I do want to share some disappointing news for you if you happen to be a white racist prejudiced against African-Americans. You really should know that if it weren't for those African Americans whom you don't like, there certainly would be no rock and roll you love ... NOPE, nada.

Furthermore, there absolutely would be no blues neither which is the father of rock and roll (along with country music) and guess what, no jazz of any kind neither without those folks.

Isn't that something! How did that happen? Well, I do not have time to illuminate the lineage of it all here, but you could start by reading a few basic books about American music.

In my personal sense, I see the blues as a musical response to 100 million countless humiliating experiences interwoven from a bunch ... big bunch of folks.

I see jazz, somewhat, as the black man's way of "sassing" back, of saying, "this is how I feel."

"Sometimes it is pretty complex and I hope you like it but this is really how I feel. And you cannot keep me down."

The blues is the same irreverent way except it is more confined musically. It is more predictable, as in a haiku or a sonnet. Fixed format but rich within that framework. My friend, Louis, says that if you have a closet full of pants but no jeans then something is missing. If you have a collection of music and there is no blues then something is missing. Blues is the sad, struggling but yet proud part of you that screams, "I am here."

I must add just as assuredly that discounting "whitey" is not any good neither. Not at all.

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I also deeply love that cute little import from Europe, classical music.

The photo here is of blues great Jimmy Reed. He is ours now, thank the Lord.

Everything new comes from something else before it in culture and even science. Isaac Newton responded to the Queen of England after an effusive compliment about him discovering gravity, saying to her, some thing to the effect of "Madam, I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Art is the exact same way but usually the artist is not as aware of his predecessors as Isaac was. Too self-involved and a little mixed up. If he might be aware of from where his roots came, his ego won't let him tell you lest you think he is old-fashioned or not shockingly brilliant.

The artist has internalized all the influences he/she hears from a spot that is so deep the artist cannot actually resurrect them even for a little self-peak.

Anyway, you can do your own research or wait for another post from me.

I think the more one knows the more one realizes that we are all connected, and I find that beautifully shocking, over and over.