Author of an unprecedented mix between black music and psychedelic rock, he influenced, among others, Prince and Lenny Kravitz
He was born in Debton, Texas, in 1943, Sylvester Stewart in Art Sly Stonedied yesterday at the age of 82. A crazy, brilliant and visionary character of a mix between the sounds of soul and funk music and the white psychedelic rock., Considered by many to be a precursor of disco music, present in his albums well before the Saturday night fever and the boom of study 54 in New York.
Sly and the Family Stone, The name of his band performed, in 1969, in two of the most important festivals ever, that of Woodstock And the Harlem Cultural Festival who went down in history as “Black Woodstock”, immortalized in the film Summer of Soul.
The first album that changes the course of his life and his career is Dance to the music of 1968. A watershed album, a milestone, so much so that the critics of those years claimed that there was a black music before Sly and another kind of black music after Sly. And it was so because Sly went a step beyond the refined sound of the Motown by inserting the sound “of the road” in its records without losing sight of a great pop attitude.
Another fundamental album was There’s a Riot Going Onreleased in 1971 and considered in the title an answer to Marvin Gaye What’s Going on. There’s a Riot Going On is a powerful funk album without pop compromises, one of the main influences for artists such as Lenny Kravitz e Prince. The disc immediately conquered the first place in the American rankings pulled by Formidable single family affair. Among the great muscists who have opens up to the recording of the disc, Bobby Womack and Ike Turner Alchitarra and Billy soon on keyboards.
