New Project - Robert Johnson

[AllenLowe]

last Spring I completed a play based on the myth of Robert Johnson; well, it was more a play based on white critical myths about Johnson, an expression of frustration with the white liberal tendency to promulgate stereotypes in the name of liberalism.

I recently decided I should do a soundtrack recording to go along with the play, which is currently un-produced.

I am going to be trying to raise funds through Indiegogo for the sountrack recording; I would appreciate some small amount of support from the folks here, as on my prior attempt to get this forum to respond I got very little. That's fine, money is money, and people need to pick and choose. I just feel like we are doing important musical work here, based on responses to our last few projects. My urging at this point will be the Obama model - small contributions, $5 and $10.

the musicians signed up so far are:

Gary Bartz

Roswell Rudd

Matt Shipp

JD Allen

DJ Logic

Eugene Chabourne

Lewis Porter

Kalaparusha

Paul Austerlitz

Nathan Salsburg

Ursula Oppens

Christopher Meeder

Rob Wallace (who is he? One of the greatest drummers in the world; not kidding)

Ray Suhy

Kevin Ray

Royal Hartigan

Glenn Phillips (from the old Hampton Grease Band)

Edited July 17, 2013 by AllenLowe

[danasgoodstuff]

Interesting bunch of players, but are they going to play the myth(s), the reality, the contrast, or what?

[AllenLowe]

still working on that; the music will parallel the scenes of the play, which move from the Delta to the halls of Congress to Harlem. I intend to apply a lot of old blues/gospel techniques, lots of steel and slide guitar.

[alankin]

Sounds strange and interesting.

[robertoart]

......the granddaddy of reverse racism and self pity co-opts another marquee legend into the fold.

'Let's all sing the Jimmy Smith was a Meshugganah Blues'

Come Together - right now - over Jimmy'

[John L]

After all the massive discussion of Robert Johnson and recent revisionist books, I still cannot understand what the "white critical myths" about Johnson are supposed to be?

That he sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads? What is particularly white or liberal about that myth? What are the other myths?

[AllenLowe]

the white critical myths are more complex. They relate to the whole blues ethos, the transporting and transforming of the music from its role as part of a deeply social and aesthetic network to a (liberal cultural) function as mere dialect (and dialectical) myth (see the screen play Love in Vain); they involve the continuation of the myth of African American primitivism; the historical/fictional treatment of African American women as primarily sexual symbols (see Big Sweet in Mules and Men for an antidote); and the continuing belief that African American culture is largely a response to racism and so can be seen primarily as sociological artifact. All of this is still pervasive in the academic and even non-academic world, not to mention parts of the Afrocentric world. It also involves a false piousness, a continuing sense, on the part of many whites, that the rehabilitation of African American culture is just another piece of Affirmative Action.

And what makes all of the above increasingly difficult to counter is that such attitudes are usually disguised as their opposite, as expressions of respect and love for the blues.

Edited July 18, 2013 by AllenLowe

[John L]

OK, I think I got it now. This is not really about Robert Johnson or specific myths about Robert Johnson. You are using Robert Johnson as a figure through which the issues that you describe above can be illustrated in your play.

[AllenLowe]

exactly; trying to take a fresh approach, if possible.

[alankin]

Does Buddy Bolden have a walk-on?

[JSngry]

I'd like to write a play about Nat Turner & Warne Marsh being a vaudevillian comedy team in 1927 that's not popular anywhere except in Japan, and then, almost exclusively with non-English-speaking audiences, but really, with a premise that good, why ruin it by actually doing something with it?

Well, ok, a title - This Shit Don't NEVER Melt

[AllenLowe]

actually, in the play, yes, there is a scene about Bolden. Somewhat satirical.