Of course, this so called Black Music will live as long as people like Joe Henderson, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown and Bootsy Collins live. But one might fear that after these icons pass on, the music will only be preserved by way of various electronic media. That type of pessimism, however, is not warranted. The music has an innate element ot self-preservation that causes it to embed itself into the minds, hearts and souls of all who hear it. This is evident in the fact that jazz, R & B. soul and funk are alive and miraculously thriving toward immortality in the hearts and souls of my kids and in kids even younger than them.

A case in point: The Greyboy Allstars. I came to know these guys through their leader, saxophonist and vocalist Karl Denson. Karl was playing with my band when he asked me to play on a few tracks of the Allstars album. Not knowing what to expect but trusting in the funkability of Karl, I looked forward to a great musical experience. I was not disappointed The tracks were not only funky, but also very imaginative. The tunes took funk to another place. A new place. And taking the music to new places is essential to its survival - to making it immortal. When I performed live with this group, I realized that in the course of learning to play they had explored all of the old

places that the music had been by listening to everything from John Lee Hooker to Earth, Wind and Fire. When I faced forward I heard the drumming of Jabo, Steve Gadd. Earl Palmer or Harvey Mason. When I looked around, I saw Zak Najor He and Chris Stillwell on bass. Robert Walter on keyboards, Elgin Park on guitar, and Karl singing and playing alto and tenor saxes and flute were all grooving as hard as or in some cases even surpassing the great soul musicians of all time.

It is shocking to hear this type of music coming from these young and did I mention, white faces. I try not to be prejudiced, but you know how we all try to believe that we're special because of where we come from, or how old we are or because of our ethnicity or religion.

I learned a long time ago that not all of the great funk or jazz musicians are from Alabama, black and over 50 years old. These four "white boys" and Karl, the token black, have not only a comprehensive musical background generally, but are extremely well versed in Black Music specifically. With hearts and souls I would ordinarily attribute to old black people from Mobile, these "Greyboys" play everything from "The Big Payback" to "In The Bottle" as well as or better than anybody I've ever played with. Their new music is an exciting next step in the progress of Black Music, or should we now call it "People Music"? Whatever you want to call it, it is now and forever will be, alive and well.