Christopher Smith, music professor and director of the Vernacular Music Center, (806) 438-5067 (cell), (806) 834-2775 (office) or [email protected]
Quotes• “Prince Rogers Nelson is the most influential African-American contemporary musician since James Brown and Miles Davis, two of his significant influences and from whom he took a great view of musical influence. Along with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Prince transformed the sound of contemporary African-American popular music and as a result the sound of global pop.”• “He is one of the authentic geniuses in American musical tradition.”• “He is the virtuoso, multi-instrumental, legitimate heir of guitar hero Jimi Hendrix, and again as a band leader he transformed the lives, careers and sound of American popular music. His death is an enormous, tragic, irreplaceable loss.”• “In my opinion Prince stands on a par with Duke Ellington and Miles Davis as authentic geniuses in music.”