Ran across this interview on YouTube the other day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwaau9mMQ-M

It parallels to some extent some things Derek said in discussions contained on his Songlines DVD about reaching out across musical barriers and about honest music. He comes across in the interview like a very sincere, straightforward and hardworking man who is dedicated to his craft and his family. The music is not in the most popular of genres, and several of my closest associates really don’t like the brashness of some of his playing, but I like it when influences from Duane Allman to John Coltrane to Ali Akbar Khan, to King Curtis can somehow come together in a fairly harmonious whole. I go through these musings every time I hear about another musical awards show, or hear that this celebrity or than sang at an inauguration or some other significant occasion, reflecting on how much our taste is influenced, not only  by glitz and popularity, but also by the selling of the music and the self-promotion of the business of music. It’s reassuring that there are people who have achieved a measure of success while maintaining some personal and musical integrity and managing to eschew to fanaticism of the purist.