Ace Black
Posted in Jewellery on 03/04/2009 03:33 pm by admin
Something I Said — 2010 MN Black Music Awards obstructs Black artists
2010 MN Black Music Awards obstructs Black artists
by Dwight Hobbes
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The New Congress (TNC) is a fine R&B-rock band, a powerhouse, in fact. When they are on their game, you can’t find a better outfit for consistently inventive melodies, rich vocals and smoking guitar.
TNC have a pair of albums and an EP (all high-quality recordings), a Los Angeles Music Award, and receive strong airplay. All of which portends continued success and, sooner than later, a national profile. They still had no business being on the bill at this year’s Minnesota Black Music Awards at all, much less appearing as featured performers.
The prevailing principle behind Black awards is to rightfully acknowledge and honor artists who are marginalized and obscured, unconscionably obstructed by the music industry’s racist discrimination. It is not for White musicians to shore up their quotient of credibility as waxing soulful as they score a major publicity coup. It certainly isn’t for White performers to prevail at the expense of Black artists who sure as hell could’ve used the MBMA exposure, what with stars like Mint Condition, Jamecia Bennett and Sounds of Blackness on the same stage.
The New Congress, profoundly talented though they may be, are White.
When event producer Pete Rhodes (who, by the way, is Black) brought them in, he kept out any one of several Black or Black-led bands that richly deserved the opportunity.
Take, for instance, fusion-funkmeisters the Yohannes Tona Band, smooth-jazz wonders Wenso Ashby featuring Zsamé, Afro-Cuban rock aces New Primitives, soul balladeer Chastity Brown, R&B-rap standouts Soulacious. The list goes on, but you get the idea.
Rhodes ignored these artists to promote a White band at a Black event. He sold out each and every one of them.
Let us be crystal clear on one point. The New Congress, themselves, are not the bad guys, here. They and their management would have to have been just plain dumb, stupid and crazy to turn down the gig.
The buck lands squarely in the lap of Pete Rhodes. He owns and runs Urban Mass Media Group, WRNB Cable Radio and Blackmusicamerica.com. A good question is how much airplay does the New Congress versus the Yohannes Tona Band, Wenso Ashby featuring Zsamé, Chastity Brown and Soulacious get on these stations?
Black artists have a tough enough time making a go of it. A slap in the face, a closed door on this order obviously makes the going tougher still. And, of course, it is a cruel irony that such a blow is dealt by the Minnesota Black Music Awards.
About the Author
Coming: “Angels Don’t Really Fly” EP by Dwight Hobbes & The All-Star Hired Guns featuring Alicia Wiley. The crew: Me, Alicia Wiley, Stanley Kipper, Chico Perez, Jeff “Boday” Christensen, Aaron “Orange A.C.” Cosgrove and Yohannes Tona. Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single “Atlanta Children” (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny’s Castaways and My Fathers Place. Fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony’s Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille’s Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Circle, to Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary columns Hobbes In The House and Something I Said. He’s spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column “Hobbes In The House” in MN Spokesman Recorder comments on domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter – produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues – produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can’t Always Sometimes Never Tell – produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst – produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel “Farewell To August Wilson” at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Twin Cities Daily Planet articles archived at www.tcdailyplanet.net/dwighthobbes
Black Ace bottleneck country blues guitar
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