Thanks for posting this interview...


"Part of the genius of Institutional Racism is that long after Ol' Massa's Gone Away and The Last Overseer hung up his whip, fear has been a constant companion of the African American, justified or not. Black performers are uniquely vulnerable to that fear, because the stage exposes and further objectifies. The safest route then is to merely entertain, to make and keep people "happy" (unchallenged and unchanged, but edified). Not to take anything away from the skill and talent required. This is a long and powerful tradition, subverted, raged, and signified against, but potent nonetheless. "

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"I believe that Hendrix represented the pinnacle of the American Drama--an unruly avatar who heedlessly commingled tradition and anarchy to radically re-invent the role of electric guitar, and radically expand the notion of Black Identity by exploring it's outer reaches.
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~Vernon Reid



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

The jazz show on NPR recently highlighted Reid's music as the perfect fusion of jazz, hip-hop and technology, saying that it likely will be the prototype to study for guitarists in later years.

Great interview.

It's also interesting how the deaths of Malcolm X and Dr. King DID bring on a social conscious to R&B music all across the board, if only for a short time. It's amazing how Vernon pieces together why Marvin went from What's Going On to Let's Get It On which documents the beginning and ending of black self-empowerment in music though it still continued to some degree.