Celtic vs. black music

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

More on the ethnic question:

So, if rock 'n' roll is black music, then why don't more black people play 
it?  Why weren't there any black stars to step into Hendrix's place?  I'd 
say one reason is that they don't like those screaming guitars.  It started 
off as black music, but then it became something else.

>The question is, what did Hendrix hear in it?

You hear a lot of white rock 'n' rollers talk about what a genius Hendrix 
was, but none of them want to speculate as to why.  Santana, though, with 
his Native American viewpoint, takes a whack at it.  Santana seems to think 
Hendrix heard God.  Did Hendrix have any Native American background, BTW?

As an aside, Santana's technique is interesting to compare, as he's coming 
from a non-Celtic background.  Some of his electric work sounds like Spanish 
acoustic guitar, of course, but the electric notes are more flute-like, and 
he tends to blur the sound in the lower register.

Here's a Santana interview where he talks about Hendrix.  Excerpts follow.  
http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/ints/CARLOSS.ANT.html/

UV: Have you got a favourite Hendrix song or album?
CS: I think all the first three are still my favourites like anybody else. 
The first three albums by Jimi - it was like being captured
and put into a space ship and they take you on a trip and they bring you 
back instead of like jumping in a Mercedes or a Rolls
Royce. I especially always like it when Jimi Hendrix would play the song and 
then he go on to, uh, Chainsaw Massacre
Tazmanian Devil Aurora Borealis Galaxy - I like it when he start with the 
feedback. And I saw Stevie Ray do it one time too.
I'm sure he did it many times but I only saw him do it one time where he 
where the guitar became like an Aurora Borealis and all
this colours of sound were screaming out of it even though he wasn't putting 
his fingers on it. That's kinda like invoking ghosts or
something and that's my favourite part that I miss about Jimi is when he 
would open up certain channels and let certain demons
and angels dance together, you know what I mean - that it was beyond 'B' 
flat or 'C' flat. That's when it's music to me.
Anybody can play music just like anybody can think. Very few people are 
conscious and very few people can do something
beyond the note. So thank God that Jimi had that kind of spirit that...the 
foundation was the blues but he also was a very
cosmic person [laughs].
You know to this day I haven't heard anybody... I mean, I heard a lot of 
people pick up what Jimi completed or he was doing
but I haven't heard anybody complete it or really pick it up. Not only from 
the volume or the approach to the sound or the tone
but the philosophy behind it... Jimi didn't just play like that because he 
could strangle a Stratocaster or a Marshall, he played
like that because he saw it a certain way and he took certain things that 
made his spirit be stronger upon his playing. Otherwise,
anyone could do it - you just pick it up, lift it off from the CDs, you 
know, or the records. No, you had to have some kind of
thing like the Blues Brothers' mission from God or something, you know. But 
you have to have some kind of inner fueling, inner
anger or inner passion, some kind of really, really emotional spill-over on 
your playing otherwise it won't sound like that even if
he had the same amplifier and the same guitar and everything - it still 
won't sound that way. I crave to try to create an album
that basically goes that way, more like Sun Ra and Sonny Sharrock and Jimi 
Hendrix, you know, with a little bit of lyrics and
very little vocals but mainly the electric guitar and the Hammond organ and 
the congas. Tell stories of interplanetary or galactical
or celestial time rather than just earth time. I think that's what Jimi 
Hendrix used to call 'Sky Church Music'.

UV: Do you know how many Hendrix live tapes you've got?
CS: No, but I have a lot. And I have a lot of friends that have even twice 
as much than I have, you know. It's amazing because
most of this music comes from Indian reservations [laughs], of people who 
are doctors and medicine men in Indian reservations
and the stuff that they stack up is just two people - Jimi Hendrix and Bob 
Marley, you know. So there's a big pool of things
that are yet to come out, you know, from both.


keets
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