Musicians hand-picked by Prince to play tribute concert in Hopkins
The music of Prince is being celebrated by those who played with the great one.
"Can't everybody play this music not the right way," said the executive director of the 2Gether tribute concert, Michael Bland.
Bland, who is also a drummer and musical director, gathered the greats together.
"We're all on a mission now to keep his music alive in whatever way possible," said Bland.
Tommy Barbarella, Levi Searcer Jr., Dr. Fink, Ricky Kinchen and Homer Odell, will all do the honor of playing Prince's music.
"It pretty much exemplifies what I'm trying to do," said Bland. "I'm trying to unify all the people in Prince's universe, one person at a time. Well, 12 people at a time."
Special guest Ashley Commodore, JB, G Sharp and the UC Horns are determined to bring Prince's music to a new generation.
"There are young people growing up now who have no idea who Prince was, is, and I just never thought I would see a day when that would be possible because he is easily the Mozart of our time," said Bland.
"He's like the teacher, like we all learned from him, and what every artist can learn from him is if you want to learn how to perform if you want to learn how to play, you listen to Prince," said Mint Condition's Ricky Kinchen.
Kinchen says its an honor to play Prince's music.
"Prince was funky man, Prince was musical, Prince was melodic, Prince was everything," said Kinchen. "Like I said, Prince is the reason why all of us are here."
"It's hard to believe it's been nine years [since] he left," said longtime Prince collaborator Dr. Fink.
Fink believes Prince would approve of this tribute.
"I think he would probably like it, I think he would appreciate [it] quite a bit, and he'd probably wish he could join us on stage," said Fink.
Handpicked to be the holders of his legacy, 2Gether promises to showcase all that made Prince legendary.
"They're going to hear music from The Revolution, pre-Revolution years. They are going to hear NPG tracks, all those eras, they are going to hear some Time and Vanity 6 as well," said Fink.
You can hear the music of Prince at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Showtime is Saturday at 8 p.m.
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