< And the
> interplay between musicians, weaving together their instrumental
> voices, is just much more interesting than whatever one individual
> can do with a sound machine....experientially so for me anyway.
there are some fine complex things going on now in NYC, at least. like a Mali/Guinea band around gourd xylaphone but _also_ with keyboard/computer that plays really late at night (1 to 6 AM) to Guinean/Mali immigrant community on Saturday nights in old movie theatres in the Bronx. i've heard tapes that are amazing.
and on a prior point in this thread, there's a revolutionary pattern/tradition from at least reggae in first post-colonial period to anti-imperialist spoken word stuff in NYC today (a working musician nephew is a link and so i know it wonderfully exists today & makes me sometimes so happy).
like now i'm listening to Macka B's (1998 Ras Records in DC) "suspicious..." the cut "same old story" sets out elements of the fundamental Monthly Review analysis (not stagnation, however) as well or better than we have ever done. "road rage" on that CD though is my fave (telling the story of a straightwhitemurrikan getting our of car livid with Macka B about a close accident on a deserted road, going over to his car and taking off like a bat on discovering that Macka B is a giant Rastaman).
of course you're right that the commercial gatekeepers poison and kill whatever and whomever they can, but like in the 60s and 70s many really bright young musicians are trying to figure out how to get around the gatekeepers. the record companies are so hated now, like HMOs.
john mage