Electric Purgatory Articles RSS Feed

Director Raymond Gayle featured on "Crizzle's Critical Condition" of the News&Observer

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Audio Interview with director Raymond Gayle with Uncle Crizzle of the News& Observer talking about the state of Comic Book filsms and all things Yaphet Kotto.

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/category/tags/electric-purgatory

29-Apr-09 10:00 AM

Electric Purgatory director Raymond Gayle interviewed by Peter Finch of KFOG

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Week of February 15th: Black Rockers

Why hasn't there been another African American superstar like Jimi Hendrix. Raymond Gayle looked at it in his documentary "Electric Purgatory."

29-Apr-09 10:00 AM

Electric Purgatory DVD Release Date

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:00:00 GMT

Greetings Family,

I wanted to get everyone caught up on all the activity relating to the film. I want to start by thanking everyone who was emailed about the release of the film. We first started screening Electric Purgatory in March of 2005 and had our last screening in February of 2008. During this time I have been inundated with traditional distribution opportunities. The negotiating process has opened my eyes to what has been lacking in Hollywood, VISION. I felt that I owed the many musicians who donated their time and energy as well as fans of the film to get the best possible situation I could for Electric Purgatory.

I truly feel that I have achieved this by signing on with Cinetic Media. They presented me with an exciting, progressive business model that coincided with my vision for distribution for Electric Purgatory. I delivered all materials for the film to Cinetic back in April and it's been nonstop anticipation ever since. I was told that Electric Purgatory would be ready for release sometime this summer. I must say I felt even more at ease when I found out Matt Dentler of SXSW fame had joined Cinetic Media as head of marketing and programming operations. (Texans always do it better!)

It has been quite an emotional rollercoaster ride for me with Electric Purgatory. We started filming back in September 2002 with principle photography ending around July of 2004. The final edit was completed February of 2008. The dvd contains many exciting tidbits that were held from the Festival run including an exclusive interview with HR of Bad Brains. In the meantime, please feel free to visit us on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter by following the links below. I'll be giving more updates as we get closer to the release. Thanks again for all your support.

All the best,

Raymond Gayle

Director/Producer Electric Purgatory: the fate of the black rocker

www.myspace.com/electricpurgatory

www.facebook.com/pages/Electric-Purgatory-the-fate-of-the-black-rocker/25790141392?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/rgayle

6-Jul-08 9:00 PM

KPFT Radio Interview with MO

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 02:00:00 GMT

Mo from KPFT 90.1 Houston, TX interviews director Raymond Gayle about the film and the state of Black Music.
Director Raymond Gayle is candid with his views on why black audiences fail to support a genre their ancestors helped to create. ROCK MUSIC. This interview took place in March of 2007 as part of the Objectif Radio Hour with Mo. Click the link below to listen to the interview. For more information go to Objectif Magazine.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/Objectif/electricpurgatory.wav

23-Mar-07 9:00 PM

Against the Grain, Outside the Box, and Up in Heaven

Colette Gaiter - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:00:00 GMT

By Colette Gaiter
Photos: Trish D. Motolinia

Consider the term “black rocker” in reference to a musician. It seems like an oxymoron. Black musicians do not play rock and roll, or so the cultural myth goes. Raymond Gayle’s film Electric Purgatory--the Fate of the Black Rocker breaks through those myths with the same intensity as the music itself--driving, relentless, and full of passion. Combining interviews and sequences from live performances, the film tells a visual story we have never seen about music we should have heard, but probably have not.

In the first weeks of January 2007, the innovative hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first rappers to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Many soul and R&B artists, such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, are long-standing members. Rock and roll has expanded its boundaries again.

Late twentieth century music and current popular music have constantly evolved into new forms, styles, and categories. Distinct categories of music--rock, R&B, hip-hop, country, easy listening, Christian, metal, gospel, and numerous others--define the recording industry. Though the rise of independent electronic music distribution is bound to change the music business as we know it, for now, the categories persist. There will always be artists who cross over from one category to another or experiment with a different style, but the industry organizes itself around labels, literally and figuratively.

When I talked with Raymond Gayle, I told him I wanted to talk about the film and his work as a filmmaker, but not particularly about the subject of black rockers, since so many other reviews and interviews (available on the web site) seem to have covered that. I asked him what he meant by “electric purgatory.” He said, “It’s about the struggles of black rock musicians. Being black and playing rock music is not accepted by white or black audiences. Black rockers are in musical purgatory.”

I complimented the film’s thoroughness of scope: It showcases rock songs by artists such as Sly and the Family Stone, Rick James, and others who are usually associated with other music categories, like R&B or funk.

Gayle responded, “It’s an impossible job, you know, but I tried to give as many shout-outs as I could. Of course, you can’t do it in an hour and 23 minutes. There are so many people I left out. I was hoping that would be sort of like the starting point, and maybe go from there afterwards.”

When asked what inspired him to make the film, he replied, “I was always a fan of Fishbone, Living Colour, and other bands like them. I found it odd that they never reached the level of success of, say, Jane’s Addiction or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. No Doubt was influenced by garage ska bands. Bad Brains influenced punk bands, blending metal and punk, but never reaped the benefits. Why does this happen?” He went on, “Black musicians are not expected to go outside the box.”

But enough about the plight of black rockers, I said we were not going to dwell on that. I asked him what he loved most about film.

“Well, it’s a medium where anyone can express themselves and have their work viewed and interpreted by people all over the world. I’m not going to sit up here and say I’m going to turn down a million-dollar deal with HBO. The problem we have with a lot of entertainment media is that there’s no soul to it and everything is so constructed towards that--commercialism. I just felt that, hey, I just want to tell this story because in my opinion it that hasn’t been told. Forget all the other stuff. When I was growing up, I didn’t know movies made money, you know what I’m saying? I just went. … There were two incidents I can remember in childhood that that made me want to get into this industry. One was, of course, Star Wars, which I saw with my dad. He took me to see it when I was four or five. The other was a Richard Pryor film called Which Way Is Up? As a kid, I knew what was going on. I thought it was funny.

“Just the film experience at that time--standing around in the long line, the smell of popcorn and all that, having quality time with my dad--that’s kind of why I said, ‘Okay, I want to do this.’ It brings back great memories for me. With multiplexes, the experience is not the same. I think you can get popcorn in vending machines now,” he laughed. “I kind of like the buildup, the excitement of going to a movie and waiting in line, the anticipation.

“I wanted to get into film to tell stories, to be able to have people come and get lost for however long--an hour or so--and kind of have that magic. I think if you do things with passion and a good heart, all the other stuff comes later.”

A lot of directors would say, "Shame on you" for editing out certain parts, but a lot of times I had to cut the camera off. They were telling me some real deep stuff.

I asked him a Barbara Walters “if you were a tree”-type question. “If you could magically be granted any technological wish you wanted, what changes would you make in the technologies of shooting and editing film and/or video?”

Gayle quickly replied, “I would want a camera that could capture pristine sound and images without mikes and lights. You could be a one-man crew. In terms of editing… rendering time is just so long. Software that would make rendering time shorter would be great.”

I told him I had heard that photographing and shooting indoor live performances is as challenging as it gets. I asked him how he dealt with the pre-existing lighting conditions, an inability to control noise and sound to some extent, people moving around, potentially in front of the cameras, and other obstacles.

Gayle’s answer did not surprise me. “It is a challenge” he said. “A lot of interviews we got were on the fly, backstage. We couldn’t take a lot of equipment back there. The best we could do was shoot it and hope that everything would work out or [that we could] fix it in post. A couple of times we did have a controlled setting. Joe’s Pub in New York let us shoot for, like, four hours.”

I pointed out that some of the archival photos and video are not of the best quality, but they may be the only record of certain events. This is always a problem with using historical artifacts in documentaries. I asked Gayle what his criteria are concerning technical quality.

“When I was doing the research. I had hours and hours of stock footage that I had to go through. It really boils down to, What captures the essence of the piece? What do you think the listener or the viewer will kinda gravitate to? That’s an artist decision and you’re taking a chance. Like the Prince footage. It was not the best footage, you know, from 1981, but the guitar solo was so killer, it embodied the whole essence of his musical talent, so you let it ride. To me, story will always win out. You just stay true to it and trust your gut.”

He talked more about finding historic footage. “A lot of people don’t realize how hard it is to find this stuff. It’s not just sitting around,” he explained. “[Stock footage library] Historic Films stepped up to the plate in terms of giving me the footage I needed and really working with me. Broadway Video was also great. It took a while to find out who had rights to the Saturday Night Live footage. I had to have that footage. Many of the artists, like Cody ChestnuTT and Bad Brains, and companies like EMI, gave me footage. Everything else fell into place.”

When asked how he got his subjects to be so relaxed and forthcoming, Gayle explained, “To be honest with you, I was just real with them. I came at them like a brother. They said things like, ‘Man, you flew all the way out here to interview me?’ They knew I was passionate and serious. That meant a lot to me. I made a commitment to them. I said, ‘I am going to tell your story.’ ”

Gayle showed compassion for his subjects in a way that many filmmakers or journalists would not have. The conventional wisdom is that the storyteller remains “objective,” but in reality, who can really do that when human stories are involved? Gayle chose humanity over the tabloid scoop. Artistically, his work will have more credibility in the long run because it tells a complete story, over 83 minutes, rather than inviting viewers to fast-forward to a few minutes of sound bites with industry gossip and pseudo-shocking revelations.

As he said, “A lot of directors would say, ‘Shame on you’ for editing out certain parts, but a lot of times I had to cut the camera off. They were telling me some real deep stuff--tabloid-type material. I decided I am not going to exploit them. It was really difficult for a lot of the guys to talk to me.” Gayle is inspired by Spike Lee, especially his When the Levees Broke and the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. He said, “You are going to be influenced by others. I don’t think any artist can say that [a technique or style] is theirs.”

I asked him how he visually capitalized on the fact that people are used to hearing rock music and seeing white musicians. In the film, black people play hard rock music, creating a visual paradox.

“My original concept was to film everything in black-and-white and have only performances in color--to play off the energy of the performances and the irony of the race thing” he replied.

I asked him about the extensive background information and interactive timeline on the film’s web site. Gayle explained, “I wanted the website to be a gateway to some of the bands and help people learn more. It’s all about the artists. It’s not about me, it’s about them. Hopefully that’s what the end result will be. That was the goal. The fact that I was able to interview all these people I grew up admiring was a dream.”

He has two favorite scenes in the film. “The Prince footage. It was a two-minute clip that I had to cut down… The Fishbone segment. It’s tough to watch. No Doubt, Jane's Addiction, and other bands they influenced have this great success. [Fishbone] deserved that and didn’t get it. It hurts.”

When I asked him what’s next, he said, “I want to do it all. I want to do an intelligent urban horror film. Every urban film is stereotypical. I want to work across all genres and tell a different story.”

Like the musicians in his film, Gayle will not be put into a racial box. Describing his approach to filmmaking, he said, “We read about and honor people who went against the grain. We need to get back to that and not take the easy way out. [Making this film] was a struggle, for me and others.”

Gayle’s dedication and willingness to follow his heart leaves us a groundbreaking and poignant film that does not forget that it’s about rock music. Audiences will come for the music and stay for the story. And it’s quite a story.

7-Feb-07 10:00 AM

Monki's Second Communique From The Turks and Caicos International Film Festival!!

Kerry Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:00:00 GMT

Greetings humans, Monki here with an update from the Turks and Caicos International Film Festival. Things are going great here on this beautiful island; the people are laid back, the ocean is beautiful and the rum punch is flowing. I'm sure Moriarty would enjoy the sand and sun much more so than his damp lair out in California. I'll toast my next drink to you Mori.

Thursday's movies all fit together quite well. They all complimented each other nicely. I began with two films dealing with the hip-hop culture, followed by an intriguing look into the African-American rock and roll scene and then capped it off with a voyeuristic look at the last days of a megastar's life.

I started off my morning with "DJ Drama's Respect the Game." This was a peek into the world of Southern rap music from Atlanta to Houston and back. The movie discussed issues ranging from royalties, to drugs, to cars, to airtime and others.

Read the rest of this article at Ain't it Cool News.

23-Oct-06 9:00 AM

KPFT Interview

Kerry Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Click here to listen to an interview by KPFT Pacifica Houston.

8-Sep-06 8:00 PM

Festival takes its films seriously

Darren Sands - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 14:00:00 GMT

Fourteen-year-old Jared Eveillard is an articulate kid with mouth full of braces, a cellphone, and a part-time job.
The aspiring actor -- who paid his way into an actor's workshop taught by film and TV star Michael Beach -- woke up at 7 a.m. on this summer day, took in a McDonald's breakfast, and went through his monologue, over and over.

Beach, the former ``ER" and ``Third Watch" star and Roxbury native, was impressed with Eveillard's short performance as Cory in August Wilson's play ``Fences."

Beach wanted Eveillard to recreate the part, but not before giving Eveillard directions on thinking about the character's disposition.

Later, Beach said, Eveillard ``was able to respond to the coaching, and that tells you a lot about where he could possibly go as an actor."

The actors' workshop was part of the eighth annual Roxbury Film Festival, held last week on the campuses of Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

The festival featured the work of local filmmakers like Jibril Haynes, 33, of Dorchester. Haynes, who has been to festivals across the country, said that he always makes it a point to be home to participate. The festival featured his short ``T Wins," a story about the decisions two people must make when a man walks into a house and finds his twin brother shot to death.

``The camaraderie and the organization make this the best I've been to," Haynes said after a panel discussion on film distribution. ``When people introduce me, they introduce me as though I'm on that same level, and if they see you as a serious filmmaker, they treat you that way."

Many films dealt with topics that filmmakers felt had complex, and sometimes personal messages.

Rehema Trimiew's short film ``Sticks & Stones" is about the real life experience of the Rochester Institute of Technology film student, whose kindergarten teacher refused to believe that she could read.

Also shown was Houston native Raymond Gayle's ``Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker," a documentary about the lives and struggles of black rock bands and musicians. Gayle said that these festivals are important because they give filmmakers of color the ability to reach larger audiences and set a creative agenda that isn't compromised by Hollywood.

``Nobody is here signing million-dollar distribution deals," Gayle said. ``That's not what we're doing. We're here to put the work out there and change perceptions. Our job is to say the things that Hollywood won't say. That's what Oscar Michaud and Paul Robeson did and they opened the door. My job is to walk through -- or bust through if need be."

``We can't wait for the majors to support us," said Gayle, who financed Electric Purgatory himself. ``I didn't become a filmmaker to make money. We're here for the love of film. If anyone tells you otherwise, then they don't belong here."

Darren Sands can be reached at ciweek@globe.com.

6-Aug-06 9:00 AM

Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker

Dennis Harvey - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 14:00:00 GMT

S.F. Black Film Fest

(Documentary)

By DENNIS HARVEY

A Payback production. Produced by Marc Newsome. Executive producer, Raymond Gayle. Directed, edited by Raymond Gayle.

With: Fishbone, God Forbid, Doug Pinnick, Cody ChesnuTT, 24-7 Spyz, Burnt Sugar, Vernon Reid, Adam Falcon, Jimi Hazel, Sara Hill, Greg Tate.

Why is rock music -- descended from African-American blues and R&B -- an almost exclusively white terrain today shunned by hip-hop-focused black audiences? These and related issues are explored to intriguing if only partly satisfying ends in Raymond Gayle's documentary "Electric Purgatory." Routinely assembled, episodic mix of talking-head interviews and concert clips surrenders too much screentime to interviewees whining about the presumably race-biased corporate music biz. Still, the subject's fascination for music buffs makes it viable for DVD release and possible broadcast sales.

After recapping blues progenitors and successful early black rock 'n' rollers (including performance footage of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix), pic notes a widening gap between black rockers and commercial success. Acts like Sly Stone and Prince mixed disco, funk and soul with rock, but they were exceptions amid growing divisions between genres. Musicians from Living Colour, Fishbone, the Roots and other bands spend much time here blaming the Man at major labels -- though some complaints are legitimate enough -- and not enough pondering why black listeners don't support black rockers as they do indie rappers likewise ignored by the moneymen. Tech package is basic.

Camera (color, DVcam), Mel House. Reviewed at San Francisco Black Film Festival, June 10, 2006. Running time: 83 MIN.

10-Jul-06 9:00 AM

Community X Interview

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:00:00 GMT

Director Raymond Gayle was interviewd by Community X online in April of 2006. Click this this link to read the Community X Interview.

17-Apr-06 1:00 PM

Metroactive Article

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Mūz

Eclectic Purgatory

By Bill Forman

While it wasn't quite so jarring as the single evening I spent witnessing performances by Madonna, the Beastie Boys and Cabaret Voltaire, Saturday's juxtaposition of the Santa Cruz County Symphony at the Civic followed by Fishbone at the Catalyst made for one of those nights that remind you how much we take for granted the quality and diversity of music in this town.

Now, I could, of course, spend the next few paragraphs holding forth on the similarities between Romanian cellist Mihai Marica's vibrato-suffused soloing during the Symphony's performance of Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme and Angelo Moore's quavering theremin solo during Fishbone's set-closing Party at Ground Zero.

I could then go on to cite a Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information study in which both cello and theremin players were invited to perform Le Cygne in 10 different tempi in order to create a computational model that will explicitly predict the nature of vibrato from a cognitive standpoint.

But I wouldn't even think of doing that.

Besides, there's tons of Fishbone stuff going on that's worth knowing about even if you missed their frenetic Catalyst performance, which was highlighted by a funk-laden reconstructions of Fishbone classics like Everyday Sunshine (still the best hit Sly & the Family Stone never got around to writing) and more stage diving than a band their age has any right to do.

Most notably, a live Fishbone DVD is due out next month; shot in Hollywood last August in Hi Def 5.1 video and audio, it will include four previously unrecorded songs. The group is also featured in a new independent film called Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker, which also features interviews with members of dozens of groups including Living Colour, Bad Brains, Kings X, the Roots' ?uestlove and even Nayrok, the rocker sister of Erykah Badu. (Who knew?) The film chronicles the fact that, as fundamental as black musicians have been to the birth and development of rock music, black rock musicians continue to be treated with ambivalence, disinterest and even outright contempt by the industry to this day.

That same theme was echoed during Saturday's encore at the Catalyst, during which Moore came out alone and did an a cappella version of Showtime (Famous but not Rich), the opening track from his latest self-released solo album (as Dr. Madd Vibe) called Medicine Cabinet. An excoriating track that relates Fishbone's history as the black sheep of a funk-punk-ska scene they pioneered, the song ended the 90-minute party on a bitter note that was entirely in keeping with the defiant strain of social commentary that's never far beneath Moore's exaggerated smile. Watching him do a minstrel-show softshoe while comparing himself to a "flea in a jar," I was reminded how Fishbone and the Red Hot Chili Peppers came up at pretty much the same time and suffered most of the same problems, yet one group commands millions of dollars while the other barely scrapes by. And after seeing Fishbone's amazing performance at the Catalyst, it's really hard to dismiss that disparity as a difference in luck or talent.

Fishbone: www.fishbonelive.org; www.fishbone.net. Santa Cruz County Symphony: www.santacruzsymphony.com. Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker: www.elelctricpurgatory.com. Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information: www.onderzoekinformatie.nl; www.thereminworld.com

23-Mar-06 6:00 PM

Fox 26 Interview

Raymond Gayle - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:00:00 GMT

Director Raymond Gayle was featured on the Fox 26 Morning Show in Houston, TX.

17-Feb-06 1:00 PM

Must-See Music Documentaries

New Zealand Musician - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 14:00:00 GMT

The first NZ documentary festival runs 15-28 Sept at the Academy Cinema in Auckland, and 29 Sept – 5 Oct at the Paramount Cinema in Wellington. This festival is the first in Australasia to focus exclusively on documentaries, and brings you over 230 of them to choose from!

For music lovers, there are some must-see films, including:

'Sing Until the Slaughter You', about SerbiansJovan and Valdan who formed a reggae band called Del Arno. When the former federation of Yugoslavia began to collapse, the band began to rise. Ever since and despite the wars and dictatorship, they carry on singing about their battle for a better life. From Serbia to Slovenia their concerts are the living memory of their country’s fall. Years of war and misery anchored in their souls rise to the surface as a musical breath of wind whose lyrics in Serbian carry the seed of a new vision of the Balkans.
'Electric Purgatory' is a documentary that examines the struggles of black American rock musicians and the industry's ambivalence towards them. DirectorGayle spent the better part of a year travelling around the United States interviewing many of Black Rock's elite including Fishbone, Vernon Reid, Adam Falcon, Jimi Hazel and Cody Chesnutt. Distinguished journalists such as Flip Barnes, Darrell McNeil,Charlie Braxton, andGreg Tate, share their opinions and insight on the dilemma facing these artists. The film explores the origins of the Black Rock Coalition and its relevance in the music industry. It also takes a look at the stigma Black Rock musicians face in the Black community and more importantly how to bring the Black audiences back into the fold.

'The Freedom Flat' - They left behind a mysterious legacy, a bright pink door inscribed with the words, "Pink Flat – the Door," meticulously copied from Pink Floyd’s 'The Wall' album cover. Seventeen years later, the door has become a Dunedin landmark, restored by an art restorer and protected under the flat’s lease agreement. 'The Freedom Flat' documentary journeys back to 1988 to tell the story behind the pink door. In the words of the six original flatmates –Swani, Jac,Wallace, Barry, Marc and Kelvin – we relive the year that New Zealand’s first conceptual flat rose and fell in a vortex of astral travel, skinhead violence and Pink Floyd guitar solos. We find out what sort of grown-ups the flatmates became, and whether their year in the Freedom Flat meant anything to them.

There are lots of other documentaries you might enjoy, with subjects as diverse as the relationship between Hemingway and his boat captain, Gregorio Fuentes in a charming Cuban short story ('The Old Man and Hemingway'), and the Academy Award nominated 'Twist of Faith', which is the first documentary to delve into the wrenching psychological journey of a clergy sex abuse victim who determines to take on the church and set things right.

Scene and Heard: Laura, Nef and Ana Play Out

Pete Harris - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 14:00:00 GMT

It's fitting that in her review this month of Laura Thomas's new CD Slow, Carrie Crespo draws a comparison to Nancy Sinatra. It was the latter's 1966 hit These Boots Are Made For Walking that sticks in my memory, and it was the boots that Laura was wearing at her recent Knitting Factory gig that were similarly memorable. Laura herself made reference to them and was clearly pleased with the new knee high, titanium-healed purchase, for which she had shelled out nearly a month's salary.

The Knit evening - which Laura had put together including her friends LadyBug, Mahogany and Spacecake - had Laura performing with a band that she's only recently put together. And while she can hold her own as a live soloist, the backing brings out not only her powerful voice, but also a more brazen stage presence, of which those boots are a perfect prop.

On record, the new CD continues to showcase Laura's Jazz-influenced style that was debuted on 2002's On My Sleeve on songs with honest, sometimes defiant, lyrics that reflect experiences of her settling down in New York City after several years of travels.

With the title song of the CD being written about her soldier boyfriend (who has recently returned from a year in Iraq) it's not too surprising that, more recently, Laura has turned her attention to political music, expressing her take on the current administration in Blind Trinity. A live recording of that song can be downloaded at www.laurabama.com.

~~~~~

"I've got a drum up my ass," was how the sweet smiling Nefertiti Jones light-heartedly described the cramped conditions onstage in the Old Office at the Knitting Factory. Fortunately, the close quarters to her band (and audience) didn't affect the power of her performance for June's WOMANROCK showcase there, as she kept the party going with a string of catchy numbers.

Watching Nef perform songs like Scream and Anybody Else, one can't help but make comparisons with the raw stage and musical styles of Alanis Morrisette and PJ Harvey. That Nef grew up in New York's Alphabet City before the trendy types moved in assures one that the rawness is no put on act too.

A former finalist in the American Music Awards New Music category and Lilith Fair performer, Nef spent time playing around the San Francisco music scene before settling back in NYC and recording her CD Missing the L Train, with Steve Addabbo (Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega) as producer.

Now, as well as playing the local club scene, Nef's also to be featured in an upcoming documentary on black rock musicians, called Electric Purgatory, which includes footage from Nef's music video for her song Alphabet City. Check out her latest news at www.nefjonesmusic.com.

~~~~~

There are some musicians that are accomplished self-promoters, who do a great job of reaching out to their fans and spinning every baby step into a reason for an email blast of pure hype. Then there are others that just quietly get on with making music, touring, and making more music. Ana Egge falls into the latter category, and as such is a something of a secret. But a secret who totally rocks.

A quick look at the tour page on her Web site confirms this assertion, noting her August dates with Shawn Colvin to be followed by a tour in September supporting Dar Williams. No doubt she'll be playing some tunes from her upcoming CD Out Past The Lights, which she co-produced with Jason Mercer, longtime bassist with Ani DiFranco, and now performing similar honors for Ron Sexsmith (who plays on the album, along with Chris Brown and Tony Scherr).

Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, Ana broke into the music scene when she won a songwriting competition in Austin, TX. Gigs supporting the likes of Richard Thompson, Joan Armatrading and Jane Siberry followed, as did a fair share of awards and an appearance at Lilith Fair.

Now a resident of Brooklyn, NY, with two studio and one live album in her catalog, she's been playing local clubs like the Living Room, Café 111 and the Parkside Lounge, while shopping her new CD to labels. Find out more about this best kept secret at www.anaegge.net.

Photograph of Ana Egge and Nef Jones courtesy of www.mebeeb.com.

Pete Harris founded Harris Radio as a response to the music being played on corporate-controlled mainstream radio. He is also a partner in WOMANROCK. Check out Scene and Heard artists on www.harrisradio.com.

1-Aug-05 9:00 AM

The Black Album

Scott Faingold - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 14:00:00 GMT

A new film examines the darker side of rock

By Scott Faingold

Published: June 30, 2005

Rock 'n' roll is a means of pulling the white man down to the level of the Negro. -- Asa Carter, secretary of the North Alabama White Citizens Council, 1956

Living Colour's Vernon Reid

Subject(s): Electric Purgatory

Ironically, 50 years down the line, rock 'n' roll has done such a good job of "pulling the white man down" that black folks -- who created the genre -- hardly rock at all anymore. Indeed, it often seems like any black musician daring to play rock is likely to be regarded as an interloper by the predominantly white rock audience, as well as a turncoat within the African-American community, where only hip-hop, jazz and R&B are considered acceptable. This brutal irony is the subject of the new documentary Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker by Houston filmmaker Raymond Gayle.

"When Fishbone was coming up in the '80s, they were playing the same clubs -- and sleeping on the same floors -- with Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers," says Gayle. "Those other two groups became megastars, but just look what happened to Fishbone." One example of the 'bone's fate: The legendary ska/rock band opened for the slightly melanin-deficient Slightly Stoopid (who?) here at the Engine Room just last week.

The film does a fine job exposing the black roots under rock's platinum dye job, with scintillating onstage footage of Prince, Little Richard, Rick James, Sly and the Family Stone, Living Colour and Eddie "Maggot Brain" Hazel. There's also a detailed discussion of the white rock audience's apparently one-time-only embrace of "super-Negro" Jimi Hendrix, still considered by many rock fans to be the only black rocker worthy of note.

Although several of these artists seem on the brink of despair, Electric Purgatory does its best to be forward-looking. "Whether you let us in or not," says Jimi Hazel of 24-7 Spyz toward the end of the film, "we're gonna kick in the door."

30-Jun-05 9:00 AM

Crossover

Charlie Braxton - noemail@electricpurgatory.com — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:00:00 GMT

By Charlie Braxton

A few days ago several friends including Cheo sent me a series of posts concerning the controversy over a conference on Asians’ roll in hip hop. The conference was called "Changing the Face of the Game: Asian Americans in Hip-Hop." It seems that the controversy centered on questions raised by Kenyon Farrow concerning Asian American hip hop journalist Oliver Wang’s comment which he felt de-emphasized the central role that Black people play in hip hop culture. Reading the many critiques and counter-critiques going back and forth reminded me of one of my favorite poems.

“They done taken my blues and gone,” was written by the legendary Harlem Renaissance bard Langston Hughes. The line is the title to a powerfully emotional poem lamenting what Norman Kelly, author of the book, Black Heat, aptly describes as the colonization of Black music. Hughes wrote this poem during the Jazz Age, a period when mainstream white America began a love affair with jazz music. During this period of Prohibition whites like Sinclair Lewis, Gertrude Stein and went “slumming” to Harlem nightclubs that served up a heaping helping of jazz, blues and booze. During this time jazz and blues artists like Louie Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington would routinely play for racially mixed audiences as well as establishments in Harlem like the famed Cotton Club, which catered exclusively to white patrons who wanted to experience Black music while avoiding close contact with the people whom the music emanated from. Pretty much the same way white kids from the suburbs, who make up the majority of the sales for hardcore gangster rap, don’t want to live in Compton CA or Fifth Ward in Houston to experience to all too real debilitating affect of poverty and racism that people in the ghettos and barrios of America face everyday. Naw, they just love the music –the beats, the rhymes, the rhythms, the rebellious spirit of hip hop and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The problem I have is when the dominant culture’s love for Black music leads to their wholesale (pun intended) appropriation and control of it, which allows them to dictate the ebb and flow of the music. This includes rewriting the music’s history, dictating what is or is not authentic or whose is or is not hot, saturating our community with unbalanced music and making huge profits while doing so. Profits which are rarely distributed fairly to Black musicians or Black people, I might add.

Take Benny Goodman, a white musician who was influenced by New Orleans jazzmen such as Johnny Dodds and Jimmy Noone, for example. The so-called “King of Swing” made a fortune playing swing, a form of jazz pioneered by Black jazzmen like originators like Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and others. In fact, Henderson arranged much of the music that Goodman used to ascend to his musical throne. Benny Goodman went on to fame and fortune while Fletcher Henderson died broke and relatively unknown, even though, to his credit, Goodman publicly acknowledged Henderson role in his success. Goodman is still known the world over as the King of Swing. Then there’s Elvis Presley, the so-called King of rock & roll, who rode the backs of Black musicians such as Howlin’ Wolf all the way to fame and fortune. The same can be said for the bible thumping, Pat Bone whose tepid cover of Little Richard, the Grand Architect of rock n roll, “Tutti Frutti” not only took the original song out of context, but sounded stale compared to the real thing. But nevertheless today rock music is still considered a white thing despite the fact that Blacks invented and continue to play it, as the documentary Electric Purgatory: the History of Blacks in Rock n Roll points out.

These bitter historical lessons have not been lost on the Black people in the hip hop generation. Hip hop culture was started in the South Bronx by the children of the African Diaspora (i.e. African Americans, Afro-Latinos and Blacks from the Caribbean). This is not to negate any other races who may have participated in the culture, but, the bottom line is hip hop music is a Black art form. This why whenever any none-Black or Latino steps into the hip hop arena regardless to whether it’s Vanilla Ice or Eminem or anybody else they are viewed with suspicion. It’s not that they don’t like these people personally; it’s just that they know the history of Black music has one major theme –we make it and they take it and they are determined not to repeat it.

BlogOn: Will the legacy of hip hop go the way of most cultural institutions in America, that is, be re-invented and resold without attribution to the people who created it? WhatchuTHINK?

Posted on February 19, 2005 8:07 AM

19-Feb-05 8:00 AM