Just switched on my computer and found that Prince has died. This was a real shock and, for me, he perhaps represents the last great figure in black popular music before rap eventually led to the diminution in standards where you end up with "artists" of the likes of Kanye West who is something of a joke from a musical perspective.
Prince was probably the most significant pop artist in the 1980's and his career mirrored the point at which jazz started to rediscover itself. I have a sneaking admiration for his best work which all benefit from the kind of off-kilter grooves that have been an addictive influence for more open minded musicians. Miles Davis described Prince at the Duke Ellington of the 1980's and whilst I don't think that Prince was working on the same scale as Ellington, he was probably more musically savvy than most of his contemporaries . There are clips that have gone around of Miles jamming with Prince and the latter famously made a jazz album where he played all of the instruments on the multi-tracked effort. (The results aren't supposed to be that great but how many other pop artists would have been capable of doing this? in my opinion, Prince was a far more significant artist that David Bowie but probably too challenging for most white audiences.
This article is quite interesting:-
Prince was probably the most significant pop artist in the 1980's and his career mirrored the point at which jazz started to rediscover itself. I have a sneaking admiration for his best work which all benefit from the kind of off-kilter grooves that have been an addictive influence for more open minded musicians. Miles Davis described Prince at the Duke Ellington of the 1980's and whilst I don't think that Prince was working on the same scale as Ellington, he was probably more musically savvy than most of his contemporaries . There are clips that have gone around of Miles jamming with Prince and the latter famously made a jazz album where he played all of the instruments on the multi-tracked effort. (The results aren't supposed to be that great but how many other pop artists would have been capable of doing this? in my opinion, Prince was a far more significant artist that David Bowie but probably too challenging for most white audiences.
This article is quite interesting:-
(The Artist Formerly Known As WTF??)
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