Say Brother

from the 7” single, Big Yellow Records, 1968



PBS is the shit people, for real---and no, this isn’t an opinion bred from having no cable, as I have more channels than I know what to do with at this point, it’s about the programming man: where the fuck else are you going to find Sesame Street, Antique Roadshow, and the Grateful Dead movie sitting back to back? Nowhere, that’s where. This song served as the soundtrack to a show of the same name that aired on Boston’s PBS affiliate in the late ‘60s, clearly geared (as was Sesame Street initially) at an inner-city youth audience; although lyrics like, “…shoutin’ loud , feelin’ proud , ‘cause black is beautiful you know… black power’s what we’re talkin’ ‘bout…” may lead one to presume that Stark Reality was an all-black band, they were actually split down the middle: bassist Phil Morrison and drummer Vinnie Johnson were, but jazz guitarist John Abercrombie (yes, that John Abercrombie, who later ruled supreme in the fusion forward ‘70s) and vibes player Monty Stark, who also served as the band leader, were as white as they come. Frankly, apart from a few notable exceptions in the classic rock world, jazz seems to be the only modern medium where black & white musicians play together frequently, a blending of influences that all genres could benefit from, in my opinion.