Rhythm & Blues Project creates campaign to save oral history of R&B

Hey SoulTrackers. here is a note from the Rhythm & Blues Project, attempting an ambitious project to preserve the soul music legacy:

From back in the day to soul music today, The Rhythm & Blues Project’s ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE DRIVE is doing what no one has done before: Telling the full story behind all the great Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Funk music made during the last 65 years in the words of the men and women who have created this astounding body of work. From artists to songwriters, producers to disk jockeys, publicists to record promoters, their stories must be heard.

Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Funk have been the most powerful and transformative music made in America during the last three generations, defining forces in the Civil Rights struggle, the Women’s Movement, Fashion, Dance, Entertainment and so many other social, political and cultural watersheds of the second half the 20th Century. Who better to tell the stories of this music than the people who created it?

We mean to celebrate the lives and music of Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Prince, Booker T Jones, George Clinton, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Bootsy Collins, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Nile Rogers, Steve Cropper, Patti Labelle, Gamble & Huff, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind and Fire, Sly & The Family Stone, Chaka Khan, The O’Jays, Quincy Jones, and so many others.

Once completed, these interviews will become a permanent oral history archive to be housed at The Grammy Museum and other outstanding cultural institutions. The archive will be used to create museum installations, exhibitions, and educational materials, so that this story lives on for generations to come.

But none of this can happen without your help. Kindly help us record this story before it is too late. Over the past year, the music has lost such luminaries as Etta James, Don Cornelius, Whitney Houston and Donna Summer. The cameras need to get rolling now.

For those who love Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Funk music, who care about its history and want to make sure that its legacy does not fade away, now is your chance to step up and get down! Please get on the good foot and make a donation today. This is AMERICA’S MUSIC and its stories need to be celebrated.

 

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