-a-boo, goo-goo ga-ga? Her make goo-goo ca-ca? Da-da change your dia-dee Clean the baby up so her can take a nighty-nighty Your dad'll wake her up as soon as we get to the water Ninety-seven Bonnie and Clyde, me and my daughter
Just the two of us.. And when we ride! Just the two of us.. Just you and I! Just the two of us..
Wake up sweepy head we're here, before we pway we're gonna take mama for a wittle walk along the pier Baby, don't cry honey, don't get the wrong idea Mama's too sweepy to hear you screamin in her ear (ma-maa!) That's why you can't get her to wake, but don't worry Da-da made a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake Here, you wanna help da-da tie a rope around this rock? (yeah!) We'll tie it to her footsie then we'll roll her off the dock Ready now, here we go, on the count of free.. One.. two.. free.. WHEEEEEE! (whoooooshhhhh) There goes mama, spwashin in the wa-ta No more fightin wit dad, no more restraining order No more step-da-da, no more new brother Blow her kisses bye-bye, tell mama you love her (mommy!) Now we'll go play in the sand, build a castle and junk But first, just help dad with two more things out the trunk
Just the two of us.. And when we ride! Just the two of us.. Just me and you baby
is all we need in this world Just me and you Your da-da will always be there for you Your da-da's always gonna love you Remember that If you ever need me I will always be here for you If you ever need anything, just ASK Da-da will be right there Your da-da loves you I love you baby
@Chris re: "Blues most certainly has a color. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse but I see flashes of color when I play and hear music and blues is almost always a murky yellow or deep orange-ish color."
If you haven't read it, read Oliver Sack's "Musicophelia". What you experience is a rare but documented condition known as synesthesia. It is when stimulation of one sense triggers perception in another. Some people taste color - and some people definitely see color associated with music, although if I remember the book, they associated specific notes with specific colors, as opposed to styles. But if you're interested in learning more about the brain and music it is an absolutely fascinating book.
Tuckster said, "Ever hear Pat Boone's version of "Tutti Frutti"? Could Barry Manilow do a credible version of "Mojo"? I not saying white (wo)men can't sing the blues,but they are certainly emulating black (wo)men when they do."
I don't think that's a matter of race. It's a matter of the singer's style. I thought Andy Williams might do a great rendition of "Unchained Melody, " so I looked it up. Boy, was I disappointed!! He sang it with NO feeling. (Anti-rock & roll attitude, I guess.) Andy and the Rightous Brothers are all white, but the styles are different.
Janis Joplin can sure belt the blues, and she's not imitating blacks. She sings the way she feels it...with a Texas accent. Early Led Zeppelin could really belt the blues without imitating blacks.
But then again, maybe sometimes music does "have color." I can't see black people doing polka or Irish jigs. How 'bout Asians doing mariachi.
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2010 1:34 AM
"Early Led Zeppelin could really belt the blues without imitating blacks."
Having heard their intro to "bring it on home" (1969 I think) I'd disagree with that. The intention may have been a respectful homage to Rice Miller, but somehow that's not how it comes over to me.
...I'm with Greg & the synesthesia phenomenon. Beyond that, sound can be a hard thing to express verbally, or in writing, so I guess if you can use colour & someone knows what you mean (though without a common glossary, I don't know that could be assumed), then it's job done. People use phrases describing texture regarding sound/music all the time, so it could be another medium in that vein?
However, even a single note can be very complex when played, interms of envelope, attack, harmonic texture, it strikes me as simply describing that as a colour can't really convey all it's attributes..."Yeah, that sounds like tan corduroy", or "green sandpaper"?
Other than that you can bring whatever attributes you like to music, its just a matter of whether those attributes trigger the same perceptions in others and you can establish a common syntax.
There's the anecdote about a composer who, when catching his friend looking out the window at the scenery, said, "Don't bother I've already composed all that."
Does music have a color? Whew. I know that iTunes has a feature that creates all kinds of weird flowing designs when you turn it on and let any particular song cycle through it.
Obviously there are a lot of music books that have the term "black" in the title, most notably Leroi Jones's BLACK MUSIC, followed by Ben Sidran's BLACK TALK. So I suppose one answer to the OP is "Some people think so."
One of the most interesting new books on the subject is Guthrie P. Ramsey's RACE MUSIC: BLACK CULTURES FROM BEBOP TO HIP-HOP. Ramsey is a terrific jazz piano player; I sampled a couple of cuts from his latest album on iTunes and immediately purchased the whole thing. (It has a smooth jazz feel, a little like the Crusaders brought up to date, with incredibly catchy melodies and interesting harmonies)
He starts his book by giving you a capsule autobiography in which he describes his journey through ten or twelve different stages of one contemporary black life--from various sorts of church music-making apprenticeships through various bohemian/jazz and "white music" phases. He was a suburban rocker at one point; an Earth, Wind, and Fire guy at another point. The book is written for academics, obvously--he takes a long time to ground his points; he investigates the inadequacies of various sorts of musicology--but he's refreshingly free from jargon and he has no political axe to grind. It's great stuff. He would answer the OP by saying that the incredibly diverse bunch of musical cultures that were his musical education, most of them in Chicago, helped him understand the ritual underpinnings of black music: the way that food, dance, song, and fellowship all became an instrinsic part of the music. Interesting book, and definitely a step forward from more politicized, less nuanced attempts to define "black music."
Charles Keil and Stephen Feld's book MUSIC GROOVES talks about the "color"--the idiosyncratic feel--of various famous bassist/drummer combinations in mainstream jazz. Or at least one of the essays does.
@Gene: If you can't see black people doing klezmer music, then you need to investigate the career of Don Byron.
I ran into Bill Ferris (William Ferris, blues scholar and founder of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss) at the Chicago Blues Festival last weekend and he mentioned the Black Banjo conference in the North Carolina Mountains. It gets bigger every year.
http://www.blackbanjo.com/
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2010 4:03 AM
In 1975, one of the biggest #1 hits was "Top of the World" by the Carpenters. In some ways it's the antithesis of the blues. But Karen Carpenter's voice has a color that I've always found entrancing. Among aficionados of pure pop singing, her reputation is stellar. Not to everybody's taste--some might call the song insipid--but I happen to have a weakness for what she does. Here's another hit, with some harmonica up front:
At 1:10 in this video, she hits that place in her vocal range that has the "color" I'm talking about. It's kind of liquid--deliquescent might be a better word. I don't know any other singer in any idiom who achieves that particular vocal coloration. I'm sure Buddha does, though! Check out the routine that begins at 2:30 here. By the time she gets to the big drumset at 3:10, it's hard not to love that girl:
My old jazz teacher Curt Harmon used to talk about color in music all the time. You usually look for it the upper partials 9,11,13, or altered notes. This is rather simplistic and incomplete but you get the idea. I always think of it as sweet spots.
In my arrangement of Tenderly there is a spot were the melody is the #11 of the chord.
Gene Peurling the great vocal arranger the Singers Unlimited was great for color.
Okay, I am a black woman (and beginning blues harp player) and here's how I see it. . . if it weren't for the white guys, those rabid white guys blues fans, the blues wouldn't be alive today, because black folks have basically abandoned it. Same thing with jazz, for the most part. Hell I even went to see George Clinton a few weeks ago and the audience was pretty evenly split between older black folks like me who were into Parliament Funkadelic back in the day and young white hipster types who are newer fans and they are the ones keeping the music alive today. George Clinton wouldn't even be touring at present if it weren't for those white fans. And I feel the same way about the blues. I'm glad it's "turned white" so to speak otherwise it would be a totally dead, nostalgic art form.
So sick of this color thing in music. Growing up I caught hell from my white friends for listening to rap and I caught hell from my black friends for listening to rock. . . to this day I am rocking Led Zeppelin and Skip James in my ipod.
As far as I'm concerned there are many soulful white players. I'm a singer so I'll focus on that, IMO Janis Joplin is one of the greatest blues singers ever. White folks don't have to imitate a black style to be soulful, there is lots of soul for instance in traditional Irish fiddle music, if there is heart there then there is soul, and that's how I feel about that!
I come from a jazz background and most of the folks I played with were black, and sometimes there was grumbling about white folks "stealing" jazz, but that's a lot of BS, white folks were there from the beginning, maybe not in as large numbers but enough white folks made significant contributions to the music. . . it is a truly American form, like blues. And it is still evolving. That is a beautiful thing.
>>But then again, maybe sometimes music does "have color." I can't see black people doing polka or Irish jigs. How 'bout Asians doing mariachi. <<
How ridiculous! Like, can you imagine a white guy playing South African music? Whoopsie, Paul Simon won a couple of Grammys for doing just that (Graceland, 1986).
Screw the racial limitations. If you feel it, you can play it. I'm a black woman who used to play punk rock. Yeah I grew up on the Sex Pistols and the Clash and the music came naturally to me. Later in life I used to play with this very soulful jazz bass player who just happened to be Japanese. Have you ever heard of the black jazz clarinetist Don Byron? He was recording klezmer music (Eastern European Jewish music) back in the 90s.
